How to Deal with Writer's Block

[ysabetwordsmith]

This is a wish from mythicmistress in snowflake_challenge.  I thought other folks might find it helpful too.


Ways to deal with writer's block:

https://www.wikihow.com/Get-Rid-of-Writer%27s-Block

https://www.wikihow.com/Get-Over-Writer%27s-Block

https://www.wikihow.com/Get-Your-Writing-Mojo-Back

https://www.wikihow.com/Stay-Inspired-(for-Writers-and-Artists)

https://goinswriter.com/how-to-overcome-writers-block/

https://www.thestorytellingnonprofit.com/blog/25-ways-to-overcome-writers-block/


I don't get the usual uninspired kind of writer's block; I always have ideas out the wazoo. The two obstacles I sometimes encounter are:

* I'm stuck on writing because the story/poem is missing a critical piece. I have learned to set it aside and work on something else, because that thing is going nowhere until I find the missing piece. Usually it takes a few hours or days, but I have some pieces that simmered for decades before getting finished.

* I feel like crap and I'm on a deadline, usually for nonfiction. Write a paragraph, go read fanfic or do something else pleasant to generate energy, write another paragraph. Or just a line if that's all I can manage. It is possible to level-grind through a whole article this way and produce something good.

Comments

[iamnotgod]

Thank you for this! =D

And I can definitely relate re: not being able to finish things without finding missing pieces. My WWW Trilogy/Young Wizards crossover encounters this problem constantly; if I can't fill out even the outline, I'm not able to construct the actual scenes!

Doing things line-by-line/scenario-by-scenario is the best I can do in the meanwhile.

[meridian_rose]

I haven't yet looked at the links but I know about writer's block and in my experience most articles haven't been of help, sadly.
When it happens to me it's the loss of ideas as well as any amount of trying to do the thing. The loss of even the ability to tell myself fantasies at bedtime, and it impacts my ability to enjoy media because my need to connect/analyse/transform media (eg fanfic, but also meta etc) is strong.
The block is usually tied up with emotional upset until that fuels the block and I can't tell which came first. The amount of "just write words" articles is frustrating because that's like "just mop the floor" when you've lost the mop and there's no water and you're too tired to mop even if that wasn't the case. Honestly I think there are probably better step by step articles on how to mop a floor than there are about the different approaches to tackling writer's block, ones which acknowledge physical, mental, and emotional limitations (temporary or otherwise.)|

Often it takes time to recover emotionally and/or physically before the words truly come back.
During that time it's dark and awful. Being told over and over "just write" doesn't help but makes me feel worse.


This was a better find - I'll keep looking for the page I found it on, I kept a screencap for reference because it was one of the few articles that acknowledge how writer's block is painful, and that it can take a long time to get over. I think the 'write the worst sentence' is giving yourself permission to suck, and if you're stuck because of high expectations/pressure, it can help.
I've been through some bad bouts and last year had a lot of issues that meant I wrote far fewer words. This year I'm trying to focus on my accomplishments so 2018, I didn't make my GYWO goal of 250k but I worked hard the last few months, I posted fic, I did Yuletide, and I made it to 100k and that's something to be proud of. I posted some fic anonymously to AO3 because I wanted to write the thing but didn't want to risk any backlash, especially when feeling vulnerable.
And I keep trying to tell myself "you don't have to do it all at once" because I often feel overwhelmed at a task, and writing can be overwhelming when you have a minimum wordcount or a deadline or both, or the project seems vast or new, etc. But often it doesn't matter if you don't finish the thing, and it certainly does not and often cannot be done all at once :)

[meridian_rose]

I found the link and I'll reproduce the image text here now:
"Barry Michels is a psychologist whose clientele includes some of the most famous screenwriters, Hollywood agents, and film producers in the world. His waiting room is like an Oscar after-party. You never know when you’re going to run into an Academy Award winner. And as a “shrink to the stars,” he’s helped hundreds of writers break writer’s block.

One screenwriter had been blocked for months. A studio had paid him to write a script for a new film, but he was completely stuck. He was in so much pain over his writer’s block he started to see a therapist.

Michel’s advice was unusual. He told the blocked writer to kneel in front of his computer for one minute every day, praying to the universe for the ability to write the worst sentence in the world. The screenwriter thought it was stupid.

“Write the worst sentence in the world? What kind of advice is that? I’m in pain here!”

However, he did it. A few weeks later, his writer’s block disappeared. A few months after that, he had finished a screenplay that would win him an Academy Award."
http://my.storycartel.com/writers-block/