Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Fanfic Related Writer's Block

Any of you writers ever hit a wall in your story?
Ever run into a writer's block the size of a...of a...something very big?
(see what I mean?!)

Where do the words go? And why don't they string together anymore? And what is the cure??

Ideas, comments, curses-- I'll take them.

Thanks for indulging me,

CC

There are lots of different cures for writer's block, but all of them require the one thing you wish it wouldn't - time.

Putting it away for a while and working on something else (something completely different in tone) can help. Or putting it away, period. A brisk walk or some other form of exercise might do the trick, or a baking session with your kids (if you have any ) - in short, anything that has absolutely nothing to do with the writer's block you're struggling to overcome! Distraction is the key, I've always found.

Another excellent method is going somewhere without pencil or paper or handheld or any other kind of recording implement. The perfect scene is sure to flash into your mind then.

Good luck, either way! We await your triumph with bated breath.

Hazel

I've definitely hit writer's block. Personally, I've discovered two kinds. The first kind is when I know what I want to say, but everything I type sounds stupid - I can't manage to spit the right words out onto the paper or screen. In this case, I sometimes have to either skip that particular section or close up that particular story altogether. I either work on something else or go watch TV or read a good book. Take a break.

The second type of writer's block for me is just a lack of desire to write at all - kind of a creative lull where I can't get motivated to write anything. I just plain don't feel like writing. This is a bit harder because I've been told by so many writers that they key to becoming a good writer is to write every day. The good thing is that this mood has always passed within a few days.

I had a teacher tell me that the way to combat writer's block is to sit down at your computer and just start typing. Anything. Pick up a book and start copying the stuff out off the pages on to your screen. A passage from Shakespeare. The latest Danielle Steele book. Anything at all that forces you to fill up a blank screen. And in that process, your own juices may start to flow. The scariest thing a writer faces is a white sheet of paper (or a blank document file), so having anything in front of you may help you get over that.

This same teacher also introduced me to the "What if..." game. Start asking "what if" questions and answer them. For example: What if Clark discovered that Lois had given a baby up for adoption when she was in college? What if Lois found a piece of glowing blue rock and showed it to Clark? And what if that blue rock made Clark start laughing convulsively? What if Perry sent Lois and Clark out to investigate the newest trend of cross-dressing nightclubs and Clark had to go undercover as a cross dresser? You get the idea. Within your own story, pick up where you got stuck and start writing a whole bunch of "what if" scenarios until one strikes you.

Or another way is to brainstorm - pick a friend and start to toss crazy ideas around. It's amazing how well this works - ideas just start popping out all over the place. This usually works best in some kind of open dialogue - IRC or some kind of Instant Messaging - otherwise you lose momentum.

Hope one of these ideas helps. I'm currently in my writer's block Type 2/Creative lull mode myself <g>. Thus my long-winded answer here!

Lynn

The first thing to accept is that it happens to everyone. No matter who you are - Jane Austen, Stephen King, Catherine Cookson, Jeffrey Deaver, you name it...they all suffered from writer's block at one time or another. I have never heard any L&C fanfic writer claim they've never had writer's block either. I've certainly had it, lots of times.

Great solutions so far from Hazel and Lynn, and I'd definitely endorse them. Starting with putting aside the story you're working on and writing something else: I've done that plenty of times and that's how I now have a few completed stories with an author's note beginning something like 'this story has lurked on my HD unfinished for almost three years'. It happens; you sometimes just run out of inspiration on a particular story and it may help to write something different and come back to it later. If it helps, CC, I think I have only one story on my HD that I'm pretty sure I'll never finish; other WIPs I've left either did get finished or will be in the near-ish future.

Another tactic I've used a few times is to skip ahead. Do you know where you want to go in the story in question? Is there a scene you've been dying to write, but you can't seem to get the stuff before it filled in? I have no idea if you're a 'linear writer' or if, like some (LabRat being a classic example ) you write scenes as and when they occur to you, regardless of where they appear in the story. I'm a linear writer, but have occasionally jumped ahead to write a scene which fascinates me, and then I often find that I can somehow see my way to filling in the blanks afterwards.

Hazel mentioned brainstorming, and that's something I really recommend. Do you have a beta-reader currently? I know LabRat BRed TTW/ABA for you. BRs can be terrific at helping to iron out seemingly-insoluble problems. They're also hugely useful in either pinpointing just what was nagging you about a particular scene (eg something not quite working), or reassuring you that something you think is awful is really very, very good. My own BRs are absolutely fantastic at that, and it's immensely helpful, if you've got blocked because you think what you've written is dragging and uninteresting, to be told that actually it's pretty darned good. (Or to be given some fantastic suggestions as to how to make it better).

For me, one of the best ways of brainstorming is on IRC, and I'm sure lots of writers would agree. I know you've resisted IRCing, CC, but maybe once in a while, if it'd help you overcome your block, it couldn't hurt? If you arrange to meet your BR online, you can chat privately - or you could arrange to meet a few people in a private channel, and brainstorm there.

