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I don’t. Seriously, I don’t. At least not majorly. There have been times when I was having difficulty remembering why I had found a particular scene so inspiring and exciting, but never actually have I had a bad case of real writer’s block.
Sometimes when I’m having difficulty with inspiration, though, I’ll switch to a different project for a while and give the one I was working on a breather. Leave my laptop and go drink several glasses of water— or paint a picture. 😉 Or read a poem to myself in the most ridiculously dramatic way imaginable. Just something to rest my mind.
A few other tricks I like for getting inspiration back are as follows: look at the sticky scene through a different character’s eyes. If it’s a whole chapter, or even a whole book, instead of taking it from the MC’s (that’s main character’s) perspective, take it from the villain’s, if you’re going to be extreme. You’d be shocked how helpful this can actually be.
Also, if you’re having trouble figuring out what’s going to take place next and that’s where you’re stuck, tell yourself the story backwards.
Take the scene you’re trying to get to, ask yourself— well here, I’ll give you an example. Say you want the character to be stuck in a burning building (I think on a drastic scale 😛 ) but you can’t figure out how to get her there. So you go to that scene— you get right there, right where you want to be but can’t get, and you freeze. First question: How did the character get here? Well, she came in, of course!
Second question: What on earth was she doing anywhere near a burning building, and why on earth was she so absolutely crazy as to go in? You could say she just went in before she knew it was on fire, but that’s boring.
So… she needs a reason to be running around inside a burning building. Find out what that reason is, and keep going backwards until you reach the scene you were stuck on. Seriously, try it. 🙂You will not regret it. I promise. 😀
Oooo! You are so luckly. I hit writer’s block all the time. Sometimes I hear something and I think “that’s such a great story idea” and start writing and then get stuck. 😛 I hate it when I do that. Do you have any suggests on how to come up with idea for stories too? That is one of the things I struggle with the most. I like your suggestion. I find I’m acting stuff out all the time. I should probably stop for a moment and see if there is a good story in my plays. 😀 I’m always wishing there was an invention that could record my thoughts. (I think too fast for my fingers to keep up and then I forget where I was heading.) *wail* :/
I don’t have writer’s block either. I create my own writer’s block. I know, I shouldn’t, but I do. I never have any problem with figuring out what to write. I just pace around and let my brain particles loose to search the universe for any possibilities and then have them come back with solutions. The bigger the problem, the longer it takes, but my brain particles never go on strike.
What I do have a problem with is getting myself to actually write what I thought up. I have found that dedicating a specific time every day to writing is the most helpful thing for me. I have it planed so that I write from as soon as I am ready in the morning (generally 9:30ish) to about 11:45. The only problem is that if I have to do something else in part of that time, I usually won’t be able to get myself to use the rest of it for writing. I think though that the more you write, the less resistance you will have to it. I’m not writing every day yet, but after making myself write more often, my resistance has worn down. It’s just a psychological barrier I have. I have trouble starting. When I actually start writing, I enjoy it.
As far as coming up with story ideas, I’m a big note taker. What I do is as soon as I get even a very very basic concept for a story or a chapter or a scene I want to write, I leave whatever I’m doing or keep it in the front of my mind until I can focus on it, and then I go off and think about the plot until I have solved most of the major issues and added some details. Then I write everything down without delay. I don’t think it’s so much that I’m just full of ideas but that I don’t let any of my ideas just slip through my brain. I capture them and turn them to the best use.
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@daeus – Grrrrr. My mind must be very lazy. I never think of anything worth writing. I have found a book called ‘A Step in the Write Direction, 999+ ideas for creative writing.’ by Sandra Lynn. It is quite helpful, but right know I really don’t know what to write about. Arrrrggghhhh!!! Any suggestions are welcome… 😀
Actually @bluejay, my problem is not being unable to think of story ideas, but just the opposite! I see story ideas everywhere— in faces, in old buildings, in trees, in clouds, in poems, in blobs of paint stuck on a canvas. As @Daeus said, I
let my brain particles loose to search the universe for any possibilities and then have them come back with solutions.
Only I don’t usually even have to go to that much effort. The trick is to teach yourself to see the beautiful in the ugly, the incongruous in the elegant, the vibrant in the commonplace. To be able to hear a song, and immediately fix on the story beneath it. To watch an ant at work and find the message; to hear the story in the whisperings of a seashell. Yes, they do whisper— you just have to be trying to understand them. 😉
Take a random thought and see if you can weave it into a story. I usually reserve my random thoughts for short stories, like this, but novels can be built off of them too.
Is that any help whatsoever?
And yes— acting out is so helpful for everything. I act out scenes from my books (both mentally and actually) all the time, and it really does help so much. 😛Oh, and as for suggestions, how about this?
Write a medieval story from the perspective of a highly unpopular king’s poison-checker.
Write a western from the perspective of the villain’s pet horned toad who lives in the pocket of his master’s vest.
Write a futuristic story from the perspective of the security cameras all over the city— better yet, write a futuristic story where the security cameras are alive and have formed a secret society whose sole purpose is to save the world.… AND any other wacky and totally unrealistic idea you can come up with. 😛
@kate-flournoy – Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
This is one other story idea I have that I haven’t been able to get to work. (have you heard of the nursery rhyme ‘Little Jack Horner?’)
Little Jack Horner was a real boy and lived in the Abbey of Glastonbury during the reign of Henry VIII. The abbot sent the deed of the abbey to the king concealed in the pie, using Jack as the messenger. Instead of delivering the pie, Jack stole the “plum” and claimed ownership of the property.
Very interesting!!! 😉
I liked your seed story too. I love how the Man is made to be Jesus. Very clever tie-in. 😀
to hear the story in the whisperings of a seashell. Yes, they do whisper— you just have to be trying to understand them That made my spine tingle with delight. Grazie (thank you in Italian)Hey, that’s a really fun story idea! *applauds* Go for it— I’m behind you all the way. 😀
Yes, I like making up little chill-inducing lines like that. You might say it’s a hobby. 😉
So glad I was able to help!
Alright! England here I come. *fingers crossed* Hope it works. 😛
@kate-flournoy – What do you think of this as a starting?
A single light glowed from a window and cast strange and ghostly shapes on the empty street outside. The constant flickering of the candle light displayed that the person in the room moved about regularly. The footsteps were muffled by a thick rug that warmed the floor. Robes swayed back and forth as the marcher turned about. A distant bell tolled and chimed the hour of eleven at night.To interpret Kate into modern english, what she said is to envelop yourself in poetry until it takes over your brain and you begin to think poetically. Poetry is really a great foundation for prose. Seriously. Get a book on poetry (The Roar On The Other Side) and some poetry books. Find a corner and read. It will be the most bestistest education you ever had.
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@Bluejay— great so far! The only thing I would say is watch out for subject-openers— every sentence in your beginning paragraph starts with the subject, and that can get to sounding a little odd. You might try merging some of those sentences together just to vary the rhythm.
@Daeus… well, that’s not quite exactly what I was saying… you got the interpretation pretty close, but I was more suggesting you teach yourself to see things that aren’t there. For instance, say you notice a cluster of knots in your wood wall that looks a little like an owl. Ask yourself, what would it be like if there were invisible talking owls hiding in the walls of a house spying on you? And why would they be spying on you? And why are they in your house? What will they do if they get too interested in you?
And before you know it, you have a story where a distracted bachelor scientist was abducting by talking owls who spied on him through the walls of his house and carried off to their parliament as a human experiment, because the owls’ scientific brains were just too fascinated by his odd human ways.See what I mean? 🙂
Yeah, I took the liberty to put words in your mouth. Hopefully they tasted good.
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