𝐈𝐍 𝐌𝐘 𝐁𝐋𝐎𝐎𝐃 | ❝ C'mon! ❞
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WRITER'S BLOCK IN THIS CHAPTER ✧ what is writer's block? how to get through it, and techniques you can use to push through to your inspiration.
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Every writer, no matter how experienced or talented, will always go through a rough patch during their work known as writer's block. Writer's block is when a writer loses all their inspiration to write, it's when they know exactly what they want to write but just can't do it. It's when you might go from loving your work to hating it in a short period of time for absolutely no reason.
Everyone experiences it. Everyone deals with it differently.
Some people give up, some push through it, and some just wait for it to miraculously end without doing anything to try and stop it. Personally, I'm the one that goes to push through it depending on how dedicated I am to a certain book. Par example, when I'm writing for Open Door, my Barry Allen fanfiction, I will always push through my writer's block by forcing myself to write the story, one sentence at a time. I love Open Door, but if I'm writing something like Altered Carbon or Death Echo and I lose inspiration, I don't force myself to write. I wait it out and focus on other projects.
Waiting is what a lot of Wattpad writers do. We have time to wait and it's not like readers don't understand our loss of inspiration, but that's what this chapter is for! I'll tell you guys what I do to get through my writer's block.
PLOT OUT THE REST OF THE CHAPTER. If you're writing a chapter and BAM you suddenly don't know how to continue, something I like to do is plot out the rest of what you want to accomplish in that chapter. Like in Open Door (SPOILERS ARE IMMINENT, DON'T READ IF YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE SPOILERS!) I'm currently writing Chapter Ten right now and Ten starts off Act Two of the book. At the end of the first act and the previous chapter, Sebastián pulled the trigger of his gun which was pointed at Joe West because his body was being controlled by a meta-human.
During Chapter Nine, Barry is nowhere to be seen. Sebastián doesn't know where he is, he only finds Joe and the meta-human, Jason Bureka, the bad guy. So they have a confrontation and after that is where the chapter ended. The beginning of Ten starts out with Barry.
Soto plot out the rest of the chapter, what do I want to accomplish with Chapter Ten? [Answer: I want to explore what happened with Barry and save Joe from the bullet. ]
WHILE WRITING . . . I had so much trouble starting out the chapter, it's always rough for me when I care about projects like this extremely gay one. So, that's when my writer's block hit me in the stomach — I suddenly couldn't write Chapter Ten. To push through this I'm going to be using a technique published author Scott Reintgen (of the Nyxia series) told me about:
• DESCRIBE THE ENVIRONMENT.
Yes, you just read the solution, folks. If you can't keep writing the story's progression or you've lost inspiration and hope, begin describing the character's surrounding environment. I started Chapter Ten by describing Barry's cage that Jason trapped him inside of and now I'm writing the rest of the chapter slowly but surely.
It's usually foolproof, for me, at least. Describe what the character notices, describe unusual things, or things that stand out, or are abnormal in their nature, describe the history of a location. This not only gives more atmosphere and attention to your setting, but it also strives to make you (the writer) be more creative.
By being creative while describing the environment, you're pushing yourself to start thinking in a way that you can solve the problem of your writer's block. You're pushing yourself to do something and this is just the push some people need in order to access their creative brain.
It sounds very simplistic.
And it is, but sometimes it's hard for people to even do the environment because writing is an art, not a science. It has to be respected and treated as such.
WRITING IS AN ART. . . So I'll also provide you a few other tips for pushing past writer's block:
i. Go for a walk, clear your mind. ii. Change your writing environment. iii. Play with mindless toys. —fidget spinner, Rubik's cube, I like to shake a snow globe, etc. iv. Listen to music; classical, jazz, etc. v. Get a snack, some water, and come back to it with an open mind. vi. Try doing some quickwrites to get your creativity flowing. Might just need a jumpstart.
None of these ways are going to work for every single person, I know that. But if it helps even one person then I'll feel a lot better knowing I helped in some small way. You guys can also feel free to share your own tips in this chapter!
As I said, writing is an art and we are all artists. Each artist is unique. The brushstrokes are never the same, even if we make replicas or forgeries. We all have our own styles.
WHAT TO NOT DO! There are numerous ways to push through writer's block and there are also numerous ways that just aren't helping you at all and you have to realize what you're doing wrong before you can fix anything. As the saying goes, every day you don't write — you're not becoming better at all, you're regressing. You can posture and say you want to be a good writer all you like but if you don't write even a little bit every day, then you're not bettering your skills at all. You're not a writer until you dedicate yourself to the art.
So what shouldn't you do? ➢ DON'T GIVE UP; it's the worst thing you can do. Remember that when you've hit rock bottom, all you can do is go up from there! No matter what your brain is telling you, you can overcome your obstacles and you can get to the place you want to be at. ➢ DON'T BE HARD ON YOURSELF; being too self-critical when you're having writer's block isn't going to help you at all. Take it coming from someone who has always been harsh on herself and has always pushed herself to be better even when I was already at my best — it doesn't work. Bullying yourself into doing work or getting past writer's block will only make you dread and hate sitting down to write. You'll become scared of the blank page. ➢ DON'T BE AFRAID; don't be afraid of writing, of changing your style, of completely starting the chapter(s) over from the beginning, of trying new techniques, of using mentor texts, of going at the scene from a new angle. Don't be afraid of playing with your word / vocabulary choices, of creating unique similes and metaphors, of making something different than what you'd originally planned. The road isn't paved here because you can do whatever you want. We're not writing in stone here.
I'm running out of things to preach on about here so I'm going to end it at that. I am OPEN FOR QUESTIONS, though. Please ask some if you're confused.
I've been procrastinating about writing this chapter and publishing it so apologies for that! Leave a comment and we can have a discussion about writer's block if you guys want. Making a chapter on it is difficult but a conversation? Well, a conversation I can do.