But above all, remember that you're not alone, and it will pass.


Wendy

Hi CC: Since I live perpetually with writer's block, I think I'm eminently qualified to post something here. Trouble is, if I had a sure cure, I wouldn't live with perpetual writer's block.

You've been given some excellent advice above. Different things work at different times. I suffer from every kind of block there is from not being able to get started to getting bogged down and not knowing where to go to fearing that whatever I wrtie will be so awful even I won't be able to stomach it. Because I have to think about what I want to write and won't begin until I know the beginning and the end before I set down a word, sitting and typing at the computer is a waste of time for me. Two things seem to work best: taking long solitary walks in a beautiful, peaceful environment and forgetting all about writing anything and starting some kind of project like cleaning out cupboards or organizing my office. Unfortunately these 'fixes' don't work very quickly. Right now I have two projects that have been nagging me for over a year. I wrote It's a Thing He Does at Parties and The Portrait to avoid both of them. Hey, that sounds like another way around writer's block! Forget the story you can't write, and write another one.

Have patience and don't push it. When your mind is ready, the story will come.

Jude

Or if you are really worried about the time-sucker that IRC can be, and/or only want to chat with one or two people -- try AIM or MSN Messenger.

Yes.

Cure... re read some of your older works/chapters....

Just walk around and try to get the conversations started in your head... when something 'right' happens, it will flow.

Writer's block = story of my life. Well, all right, it hasn't always been so, but it's something I've got used to over the years. I haven't been able to write a long, fully-developed story in over two years, because every time I try I hit writer's block at one point or another.

The solutions that the other suggested are great to go through lack of ideas. I'm particularly fond of brainstorming. What's harder to fight is when you know where you want to go, you know how you want to get there, but you can't get the words onto the screen. Then, there's something I've experienced which works really well: get your BR to write a couple of lines for you, to get you started again. It helps in a tremendous manner.

What I haven't managed to fight fully yet is lack of enthusiasm for writing. Brainstorming is still the best solution as far as I've experienced, but sometimes even that doesn't always solve that kind of writer's block.

Kaethel (going back to fight her blank page)

Erm...



Yup, CC sent me this one some time back and, yup, I'm supposed to be helping, and, yup, I swear I came in here to peruse the mbs just before opening up the file, beta reading it and getting it back to you before the end of the evening, CC.

Honest!

Interesting advice so far! Lynn, I'd often heard the 'just type' method recommended, but it's never worked for me. However, I'd never heard that variation of typing something other than from your own head - from a book or whatever. I might just give that a go, see if it makes a difference.

Right, enough of this. Off to try and get my brain in gear and see what this huge problem is all about. <G>

LabRat

CC, this is a great topic. I have to admit it is also rather timely for me. At the moment, I am suffering from some cruel sort of writer's block. Especially cruel because today is a snow day. It would be nice if I were spending it writing, but no. Anyway, everyone so far has given very good advice and has said many of the things I would suggest. Brainstorming with a BR is often very helpful, as is doing a different fic while you're stuck on one. (I've employed that idea many times. Usually it works, sometimes not.) Then there's time. This has most often been a good solution for me, but I don't like it as well because I'm not so patient with writing!

I must say my favorite way to get rid of writer's block is by brainstorming with my BRs or at IRC. Not only do you get to brainstorm, but you get to do it in good company.

The biggest thing to remember, CC, is that it happens to all of us. It is frustrating and all, but everyone understands. Just don't push yourself too hard. And get back to writing already! Okay, now I'm being silly. Good luck!

Jana (who is off to try some of the suggestions in this thread)

Lab - this advice came to me from a writer who had had her first book published and sat down to write her second book. She was seized with a paralyzing terror that her first success was simply a total fluke and that she'd never again be able to write anything - an affliction she claims strikes most newly published authors faced with writing the next book.

Anyway, her fellow-writer friend gave her the advice to just start typing anything at all - her grocery list, a news article, anything - so she sat down with the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet and started to transcribe it. During the process, she got the idea for her two new characters to perform a scene in a play and her writer's block was broken. The second book has since been published, and within it is a scene that makes references to Romeo and Juliet!

I haven't yet tried this technique, but I imagine if I'm ever faced with insurmountable writer's block, I'll give it a try <g>.

And I fully agree with Wendy regarding the advice to skip ahead. I am completely unable to write in a pure linear fashion - some scenes are too exciting to wait to get to. My biggest writer's block usually comes when I have to actually link scenes together and fill in the missing "from here to there" scenes.

Lynn

Here are my "cures" for writer's block. I actually have to do this for a living.. so leaving stuff for extended periods is not usually an option...

1) Read something beautiful. It will start the words fitting together in your head.
2) Don't try to make it good. Editing is easier than writing, so once you get it down, you can fix it tomorrow.
3) Take a bath. Go for a walk. Take a BRIEF break. The way around the structural problem will probably present itself. Then repeat steps 1 and 2.

Allie

This has all been so helpful and really interesting, too. A big fat thank you for all of your generous responses.

