How do you writers get past Writers' Block?

POSTED BY: Alliethorn7
UPDATED: Wednesday, August 5, 2026 18:26
VIEWED: 7607
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NCBROWNCOAT

Sunday, April 8, 2007 7:48 PM

I've currently got a bad case of writer's block myself. Sometimes I just back off for a while, but I give myself a bit of a deadline.

Right now I have a deadline of Monday morning with my beta and have I written anything since Thursday? No, I'll hunker down tonight and hope the flow of words start.

http://fireflyfaninnc.livejournal.com/

CLJOHNSTON108

Monday, April 9, 2007 12:01 AM

I got me one o' them Digital Voice Recorders from Olympus for about forty bucks.
That little thing is amazing!

KAYLEEGIRL

Monday, April 9, 2007 12:54 AM

Take a break from writing. Because I write at work and then come home to write for fun, sometimes I just need to do something that is not based in words on a printed page. Visual or physical stimulation is a good break from writing. Take a walk, excercise, watch a movie, make some art...

Accepting the fact that this is just the non-productive point in the ying-yang of your writerly Tao cycle helps a lot. Just let it go for awhile and stop trying to write. It'll all come back to you when it's right time.

OR...Keep writing -- write a lot of angst filled poems about having writers block. Sometimes the only way to get rid of the blues is to sing 'em, baby!

If I'm gonna dream, I'm gonna dream big.

ALLIETHORN7

Monday, April 9, 2007 4:10 PM

Thanks, folks, and... Brooklyn?
That thread... was...
AWESOME!!!!!!!!!
I think I WILL take a break... for now. Til' then...

Having fun yet?

-Danny

I wanna take the Bullet,
The one aimed straight for your Heart;
I wanna meet the wolves halfway,
And let them Tear me APART,
But that's not the way they do it here...
THRICE RULES!!!!!!!!!

MAVOURNEEN

Monday, April 9, 2007 4:40 PM

Start keeping an idea book.

Get some sort of notebook, unlined. Spiral bound is best.

Whenever you see something spiffy, something interesting, something weird...cut it out and put it in there.

Write down snippets of conversations you overhear at 7-11/ on the subway/in the library that strike you.

Cut pictures from magazines - images that intrigue you, people who interest you, etc.

It can be Firefly related or not. Whatever you decide.

Don't browse through while you take the above mentioned break.

When you feel you are ready, start looking through it.

I worked on my book for 6 months before I was able to write again.

It helps. It helps a lot.

------------------------------------------------

SHIELDMAID

Tuesday, April 10, 2007 3:19 PM

Man, writer's block sucks. No way 'round that...

And people have given some truly excellent suggestions here! I humbly offer the following to the ones already posted; I write a lot, and frequently it's under a deadline. So these work for me:

Have a couple different projects going at once. If I can't think of what to do with project A, I can switch to Project B or C or D. Usually I can eke out a sentence for one of them, anyway, that isn't a dismal piece of crapola--and sometimes when I'm working on one, a plotline or quote for another one will fall out of my head and hit me.

I force myself to sit down for a specified amount of time (15 minutes, an hour... whatever I can do realistically) and write *something.* My caveat is that it can be whatever I want--a filthy limerick, a list of things that piss me off, a series of Old Norse-styled kennings for writer's block--as long as I write something. My opinion is that it keeps my brain front and center on the whole writing process instead of letting it slip back under the weeds at the shallow end of the pond and lurk, even if it's only to compose an ode to what I had for breakfast at Hardee's. I figure it's still an exercise of the creative process, as well as of the discipline of writing--and that's never really a waste of time in my opinion.

I'm on the "read, read, read..." train, too. Reading what others are doing A) makes me want to write, also; and B )lets me enjoy the company of other people who presumeably find words fun and interesting and a reasonably-priced vacation. That's inspiring all the way around. :)

Try something completely different just for fun. I've had a blast and done away with writer's block by jumping outside my box and challenging myself to do something entirely different (and sometimes inane). The end result doesn't have to be good--the real worth is in the process. For instance, using a traditional poetry form with a nontraditional voice/subject matter. What qwould a Shakespearean sonnet composed by Malcolm Reynolds sound like? What would he write about? What would he say? How would he say it? Or a haiku by Jayne Cobb? I've actualy gleaned some really good bits out of this sort of exercise, because I found myself making connections or realizations about a subject I might not have arrived at otherwise from my established, more comfortable, perspective.

Those are a few things I rely on, anyway. The common thread seems to be to find a back door around the writer's block by challenging my brain to be creative "off the beaten path.". Sometimes that's all it takes to jump-start things and get them moving again. And sometimes it starts a whole unexpected new project. Either way is cool, as far as I'm concerned.

Hopefully someone else might find some of them as effective as I have.

Thanks for your time--

Shieldmaid

HERO

Tuesday, April 10, 2007 3:28 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Alliethorn7:
So... any ideas?

Try giving up. Don't write anymore. Abandon your dreams and fantasies and resign yourself to the quiet desperation of everyday existence. Worked for me...

H

JAYNEZTOWN

Saturday, May 13, 2023 10:26 PM

Now you have AI to write stuff

The Night Was Moist - Throw Artificial Intelligence From the Train?

All the celebrities who have shown their support for the 2023 writers’ strike

https://news.yahoo.com/celebrities-shown-support-2023-writers-18352681
5.html

JAYNEZTOWN

Wednesday, August 5, 2026 6:26 PM

maybe something writers with rivals didnt worry about

William Gibson didnt seem to care much an American-Canadian who made his own path
https://thegreatestbooks.org/authors/4694

Gates tells you get 'A Promised Land' By Barack Obama.

Branson says read Stalingrad
https://elitereads.com/elite/richard-branson

Steve Jobs said, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
https://mostrecommendedbooks.com/people/steve-jobs-recommended-books

Top 30 Sci Fi Books Of All Time
https://www.cliffordghostwriting.com/blog/top-30-sci-fi-books-of-all-t
ime/

Top 10 Sci-Fi Books That Take You Beyond Reality
https://estorytellers.com/blog/top-sci-fi-books/

5 Sci-Fi Trilogies That Are Truly Flawless
https://screenrant.com/sci-fi-book-trilogies-flawless/

10 Greatest Hard Sci-Fi Books of All Time
https://collider.com/best-hard-sci-fi-books-all-time-ranked/

29 of the Best Science Fiction Books Everyone Should Read
https://www.wired.com/story/best-sci-fi-books/

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