conquering writer's block

[Shangas]

Most of my ideas come whenever I'm stuck at a long, miserable job of any sort. Manual labor causes me to retreat inside my head, where most of my thinking takes place.

I can relate to that. Some of my best (or craziest) ideas have come to me when I was absolutely stone bored.

 

[LoveMyHats2]

........."Scotch".........

 

[Roving_Bohemian]

The dreaded "Block" has consumed me once again. I'm VERY tired of staring at the screen/paper in front of me & finding no words.

Working on a new novel & can't get past page 3!! :eusa_doh:

What do you writers out there do to get past this & move on to finish what you've started?

Well, what's the setting?

When I was writing a story loosely based on my great grandfather who was in the Swedish army back in 1903, I went out to the shooting range when I got writers block; When writing a story set in the "Pioneer Days" I chopped wood with an old axe... when writing about a 1930s detective, I went by a car show: I saw the cars he would have driven, heard the real sound of the engine (not what Hollywood tells us it sounds like) and talked to the nicely talkative seniors that were proudly showing them off, actually finding a few that were either related to mafia of that time or the G-men chasing them!

My suggestion would be to find something tied to our subject... something they would have felt, seen, heard, etc.
I find that when I identify more with my subject, I can think of more things that would have influenced/affected them...

 

[AmateisGal]

Well, what's the setting?

When I was writing a story loosely based on my great grandfather who was in the Swedish army back in 1903, I went out to the shooting range when I got writers block; When writing a story set in the "Pioneer Days" I chopped wood with an old axe... when writing about a 1930s detective, I went by a car show: I saw the cars he would have driven, heard the real sound of the engine (not what Hollywood tells us it sounds like) and talked to the nicely talkative seniors that were proudly showing them off, actually finding a few that were either related to mafia of that time or the G-men chasing them!

My suggestion would be to find something tied to our subject... something they would have felt, seen, heard, etc.
I find that when I identify more with my subject, I can think of more things that would have influenced/affected them...

This is an EXCELLENT idea!

 

[m0nk]

I thoroughly agree with a lot of the comments here about writers block. In college, my english comp professor mentioned using "free writing" as a method to break the block. It's along the lines that several others have noted; just write garbage until an idea comes about that's worthwhile. More can come from the mind when it's not being tasked. I also agree that a certain amount of Scotch can help free the mind...

I used to write more "creative" items in the past giving way to more technical writing, but have been inspired quite recently to pick up with a novel that I had scrapped many years ago.

 

[John in Covina]

Depends on what you are writing but what they say is if you are stuck it's time to throw in a gun gunshot or have the family golden retreiver come in with a body part.

 

[Dated Guy]

Depends on what you are writing but what they say is if you are stuck it's time to throw in a gun gunshot or have the family golden retreiver come in with a body part.

That is so funny, I laughed out loud, the wife came into the room to find out why, the doorbell went and an adventure began all inside two seconds, marvelous...!! thanks.

 

[Stanley Doble]

Speaking of Hemingway a friend of his reported how he saw Hem sit down to write one day and immediately pound out page after page - rip them out of the typewriter, crumple them up and throw them on the floor.

The friend asked what he was doing and Hem replied "I'm warming up". The friend picked up a few of the sheets and they were covered with gobbledy gook, snatches of paragraphs, sentences, bits of old poems, whatever came into his head. He felt he had to warm up like a baseball pitcher before he could begin work.

The friend said he was sorry he didn't save any of the sheets. He could have published them as "Hemingway's Warmups". lol

Mark Twain would work on a book until he ran out of gas then lay it aside, sometimes for years. After a while he would get some fresh ideas, take out the old manuscript and work on it some more. Sometimes he would do this several times before the book was finished. All his novels were written this way.

He was an early adopter and claimed to be the first man to write a book using a typewriter, one of the first machines on the market which he bought about 1874. He also claimed to be the first person to have a telephone installed in a private home. No doubt if he were alive today he would have the latest computer and word processor on his desk.