# Writing Blocks



## drewdle (Sep 7, 2008)

Hey guys. I'm at a loss for how to approach this problem. 

I haven't written any serious piece of prose for about three years. One day, I just ran out of steam and ideas. Since then, I haven't been able to write. I've sat down and written maybe one page of accumulated fiction since. I can write editorials and rants without much difficulty, but fiction has eluded me for some time. Writing and the english language was one of my favorite things in high school, and yet here I am. 

What could be giving me this much difficulty?


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## M. LeRenard (Sep 7, 2008)

Well... I dunno'.  A lot of the time writer's block has a simple cause, like not enjoying what you write, not thinking you can write well, getting stuck on details, things like that.  The solution generally is to just blurt out whatever comes into your head on paper, knowing that you can always go back and fix it later.
If you can come up with editorials and rants, why not try writing a short story with one of the themes of those rants as the theme of the story?  Come up with a creative way to express what you already did in the rant, using characters and settings that represent the way you want people to think.  Start off simple, with just a freewrite or something to get ideas going (freewrite meaning you just write whatever for 20 minutes, often without bothering to stop even if you can't think of anything to write, and trying to nudge your thoughts in the direction of the story.  The theory is, eventually you'll come up with something useful), and then once you have a clear (or clearer) picture of what you'd like to accomplish in your mind, start on the rough (which should basically be another freewrite, but without writing down EVERY thought that comes into your head).  If you can get down a complete rough draft, the writer's block will no longer be a problem.
I guess my advice in a nutshell, than, is to try to pinpoint the cause of the writer's block (what stops you from writing every time you sit down to write?) and find a way around it.
Hopefully you find this useful.  Good luck.


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## kitreshawn (Sep 7, 2008)

I would also like to add that writers block like this may not necessarily mean anything is wrong.

When I got out of High School I basically did not write a thing for a year.  When I broke up with my BF at the time I wrote a few short stories, but then after I got over him I stopped writing again for the next 4 years.  I only started writing again a little over a year ago, and that only started because I found an idea I just had to start.

My suggestion if you really feel ready to write again?  Carry a smallish notebook with you and anytime you get an idea for a story jot it down.  Eventually you will come up with an idea you just love.  At that point you can do several things.  You could start to write on it immediately, or like me you can let it simmer for a bit as you think up details such as plot and so forth before you start to write.


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## Cryoforion (Sep 9, 2008)

Hey! I feel your pain.

You might try a trick of mine--it's like the literary equivalent of an artist sketching.

1) Obtain paper, pen, and free time.
2) Go to a public place. Parks are my favorite, but malls, plazas, busy street corners work fine.
3) Eavesdrop. 

I'll sit on a bench/in a tree/by a rock for as long as I can and just watch people, listen to snippets of conversation. Then I write a sentence or two (or if I'm speedy, maybe three) about who the person is, why they're in the park/mall/plaza, and what they're talking about with their friend (if applicable).

The key is to be prolific about it. Don't linger on any one person--two sentences, and then move on. Pick something else and start again, and again, and again.

The more you work on it, the richer each two-sentence snippet will be. You'll start to develop, in only a few words, a multifaceted character, a goal, a dream, a conflict...etc.

Afterward, I'll look back through the page. It's not that I'll pick my favorite and turn it into a story--but if I look at all the ideas, all the observations I made, oftentimes I'll notice patterns, similarities, trends. That pattern is what my brain wants to write about. The story my heart, at the moment, wants to tell.

And, conveniently enough, I have a page full of potential characters and conflicts on my paper to pull apart and weave together into the premise of a plot.

Or not.  There are as many treatments for block as there are writers who've had it--but it's a two cents I'm happy to part with. Best of luck!


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## Winter (Sep 19, 2008)

My problem is not getting the ideas. I always have more characters and plots than I could ever use. But I always seem to get stuck when I try to combine them to form a story. It's been over half a year since I last wrote something even half decent, and it seems that every day that passes makes it harder and harder to write.


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## kitreshawn (Sep 19, 2008)

Writing, like everything, takes practice to get good.  Often I find that after long breaks (sometimes as short as a couple weeks) it can be really hard to write anything that seems good again.

Honestly?  Just start writing, don't worry if it is good or not.  Set aside some amount of time (say... 15-30 minutes a day) where you just write on one of your stories.  Start with a short one, no longer than 10 pages.

When you start writing a story it is more importaint to get your ideas out than to make them sound good.  Good ideas will very often sound very bad when you first get them down.  This isn't because the idea is bad but rather because you haven't had enough time to bring it up to par yet.  It is why the first thing you write is called a rough draft.


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## TakeWalker (Sep 19, 2008)

It's highly possible, given your last post, that you're being overly critical of your own writing.

If you've got characters and plot ideas, write them up. Don't worry about combining them or making them 'good' until you've got them down on paper/screen. Get the writing written, then work on making it into a story.


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## Key Key (Oct 1, 2008)

I"m stuck on a book myself, it's been 8 years so far and nothing wish I could do more


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