MagiStream

You know what I do, and it works every time? LARP (LARP = live action role play). I find a friend willing to pretend to be someone else with me, and we just talk as random characters. It can be from the same series, or from different ones, or original characters. Generally, the more different the characters are, the harder we have to think about the conversation, and the more it gets the gears moving. About an hour later, I'm good to write again.

If that doesn't work or you're not comfortable with that method, read one of your favorite books. I absolutely have to write after I read The Hunger Games or the Bay City Paranormal Investigation books. Just be sure you don't accidentally mirror their ideas or conversations! I once realized I wrote a scene that was a dead ringer for one of my favorite parts of Oleander House, and I had to scrap the whole thing. Bye-bye, half a chapter.

What I do is read. c: I read and read and I get ideas. I also look up roleplay posts.

The weird thing is, ideas come to me when I'm very sleepy/tired as hell. Some examples would be in the morning, and when I'm in bed and not asleep.

Well, I agree with all of your methods, but the easiest (and most obvious) way to avoid writers block is not to write.

But not writing is for people who aren't creative.

The problem is all my ideas come during
a) the middle of the night
OR
b) during tests at school

(sorry ranting)


But I'm going off topic.

I very rarely get writers block because of my method of wrting, which is

1. Make 3-10 charecters.
2. Make settings.
3. Pick situation.
4. Plop charecters into setting/situation.
5. See what happens.

Very entertaining, but it takes a while to write and the stories often end up somewhere between 50-300 pages.

So... yeah...

Derp.

I usually try to just power through it. If that doesn't work, I will let a close friend read it and see if they have a suggestion. Usually I don't follow their suggestion, but it seems to jump start my brain and helps get me writing again. If neither of those work, I'll leave it for awhile. I do like to outline, though, it helps prevent writer's block and works well for me.

Hey I write a lot, but I do have a few problems. The main issue I have though is practically every story I write doesn't have a beginning. For some reason I have such an issue with coming up with a way to start it. I currently have 4 stories I am writing, but none of them have a beginning. Any ideas on what I could do?

and as for Writer's Block, I do tend to get it, and I usually end up leaving the story for a while and work on a different story. My favorite thing to do is work on a story without any plot ideas, basically just make up the story as I go along. It usually gives me great ideas for the story that gave me the Writer's Block.

Celestialgirl32 wrote:Hey I write a lot, but I do have a few problems. The main issue I have though is practically every story I write doesn't have a beginning. For some reason I have such an issue with coming up with a way to start it. I currently have 4 stories I am writing, but none of them have a beginning. Any ideas on what I could do?

Oh do I ever know that problem well. I suppose it depends on the character(s) and the story. I generally start by introducing the lead character of the story in some way. In one case it was via a fight with some people.
Sometimes I get ideas on beginnings from books and just see how they do it-introduce the character, introduce the setting/world...

Depends on the characters and stories....why must this be so difficult.

I have been reading alot of different stories and they all start different ways and my mind gets all jumbled trying to figure out a way to start my own...and reading over the stories posted here just make me come up with ideas for more stories, which will pretty much end up in the same way the others are.

Whenever I encounter writer's block, I distance myself from what I'm currently working on. I think it was mentioned in the first few posts as well, but it's a great way of dealing with every writer's bane.

Another, quite personal thing I have going, is to put myself in a situation I find painfully boring, and adding inspirational music to that.

Most of my ideas come from times when I'm not focusing on anything in particular and letting my mind wander. Such situations can be during lectures, bus/car/train rides, rainy days, waiting for someone or when you just don't have a lot to do. Go get your iPod, mp3 player or what have you, then put the tiny machine of wonder on shuffle and sever all connections to the present. Just let your mind work on its own, don't pay any attention or try to reason with it, just go with the flow of your own thoughts.

Personally, I think it's a faster version of developing characters, plots or scenes, since it comes spontaneously and in a jumbled mess of pictures, feelings, sounds and acts played by the characters.

Then, of course, there's the version where you draw inspiration from your surroundings. Maybe it's a beautiful landscape, maybe someone you saw on the streets, maybe something you read, watched, memories or something else you find close at hand.

The only problem I encounter with that technique, is that I let others influence my writing too much. That, however, I avoid by developing the plot or character further, overworking it into something vastly different from my original source of inspiration.

Oh, this is a subject that is a thorn in my side! I do a lot of writing but there are times when I hit a dry spell. It's not exactly a writer's block, per se, as I usually know what I want to do and where I want the story to go, but for some reason the story refuses to flow. I'm sure you've had the same experience - you write several paragraphs, maybe even a couple of pages, then you read back over what you've done and just delete it in disgust because it is rubbish! Another problem I sometimes hit is that I have too many ideas and they wind up quarrelling inside my head. That can be downright painful!

Talking a story through with someone you trust can be a real help. Sometimes just saying the words out loud makes you realise just where the problem is. And your suggestion of putting it to one side and coming back to it later has also worked for me in the past (although there is the danger that the story might wind up mutating into something completely different!).

My chief flaw is that I lack focus. I'm a bit like a cat stalking her prey who then sees something shiny moving in the breeze. Having the strength of will to keep at a story even when it's misbehaving is something that I admire greatly. I have several ring binders worth of notes and scribbled extracts of scenes/conversations, all of which are going to be turned into deathless prose one day.

Yeah, right!