Hey! It worked.

I really need help with something. I've sorta been consumed with work for the past months or so, and usually I view my writing as a release, but while I was being stressed out with actual work instead of the fight-of-fancy scripting, just knowing I just HAD to write something added to the workload.

So, I stopped. But now I can't start again. The sight of a blank word page is a very scary thing, suddenly. Anything I do get down I feel is completely crap seconds later, and always end up deleting.

I know this is a long shot, and feel free to tell me to sod off if you think I'm being an annoying prat, but I was wondering whether anyone else had been through this kind of stagnating experience and if they had any tips?

(Before you ask, I have tried drinking. Didn't work. Ended up with a court case. 'Nuff said.)

Always. I like to play about with random plot generators. The best one I have found is http://www.gkbledsoe.com/articles/process/writing_prompt_generator.html

You can also google "Random Plot Generator" there are loads.

Pick up a newspaper, magazine etc. Choose a story and play 'what happens next', or select a few stories and try writing something that links them together.

You won't end up with a sketch or sitcom but it'll get you writing again and once you're writing the original ideas will come.

Best thing in this situation is good ol' paper and pen - nothing beats actually making the physical motions of writing. Advantage being there's no delete facility so you end up with something on the page, however good / bad you judge it. You never end up with a discouraging blank page.

As to ideas. Long baths with wine and pad of paper. Because you're a captive audience, with few distractions, and you can drift and do association of ideas.

Listen to the conversations of the people next to you in the pub - and when they ask you what you're doing and give you a slap you've got some material.

I had a writer's block that lasted for two years, absolutely nothing I tried helped but I had been going through a lot of stress. I think it's nature telling you to slow down. Once your brain feels rested enough, you'll find the ideas will coming flooding back. Until that point just try to get on with life and not worry about it.
Do other things that make you happy like the gym or swimming whatever else you like doing that is enjoyable to you and you will find that you'll wind down.

I probably hold the all-comers record for writers block. Late in the day I have learnt that the secret is not to put myself under pressure to produce. Beating myself up because of my lack of creativity just sets up a negative feedback loop. There is certainly no point in sitting in front of a computer screen or a blank piece of paper and forcing myself to come up with something. Now If I need to come up with an idea I just go for a walk, and as I am walking I let my mind free associate until something snags. It doesn't have to be walking, any activity that does not require your full concentration is good, but personally I find the buzz from being in the fresh air has a positive psychological effect and boosts my creativity. Once I have the germ of an idea I cast around for a line that will get me started, and then I start drafting in my head, or if I am in position to do so, in my notebook (always carry a notebook). By the time I am able to sit down in front of my computer I am buzzing.

The trouble is there are so many distractions - like this bloody place!

I know! I had a week off work recently, the main plan was to get lots of writing done.
I literally managed a paragraph.

Evelyn Waugh used to do 200 words a day I believe.

What a lazy bastard.

Quote: Graham Bandage @ July 18 2008, 12:09 AM BST

Evelyn Waugh used to do 200 words a day I believe.

What a lazy bastard.

View original

He should've done NaNoWriMo!

All od the above advice is excellent. The only thing that I would add is NEVER delete/throw away anything the same day as you write it. That way you can always read it with a fresh pair of eyes the following day to help make a more objective assessment.

Quote: Griff @ July 18 2008, 8:29 AM BST

But they were f**king brilliant words, weren't they.

View original

It was more the way he arranged them.

Write about your writers block.
Digging deep to find what's at the heart of the problem is brilliant practice.
Diary's and journals are a help.
Also try reverse psychology - write very simple " woke up had tea, went to bed" sort of diary for a week, with the strict rule that your not allowed to write anything remotely 'creative'.
You won't last past Tuesday!

Good Luck

(Ps agree with poster re setting aside a block of time to get stuff done - never bloody works!)

Writing is more than the bit where you sit down and write, you're always 'writing' just by thinking up stuff. Feed your brain a few bits of information relevant to what you're doing ("Geoff thinks he's got two months to live, how does this resolve itself by the end of the episode, bearing in mind subplot B where his boss is coming to dinner and his wacky ex-wife neighbour has borrowed his... SOMETHING") and let it percolate, go and do something else, and you'll get the answer a few days or hours later (thanks to the wonder of your subconcious). Then you just write down the story that already exists in your head, as though retelling a story to a child at bedtime. (No one actually ever does this of course. Even though this is the guaranteed way for me to overcome a block, I still stare blankly at the page/the internet in a panicky rage for a day straight, until I get up and do some washing up and the knot unravels itself immediately)

If you're REALLY stuck for inspiration,take an existing story and update or rewrite it in your own voice- worked for Roxanne, 10 things I hate about you, West Side Story etc. The hardest bits been done for you then.

If you're really stuck on where your characters can go or if you think you've mined a topic to pieces, draw a chart. Put People, Places, Things, Events, and Cliches across the top of the page, and write in the appropriate things you associate with your subject matter. (Gene Peret, Carol Burnett's writer, uses this in his book Comedy Writing Step By Step and it's incredibly useful for mining every possible joke or observation from a subject.) He uses the example of his dog, so under people you have: Pluto, Lassie, Pavlov, The Vet - all people you associate with dogs- under places he puts The Park, the Kennel, The Dog House, under cliches you have 'Man's best friend' and so on. THEN when you've done that, make a new row and go through the columns again adding opposites or negatives, ie the opposite PERSON to a dog is a cat, and opposite PLACE for a dog is a china shop, or allergic person's house, an anti-dog CLICHE is "I'm not a dog-person", and so on.

You end up with a huge list of subcatagories on this one topic, it's damn useful.

Hope this helps.