Randomly strung together thoughts to follow-

About the mindless, something other exercise. Jude's kitchen cabinets or Lab's bath. This is a good one. For me it's raking the leaves. (Sadly, all the leaves have now fallen. Perhaps I should spread them back out again?) Just doing something repetitive that doesn't require any higher thinking sometimes makes stories fall into my head. The other thing- where I spend half my life- is the carpool line at oldest kids' school. It works in two ways. First, it is absolutely mindless. And second, I generally don't have any way to write down what comes to me, just as Hazel said. I found Dr. Klein there, though, when I despaired of him ever showing up for my last story. His very few lines were all that I had left in a hundred pages, but because I couldn't "hear" him, I was stuck. So where does he start talking? Carpool. I sped home through the cow pastures (the cows are used to this) to get him down.

Another thing that no one mentioned is a deadline. Once upon a time there was nothing like a little panic-inducing "it has to be done no later than" to get me moving! There was no tweaking and no tinkering, just writing and that was it. Anyone out there want to volunteer to be my stern school marm? (Wait...do we have a FoLC who goes by that name? nevermind..)

Now, Labby, who has pulled me out of more than one corner into which I had written myself, is a brilliant BR. I get the brainstorming concept. When I couldn't figure out how to hide a villian in plain sight, she was right there, invisibilty cloak and all.

Her contributions notwithstanding, I guess what I'm really curious about is why I seem to have gone so quiet. That's what all of the above ramble boils down to. Inside my head- it's just me, no voices. (Does that sound crazy, or do you writer types know what I mean?) Like I look inside, and there's nothing- just tumbleweeds and the sound of the whistling wind.

I really appreciate that I am not alone in this. Nothing nicer to hear than 'been there, done that,' or 'I know just what you mean.'

Thanks everyone for all of the good suggestions. And the sympathy was such a nice bonus!

CC (who is off to organize her kitchen, bake with her kids, take a walk, have a soak, read something beautiful...hey, actually, that all sounds really good! I think I'll just let Labby finish the fic.)

I get that way too - am that way right now and am blaming it on post-Holiday blues. I'm figuring (hoping, praying) it will be short lived!

Meanwhile, why don't you (and I) try watching some of our old favorite epis? Maybe an LnC marathon? That might be all it takes - to see something and start thinking "what would have happened if Clark had chosen one of the other costumes his mom had made and his name hadn't become Superman?"

Good luck!
Lynn

Oh, totally agree, Lynn! This is my worst problem - filling in the stuff between the exciting, juicy scenes I've wanted to write since the story first popped into my head. So I cheat and jump ahead when I'm really stuck. The good news is that some of the filling-in stuff between the juicy scenes can actually turn out to be the best parts of the story. Just let your mind go into free fall and it's amazing what emerges at times.

Otherwise, I think I've tried just about every suggestion on this thread. They all work - but of course, you never know which one will work the best at any given time, which isn't really fair, is it? <g>

The other thing to do is not to fret about the block. I mean, we're doing this for fun, right? So what if you haven't got a single idea in your head right now? You know you've had ideas in the past, and the chances are pretty high that you'll get some more in the future. So just sit back, relax, and when you least expect it, a new idea will hit you smack between the eyes. Trust me.

Yvonne

Brainstorming works wonderfully for me. As a matter of fact, I'm part of a Yahoo group where we post chapters of stories we're writing when we need a little help. Everyone reads and then just throws out ideas. Usually something will get things clicking. It's the group dynamics and taking off the filters that works so well.

Sometimes it's not writers block, but rather an emotional block because of some curve that life has thrown you way. You may just need to step away for a while. And hopefully when you return, you'll use the lessons you learned to further your writing.

Good luck.

Been there, done that. Like Wendy said, some stories have gone half-finished for *years* before I realize what I could do with them next.

CC, I don't know if your carpool line is like the one at my kids' school -- for ours, you pretty much have to show up a half an hour before school lets out if you want any chance of getting your kids before half an hour *after* school lets out. Which leaves lots of time for sitting in the car. My favorite trick is to carry a notebook (about 8 inches by 5 inches) in my purse -- that way, I can use "dead" time like waiting in lines. Just the guilty knowledge that the notebook was there helped me get started writing again, last spring <g> My handwriting's not the greatest, but I can read it. Usually

And yes, I know exactly what you mean about the voices inside your head.

PJ

Pam,

Even though we live in different states, it sounds like we sit in the very same carpool.

Yes, writing longhand there is a very good idea, otherwise there is nothing to do but placate the two-year old and think once again how much easier it would be if I could just...you know...fly down and scoop up the kids and off we'd go....(sigh, this really may be the root of the Superman obsession- the ultimate time-saving device)

Also, though we are in different states, we share a time zone. What the heck are you doing up in the middle of the night helping me with writer's block? Go to bed, woman!

CC (still really appreciative of all the good thoughts here)

Bad cold. Can't breathe. Can't sleep. <sigh>

PJ

Funny. We have that same carpool . . .



Hope you're feeling better, Pam!

/me emails Pam some chicken soup