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The Life and Mind of DamnBlackHeart
This is to help me stay actively writing. So expect to see rants, tips on writing, thoughts on subjects, me complaining of boredom, reviews, anime, movies, video games, conventions, tv shows and whatever life throws at me.
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Writer's block is usually a temporary condition in which a writer finds it impossible to continue on working on their novel, fanfiction, play, or other work. As a writer I've come across my fair share of writer's block and sometimes they aren't so bad but other times they can get really annoying when it's still hovering around. Pretty much every writer has been infected with it at least once and maybe even more than that in their lifetime.
However, as a writer we shouldn't let such a thing defeat us. Yes, it's sometimes difficult to do but we can't let it dominate us, we must overcome it. To do that we must do something about it, instead of sitting around and waiting for it to go away. Down below I've listed a few ways that can help you overcome your writer's block. They've certainly helped me with mine and I hope it will do the same with yours.
1. Procrastinate. If you're going to procrastinate, force yourself to do something productive. Either force yourself to keep writing, no matter how much you feel like what you're writing is crap, just push yourself to do it. Or force yourself to clean the bathroom. Just give yourself two choices (one choice will always be to write) and pick one and do it no matter how much you do not wish to do anything. Majority of the time I force myself to write through my writer's block. It helps because at least I wrote something and I can always go back to that part and rewrite it or edit it until I like it.
2. Starting it. Don't get too hung up on writing the first sentence or paragraph. If you're having a hard time starting it than skip it. No one is forcing you to work on that first, instead you can start on whatever part of the story you want. So if you want to start somewhere in the middle of your story then do so and just come back to the beginning later. That's actually how some people who enter the NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writer's Month) do because they have a deadline and they can't afford to wait around until they figure out how to start their novel.
3. Deadline. Set yourself a deadline because nothing forces you to focus when you're racing against the clock. Have a friend or family member encourage/help push you to get your story done by telling them you have a deadline and that you need their help to keep reminding you. Maybe even have them keep track of how much you got done. Just be sure to plan it out first and that you set aside an hour each day or whatever just for writing.
For me, I usually don't take deadline serious unless I know something bad will happen if I don't finish on time. So if you're like me, I suggest to have some sort of an award at the end of it or a bet with friends or family members. Such as, bet with a family member $20 or something else, that you'll finish in time. Or maybe your parents will get you something you want as an award?
4. Timeout. Take a break then come back to it. Sometimes when someone is stuck on a certain part of their story it helps to take a break and do something to take your mind off it. It's okay if the break takes a day or two, maybe even a week but just remember to come back and read your whole story again. That always helps me because I end up catching a lot of mistakes, parts that lack detail and it actually re-inspires me. Sometimes I even get more ideas and they help me get through the part that give me a writer's block in the first place.
5. Work on something related to your story. Write a oneshot(s), a drabble(s) or something else. It can be about your characters. It can be about them in different situations or in different places or interacting with other characters that they don't know or don't usually talk to. It helps to understand your characters better and help you to keep in mind their reactions, how they handle things and it's good practice in keeping them in character/personality intact. Sometimes you can come up with some interesting ideas that you might want to add to your story.
6. Talk about it. Sometimes just thinking about your story isn't enough. So talk to a friend(s) or family member(s) about your story. It helps to discuss about it and ask for their thoughts on it, which can give you fresh ideas and let you see things from a fresh perspective. Also, ask them questions such as, their first impression of the characters, or if their reaction/action is realistic, or if they can relate to/understand the characters and their reasons for saying/doing things?
7. Plan it out. There are some writers out there that hate planning and usually just free write their story. It's great that you can just write without knowing what will happen, but sometimes not knowing makes you hit a wall and you're stuck wondering what should happen. If you're stuck at a certain point in your work, think about what happens later on and work backwards. Sometimes it's easier to figure out the solution first and then come up with the details of getting to said solution.
8. Take challenges. Try your hand at some theme or prompt challenges. It doesn't have to relate to your work but sometimes just writing helps. Along with...
9. Free writing. When I was in high school, I had a teacher who forced us to do free-writing exercises in our journals. We had to sit at our desks and write without stopping for 30 minutes. It didn't matter what we wrote. She just watched to make sure that we were constantly putting pen (or pencil) to paper. I found it a very useful exercise, so you might give it a try if you are having a creative block. And a bonus is that it can also be a good way to come up with story ideas.
10. Read. Reading the works of others helps to overcome writer’s block because it's bound to give you an idea or two. So when you do, don't just read in the same genre you're working on but also read something that's a bit outside the scope of your normal material. It can give you a fresh perspective that's important for generating new ideas. If you write romances, read a few murder mysteries or a good western dealing with it. If you write science fiction, consider reading a few comics or graphic novels in that area.
 DamnBlackHeart · Thu Mar 31, 2011 @ 03:21am · 0 Comments |
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