Just Write

[BellaLestrange87]

Writer's block is an annoyance that affects us all. We've come up with different ways of dealing with it, whether that's searching for motivation to write, changing projects, or giving up and waiting for inspiration.

 

One piece of advice I have heard about writer's block is to ignore it completely and to just write; to simply focus on putting words on the page and ignore everything else.

 

What do you think of this advice? Do you think it works? Have you tried it yourself?

[lovegood27]

Whenever I have writer's block, I just try to write anyway. Sure, what you end up with might not be your best (I know I'm never happy with what I write when I'm on this situation), but at least you're being productive. The way I see it, you can stilll provide the bases for your stories/chapters, even when you have writer's block. Normally, what I do afterwards is I go back and partially edit the stuff when I'm in a more write-y mood so my work satisfies me enough. Sometimes, I end up deleting and re-writing the entire thing but 99% of the time it will still be based on what you wrote before, if only very loosely.

 

(Unless you have a sudden strike of brilliant inspiration...)

 

 

[Mistress]

If I just write if I'm not feeling it, it comes out worse than if I just hadn't at all. It looks forced and isn't in my voice at all.

 

For me, writer's block is all in my head. I know that about myself.

 

Usually, if I don't feel it, I won't force it. Instead, I usually pick up a book in the genre I'm writing and get my mind away from my work. Normally that inspires me enough to get out a ton of words after I finish the book.

[PinsandKneazles]

It depends.

 

I don't write well if I'm distracted, so if anything stressful is going on, there's no point in even bothering.

 

If it's just a case where I think I'm not in the mood, then I try and force myself to sit down and write, even if it's just for 20 minutes or so. Sometimes, the results of this are surprisingly good (for me).

[Margaret]

No, I don't think it works, at least not for me. If I "just write" when my characters aren't speaking to me, then it will sound as if I am putting words in their mouths. The entire thing will come out extremely stilted and it won't really be editable as it really won't be the characters at all. The only way to fix it would be to delete the entire thing and start from scratch which is really no different than waiting until the characters start reacting again and writing it then. The only difference is that writing the stilted, badly written version first is more likely to put me off so the chances of my writing it well later on are probably lower.

 

I once had this issue on an essay for school, which of course had to be written by a certain day. When handing the essay back, my teacher said, "I didn't like that story, Margaret. I don't know why." I could hardly answer, "yeah, my character wouldn't cooperate," so instead I just said, "I know. It didn't work."

 

I think it depends on the writer and the reason they are blocked though.

[hedwig1751]

When I have writer's block which is actually probably most of the time I just stop writing because I have absolutely no idea what to do. In this situation, I attempt and fail to think of a quite detailed plan to help me along the way (since sometimes I write with a plan and sometimes I just ramble on about who knows what for an entire chapter) which can take a quite a while.

 

I once had a really bad case of writer's block where I knew the general plot of the chapter but couldn't think of what events should lead up to it, so I ended up contemplating for about a month, until my ideas finally came to me in the form of writing on my hand during a Latin lesson .

[scooterbug8515]

I very much disagree with the sentiment of 'just write' when it comes to writers block.  I feel that following that mentality can make the block even more crippling.  Honestly how you handle block is sourced in what is causing the block in my opinion.  These are some of my most frequent ones that I experience and how I handle the block - so far what I've been doing works it can take some time but I feel recovered from the block all the same. 

 

1. Over Taxed muse - I've over worked it and I'm demanding it to work when all it really wants is play time. Usually when this happens I literally follow the child like whims of said muse and this equates to reading for fun and or playing load and loads of video games. All the play time unwinds me and the muse and eventually something sparks and I am good to go.

 

2. Pigeon Holed muse - Similar to the above I'm trying to force the muse to write a certain way and it simply doesn't want to. While I may want my muse to work in my very serious piece the muse simply wants to write about a talking moose and squirrel (points for getting the show reference). I've learned in this instance let the muse write what it wants and must many times it is crap it is nonsensical but the muse is happy to get the weird stuff out of its system and eventually comes back to what I really want it to work on

 

3. The Criticized muse - This one is the worst one to deal with this is a muse that has been paralyzed by the inner editor/internal critic. (Occasionally external sources are to blame but we are our own worst critic). In this case the muse is many times paralyzed with fear of not being able to perform as well as it did before or by the fact that everything is rubbish. When the critic is an internal one it is difficult to shut it up and dismiss it.

 

When in this phase I have to do many things, such as stop writing fully for a spell/give myself permission not to write. I also also follow the remedy in pigeon holed muse and play - play time is important for muses they are like children and want to play. Then also try to make writing fun again. Personally I go back to old bad writing and make it better, play with it or even purposefully write poorly so that way when the critic talks the answer is that it's okay because it is supposed to be bad. (ie do a rocks fall everyone dies moment or write campy and cliche - it can be fun.)

 

Anyway that is my typical types of block and their remedies. Also while hard to find I swear by the book "Writers Block and How to Use It" by Victoria Nelson. That book taught me loads about writing and writers block, a lot of what I've typed above came from the book. I recommend the book to any writer, particularly those suffering from writers block!

