Help! How Do You Get Through Writer's Block...

[Studio97]

Fresh sheet of paper

Ignore the lines

Turn it upside down and slant it

Start anywhere on the page. Anywhere

Write out a brain dump for 3 minutes or longer. Pink elephant ate my steak. Nothing has to make any sense. Something good could surface and often does.

The writers block just broke.

[Shaggy]

I did a graduate study on a book called "On Writer's Block." It's a scholarly discussion of the different types of block, and I found it helpful. Helped me deal with the psychology behind my particular form of block.

[Surei]

I love these ideas, thank you everyone I think I'm going to write down a list of them so I have something to look at and ponder the next time I get stuck.

[Runnin_Ute]

Most of my correspondence is based on something I have received from the other party. But in the case where it isn't I just start writing stuff. I figure I can always edit later. If it is like you indicate a Debbie Downer type thing, let it go - there is a reason it is coming out. Don't send it. Or do - you might be surprised and your friend might be able to empathize, help with whatever issue is represented. The negative stuff might just be stuff that is causing the block in the first place and once you have it on paper you can write the letter you really want. Just a thought.

[Bookman]

If I'm stuck in a piece of writing—something needs to be worked out before I can go forward—I go for a long walk beside the nearby river. A long drive can sometimes substitute for a walk if I'm driving outside of town on country roads. If I'm completely in the weeds and I don't know where my story is going, I work on something else. Meanwhile the elements of the first story can cook a little longer.

 

As to writing letters, I have written plenty that have been completely negative. Sometimes life is negative. Sometimes you go through a stretch of time when it seems nothing worked out well. It helps to turn these events into stories. Not fiction—true-life stories rather than he said/he said/#nutjob/they didn't/can you believe it?/she said/omigod/I did/she did recitation of facts and interjection of comments. It also helps to find humor in the bad and use it for a creative outlet and to give your correspondent a break from what would otherwise be an onslaught of negativity.

Edited October 21, 2017 by Bookman

[Retro-user]

As to writing letters, I have written plenty that have been completely negative. Sometimes life is negative. Sometimes you go through a stretch of time when it seems nothing worked out well. It helps to turn these events into stories. Not fiction—true-life stories rather than he said/he said/#nutjob/they didn't/can you believe it?/she said/omigod/I did/she did recitation of facts and interjection of comments. It also helps to find humor in the bad and use it for a creative outlet and to give your correspondent a break from what would otherwise be an onslaught of negativity.

 

That's a good idea @Bookman, about turning lemons into lemonade. I'm trying to journal my way out of a recent difficult experience, and was thinking of doing a public version to share in an entertaining letter.

[Sailor Kenshin]

For the record I would love to hear anyone's advice for breaking writer's block for fiction! I need all the help I can get ;P

Take a shower. Sopping wet and no pen/paper: ideas come clamoring. Works every time.

[adamselene]

I can't write. It's way too hard for me.

 

No more writing for me! Too hard, too much work, no way!

 

I absolutely refuse to write.

 

So from now on, I 'm not writing, just practicing. I have a LOT of practicing to do, before I can even have a glint of a glimmer of a thought of any actual writing!

[Biber]

I just put it away and walk away from it, letting it stew in the recesses of my mind. It might take a while but after a while something usually comes to mind to break the stalemate. Time is an inconvenient luxury however, especially when you really want to move forward.

[Runnin_Ute]

A book I read recently, by a physician who also wrote a column on exercise I believe (IIRC), said when he had problems, he would go for a run and any problems would work out themselves during the hour he was on the roads.

[adamselene]

If you are writing (bleep), keep going. Gotta get the (bleep) out!

 

(Forget who I stole this from)

[Biber]

If you are writing (bleep), keep going. Gotta get the (bleep) out!

 

(Forget who I stole this from)

 

There's actually something to this. I usually find that I have to write and get it all out of my system before I can really get down to writing and editing what I really need to say. It's kind of a catharsis that has to happen first.

[virgilio]

For writing letters, try consciously to entertain your audience; keep things impersonal. And have a definite subject, any subject, that your find interesting. But letters are a minefield; you constantly have to make sure you don't offend your addressee.

 

For fiction, read a lot of fiction that you admire and imitate it. Don't try to write novels until you have mastered the short story; a novel is really just a series of related short stories. If it is too hard to stare at that empty page, try telling a story out loud to your tape recorder. LOTS of writers do that.

 

For non-fiction, you will always know when you need to make a note: it is when you've got an original idea. For instance, I write about musical temperament. When my acoustical experiments turn up something new, I write it down. Easy. What is hard is organizing the notes into an article or book.

 

For translation and annotating other writers, the old advice about the morning being the friend of the Muses is helpful; have a set time in the morning, after a long nights sleep to sit down at your writing table and work away for at least a couple of hours. You can move mountains in 3 hours of steady work day in, day out. Have some snacks and drinks handy if that makes you more comfortable. Writing is sort of like a job. You need quiet, but also a few quiet distractions. Some fellows twirl their chair...

[virgilio]

...and others fiddle with their fountain pens.

[virgilio]

Hmm.. that's almost in verse:

 

Some of us fellows like to twirl our chairs

And others fiddle with their fountain pens.

[sandy101]

Set a timer for five minutes and start writing. Don't edit or think - just write - even if it is a shopping list, or what you see out the window.

 

After a couple of minutes your brain sifts through the (bleep) and starts finding stuff that it wants to write. If not, it's only 5 minutes of writing (bleep) - but do the same thing tomorrow. If you feel like continuing when the five minutes are up keep on going. Do this every day, and you'll go from 5 minutes to doing more and more.

 

It's worked for me.

 

If you want advice on letters, read John Keats letters, http://www.gutenberg.org/files/35698/35698-h/35698-h.htm and any other published ones. I find myself inspired by them - writers describe food, baths, radio programmes, books they've read or people they've visited. It might help you as you will find what you consider everyday or insignificant can actually make a fairly entertaining paragraph in a letter.

[virgilio]

Oscar Wilde's letters are quite amusing.