Conquering Writer's Block

The Wise Words of: SunQueen

I found this one rather interesting.

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Written by: SunQueen

My advice:

To all of you little superstitious writers-- I have some good news. Writer's block doesn't exist.

It's just you making up excuses.

That may seem harsh to you, but in my opinion, it's true (though I'm sure many would disagree with me). People claim that they suffer from this writer's block, a terrible disease that stops your mind from being creative and makes you stare at blank screens for hours, unknowing what to do, but really, they're procrastinating.

Procrastination strikes again.

Whoever thinks they have writer's block probably just doesn't want to write at the moment. Whether because of laziness, demotivation, stress... it all leads up to you not knowing what to write and how to write it because you don't really want to. You don't want to go through the process of writing, you want to skip over it because it takes time, it requires a lot of energy, and it's /hard./ Yeah, writing is hard. Let's not pretend it isn't.

When you're in this state of not wanting to write for whatever reason, I'd suggest working on the story in other ways. Here are some suggestions:

-Work on your characters. There are plenty of online questionnaires for characters that go into depth about them, asking you about their favourite things to do, pet peeves, what they would do in certain situations, etc. (I know the Young Writer's Program of NaNoWriMo has an excellent one, even if you aren't a young writer, it's still helpful). Try to learn everything you can about your characters. Talk to them. Ask them about how they feel. Learn their backstory. Heck, learn their parents' backstory! (It might come in handy for developing the plot later)

-Work on setting. You need to know as much as you can about where your story takes place, whether you've been their or not. Even if you're writing a story about what's under your bed, have a look around there anyway. If you're writing about a place you've never been to, research a LOT about it. Google, Wikipedia in particular, is always your friend when it comes to geography, history, etc. about a place, and there are people from many different places on Wattpad. Try starting a conversation, see if anyone here knows about this place, or better yet, lives there!

-Work on the purpose of your story. Why are you writing it in the first place? And don't say to get popular, publish a book like you've always wanted, or even to try out writing for the first time. If you're not passionate about the idea you're working with, SCRAP. IT. Good. When you're done making sure you've got a reason to write this story, start thinking about who you're really trying to reach out to. What kind of feelings do you want people to feel when reading this? What do you want people to take away from this story? Going into more depth, what's the initial theme of your story (I dearly hope you know what that is, if not, look it up)? How do you want your characters to grow? Go back into characters and think about how they change over the story.

-Finally, work on your plot. It can be very vague and general at first, but write it down. What are your plans for the story? What are the main things that happen in the beginning, middle, end, and why? Then you can go into details. IF YOU GET STUCK (and this works when writing as well): Take the scene you are stuck with and think of four possible ways it could continue. Write. Them. Down. Do not just leave them floating in your mind, manually type, or better, handwrite, these down onto paper. Do it. Then write out how each one would change your story and bring the plot along. Choose the best suitor, or maybe you've thought up a better idea while thinking about all this. Just try it, it's a technique that works often.

When you're done working on your story, go make yourself a snack. You deserve it. Then go out and walk around. Yes, walk. Or bike. Or do something outside, I don't care where it is, as long as you're in the open and not confined in a house or car. Take a deep breath. Forget about the story.

Come back. Look over your notes. Write your story.

(Note: DO NOT edit as you write. It almost always fails, especially if you're new to writing. Don't worry about grammar and spelling right now--though you are not allowed to use text speak or I will give you a legit time out--and don't worry about how this sentence sounded bad or that isn't a good description or blah blah blah. Get the story written. Most of writing is re-writing. It's the most important part.)

GOOD LUCK!