[Professor McGonagall]

Nowadays, unless I've seen a particularly smashing film or read a good fanfic, I just sort of middle around and I'm mostly in planning rather than writing mode unfortunately. I think it's best for me to set up the background, the headcanon, before I even start to write. But that just leads to a ton of headache. For instance, I spent close to 2 hours trying to find easy to use software so I could write up around 20 wizarding families and see where they'd be connected just so I could figure out who would inherit this one seat out of around 150 in a Wizengamot... I cannot 'just write'. I have to plan endlessly.

[nott theodore]

I feel like I'm trying to get over a period of writer's block that's been going on for ~4 years now, so this thread is my place, apparently

(I know I've written stories in that time, I just haven't been writing the way that I want to in that time, if that makes any sense?)

For me, the advice of "just write" only works in very specific circumstances.  Sometimes, if I'm just feeling a bit frustrated about a particular part of the story, then pushing through that part until I can write past it and go back to edit later can be really helpful.  Competitions (*cough House Cup cough*) can also be useful for getting my muse going, because I think my competitive side is clearly more forceful than my uncooperative inspiration.

At other times, though, trying to force writing just makes me miserable.  If I sit in front of a blank page or screen for hours and can't even come up with a few sentences that I'm pleased with, I end up even more frustrated with writing than I was before.  I don't have a way to get through that feeling quickly (see the 4 years mentioned above) but I have decided that I want to write when it's making me happy, instead of trying to force it too much.  If anyone else has suggestions for getting out of it (or specifically, getting into other projects after a long time without something long-term) then I'd love to hear them, though!

[shadowycorner]

23 hours ago, nott theodore said:

For me, the advice of "just write" only works in very specific circumstances.  Sometimes, if I'm just feeling a bit frustrated about a particular part of the story, then pushing through that part until I can write past it and go back to edit later can be really helpful.  Competitions (*cough House Cup cough*) can also be useful for getting my muse going, because I think my competitive side is clearly more forceful than my uncooperative inspiration.

At other times, though, trying to force writing just makes me miserable.  If I sit in front of a blank page or screen for hours and can't even come up with a few sentences that I'm pleased with, I end up even more frustrated with writing than I was before.  I don't have a way to get through that feeling quickly (see the 4 years mentioned above) but I have decided that I want to write when it's making me happy, instead of trying to force it too much.  If anyone else has suggestions for getting out of it (or specifically, getting into other projects after a long time without something long-term) then I'd love to hear them, though!

Haha, so true about the HC inspiration. Your Inspirobot shorts all look awesome, by the way.

I also agree that 'just write' sounds way easier than it is. I have to have a prompt, or something, but like...if I'm not in the right head space, if I'm feeling really bad, just writing doesn't help, it only makes me feel worse. I wish I could use writing as a healing mechanism, but that also has to start somewhere, before the 'just write' phase. My suggestion would be to revisit some of your older projects you were happy with (i'm sure there have to be a lot ), read through them and consider what you like about them, remember why it was so enjoyable to write this. If you don't like it, maybe it will inspire you to write something better.

Or if there's a project you haven't written but always planned to, look at all them notes and little bits and pieces you've written try writing it again. If it doesn't work, it's okay, there's always a next time for that. i literally have three different projects, re-visited like 3-4 times during the last ten years, but alas, I'm still not ready.

But re-reading Memory Dust on one of the websites it was posted on after I got a stray and very random nice review for it after four years made me read it and think...huh, I mean, it could've been better, I'd fix this and this and that, but overall I like what I was doing here, and I remember having so much fun with it, I kinda miss it and want to do it again. And it can really snowball from there :)

[GotNoJamsss]

I feel like the odd-one-out in this thread, but I'd say that most of my stories come from 'just write.' I almost have to just get something on the page for me to get anything on the page if that makes sense. I think it's because I'm an awful planner and 9/10 times I don't have a plan when I write. I just sort of...write. Then I go back and refine things until my eyes bleed and that's when the real connections start and the consistent voice comes through. 

If I don't really know where to take the story I literally just start writing a paragraph about what I want the chapter to cover, almost as if I'm describing it to someone, sort of a stream of consciousness.

Quick Bright Things Example: Chapter 01 - Lily is woken up. The person who wakes her up is annoyed and she's annoyed that he's annoyed. She finally gets out of the bed and realizes that she's in the wrong place. There's an awkward moment. She notices the stuff in the room and figures out she's in Lysander's bedroom - damn her and her attraction to quidditch players. They fight about why he's rushing her away; could intro some of her past baggage here. Why is he rushing her away? Does he have somewhere to go? Is someone coming over? Maybe he has a girlfriend already? Yeah that's probably it. Then they flirt a bit, but then he's like nah and that really pisses her off so she storms off. It's gotta end with some sort of mutual appreciation/respect though. 

Usually that's enough to inspire me and I write pieces of the dialogue or internal bits/descriptions and start to build out from there, other times I just leave that and move on to the next chapter. It's fun to go back and look at how close to the original framework some of these chapters/stories are. That QBT example is actually spot on. 

I also find (for multi-chapter fics) going back and reading earlier chapters really helps to get inspired.