The Word Cloud

13 Comments

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  by stephenterry 7 months ago

  Seems like everyone has a block in not giving you some tips. I have a website called writers block at stephenterry.weebly.com.
  
  The front page contains a games section that anyone can play. Sometimes it's just doing something different as well as thinking about the issue that releases your muse. Give your mind time to think and a solution will arise.
  
  I am lucky, I can down tools and go for a swim, then focus on whatever was bothering me while counting the lengths as I go. That works for me.
  
  Just sitting at a computer looking at your work is not enough. Give your mind a challenge. Probably a load of rubbish, but best of luck Weens - it WILL be temporary.
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  by Malcolm 7 months ago

  I play computer games. RPG and FPS mostly. Sometimes I read a book in a field unrelated to what I'm writing. Essentially the same strategy as ST, really. Take your mind off it and do something completely different.
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  by AlanP 7 months ago

  Weens, I simply do something else. Anything else. Mow the lawn, make coffee. Just to stop thinking about it. Thinking about it is the problem.
  
  Sleep might do it.
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  by Robin 7 months ago

  I walk. I go to museums. Mostly I just work on a lot of things at once so if I'm blocked on one I can move onto another.
  I suspect Alan is right; sleep might do it, but my larger problem is insomnia. If anyone has a cure for that please let me know.
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  by Barry Walsh 7 months ago

  I thought that Spangles provided a pretty definitive list of things to do for battling writer's block.
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  by Wrathnar the Unreasonable 7 months ago

  I find I get two different kinds of WB.
  
  1: I can't make progress with my current story - it seems that part of the creative process happens at the subconscious level, so I need to let that part of my brain work on it for a while. In that case, I work on a different story until I'm ready to go back to the one I was blocked on.
  
  2: I can't write at all - it's as if my writing muscles are worn out, and I need a complete break from it, so I do something else, eg concentrate on my guitar playing for a while, until I'm back in the writing mood.
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  by Spangles 7 months ago

  Thanks, Barry, for mentioning the blog. :) If anyone hasn't found it yet, it's here, in a separate section of our very own beloved Cloud — http://www.writersworkshop.co.uk/blog/writers-block
  
  Something else I would advise is not to make a huge song and dance about it. The more attention you pay to your suspicion that you have writer's block, the more convinced about it you'll become and the more difficult it will be to write anything. This, of course, is called a self-fulfilling prophecy. I prefer self-fulfilling prophesies that are positive - such as telling myself I'm going to have a great writing day and will get lots of good work done.
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  by Gerilyn 7 months ago

  I have 'reader's block'. I have two half read novels on the go at the moment, actually three but I've totally given up on the 3rd one. I don't know what it is. I used to love reading. I'm not writing either so pergaps the two are linked.
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  by Kate7 7 months ago

  Lots of good ideas here. I tend to read over some of my old ideas and see if inspiration strikes, if that fails I read, play on my PS3, watch some old movies and just relax. I find stressing about it just makes it worse. Push it from your mind and look to it when you've done something you really enjoy and are feeling happy.
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  by EzBloke 7 months ago

  My father gave me mental blocks for christmas when I was young...
  
  For me, I have to say that when I jam my toe on my writing I take a step back, huddle in a corner and rock myself to sleep, sobbing gently all the while. If that doesn't help, I start a new, completely unrelated piece of work, numerically tagging it. I am currently on my 3,976,873,098,233,234,234,324th novel...
  
  Brutal honesty; I give up. What happens is, three or four weeks later I sit down and write again and it just flows. Sadly most of it flows proverbially and I have to clean the mess up another day...
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  by mike 7 months ago

  is part of the problem that you look over something and think it is rubbish and you are the worst sort of animal in creation? I don't know what the solution is, and re-writing does not seem to help. I have been trying to write a blog on Victorian humour and have been attempting this all morning. The sun has come out a bit, so I think I will go for a walk which helps, but you cannot do this. Writing is just a hobby for me but, nevertheless, I am always going to write a best-seller next year. It must be an occupational hazard.
  . I am on holiday at the moment and am staying at home. I don't want to sit in a hotel room on my own somewhere in England and look at Primark shops the next day.
  Rather than spending the time staring at a computer, II have spent the days getting local buses and trains and doing family research in the Eden Valley in Kent and walking in the Hills around Sevenoaks. The family background had been brewing, farming etc etc and everywhere the family had lived and worked seems to have been bought up by the National Trust. It is most upsetting! A great grandmother was involved in a rather tragic 'breach of Promise' case. The farm in which this occurred is near Chiddingstone Causeway, just down the road from Chiddingstone which is all owned by the National Trust and you can look down all over the Eden Valley from the Castle. A tragic circumstance happened in an idyllic setting. I have been wandering all over Brasted and Brasted Chart where the family were publicans and rented cottages. Even one of the woods is named after Octavia Hill. How the family fortunes have fallen! Mind you, farming etc was a hard life then and, I suspect all the farms etc have been bought up by bankers and pop-stars now.
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  by Caducean Whisks 7 months ago

  1. Try and force it. Make yourself write one sentence. Then another. Then another. They don't have to be good.
  If that doesn't work,
  2. Don't fight it. Do something else. And *really* else. I often have good ideas when I'm doing a mindless mechanical task that occupies my body but leave my mind free - such as sweeping leaves in the garden, pruning, ironing (no, I've not been *that* blocked this millennium), turn out a cupboard, go for a walk, wash the floor. 'Mindless' is the key. Something physical and easy.
  If I'm stuck on a plot problem (as opposed to blocked), I go to sleep and let my subconscious work it out. It so often does, that I rely on it now.
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  by Weens 7 months ago

  Thank you everyone for your answers. I'm actually writing about a writer with writer's block, and I wondered if there was an idea out there that hadn't occured to me. The majority suggest putting it down and doing something else and coming back to it later. Ideally, I would love to take the steps that Mike has on the occasions I've been blighted with a block, but that is a physical impossibility for me. I find a lot of procrastination helps too. Thanks everyone, I appreciate your replies. I think I'd better go rescue my character from his block (I'm distracting him with one of his characters that has come to life to complain.)