Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Fanfic Related writers block

For the first time in a really looong time, I have time to write. And although I have some older projects already started, I am completely blocked!

I've been re-reading my older work, reading fanfic, watching tapes of my favorite shows and even making myself sit in front of my computer to work but nothing seems to help.

What do you do to inspire the creative process?


Joan

I HATE writers block. I spent much of the last three years struggling with it. Interestingly enough, the onset of my most severe writers block coincided with a plant-closure-related job change. It's not a coincidence that first I didn't have time to write, then I couldn't find the words.

My advice is to do your very best to write your way through it. But try to stay away from any story of size. It can be too easy to get bogged down. Work on shorter, simpler pieces that you can finish in a few days. If you really feel strongly motivated to work on anything longer, go ahead. But if you find yourself stopping for a few days, then set it aside and go back to shorts.

My new job is far more time consuming than my old one and I am still fighting with this issue. What I describe here is what I am doing myself. I have had some success with this approach, but the jury remains out.

Bob

Not sure whether anything I have to say will help, but FWIW, I don't even try to work through writer's block. Professional writers have to do that, but I'm strictly amateur. My philosophy is that my fanfic writing is supposed to be a stress relief; trying to write when nothing is coming would only add to the already ample stress in my life. So if I have writer's block, I simply back off from writing until I am inspired again.

FWIW, I usually get my best ideas when I'm in the twilight zone between sleep and wakefulness. That's the time when my imagination roams freely without being hampered by logic. I also tend to get my worst ideas then, too, for the very same reason, but those don't generally find their way to my keyboard -- or if they do, they do so as so-bad-they're-humorous stories-within-stories. Lois's story in "The First Fanfic" and the Clark's-first-flight bit from "With Apologies to Female Hawk" being prime examples thereof. So I guess my advice to you would be to try taking a nap and seeing whether sleeping on it helps. Think about the characters -- perhaps rewatch your favourite scenes in your head -- while you are drifting off to sleep, in order to "prime the pump."

FWIW, I've read that some professional writers, who don't have the luxury of choosing not to write when they don't feel like it, force themselves to write a certain number of words a day. They won't leave their keyboard until they do. A lot of the times, they consider their output to be total garbage, at least at first, but if they keep at it, their garbage-writing gives them ideas for something better.

Good luck getting over the writer's block.

Joy,
Lynn

Believe it or not, I'm no stranger to Writer's Block myself. When my daughter (my first child) was born, I stopped writing for a good five years. I have the Archive and LnC:NAoS to thank . I was trying to come up for a reason why there would be a dimension without a Clark for Alt-Clark to move to (again it started out as a backstory for Book 2: Wrong Dimension, Wrong Time, Wrong Clark). "Superman What?" came from something my son said. "Once Upon A Dream" was my attempt at taking one of my old stories and making it into a LnC story. "First Kiss" was my attempt at writing pure WAFF. Okay... now, I've completely gone off on a tangent. Anyway, my point is that inspiration can come from anywhere.

Keep an open mind and let yourself be inspired by anything or everything, and if not inspired, enjoy the ride.

If I get writer's block while working on a long story (such as my current Soap Opera), I take a break, catch up on my FDK, catch up on "Bones" (S7), or my new addiction "Once Upon A Time". Sometimes, I'll try writing the scene from a different POV. If it isn't working from Lois's, will it work better from Clark's, or Cat's? Once in a blue moon, I actually realize I'm just rambling and cut the scene completely (Cat Grant's Christmas Party, for example). Sometimes, I skip the scene for now and move on to the next one and see if it was really important to write the scene at all or if I can just allude to the key points later (as I did with Grant's Christmas Party in Part 86). Maybe, someday, I'll go back and flesh out the party scene and add it into the Archive version (what's one more part when the story already knocking ML on it's heels, right?)

I keep two notebooks (actually three ) for writing in when I'm not on the computer. One for my current story, one for Book 3 (which I technically haven't worked on in 6 months because I don't want to lose focus on Book 2), and one on short story inspirations. I've got an Nfic story sitting there, I haven't finished because I could never find an ending. Next time I get stuck in WC mud, I'll probably bust it out, type it up and see if I can make anything from it.

Okay, I see I'm rambling again. Check out the Challenges folder and for a writing exercise, pick a challenge at random and see if you can make it work. I suggest: Take one of the revelations from the 100 Revelations Thread and see what you come up with if Lois had discovered Clark's secret during one of the 100 times he revealed himself to her without her noticing.

Remember, it's just a writing exercise. It isn't a Pulitzer. It's just to stretch your muscles. Maybe it will end up in the circular file. Maybe it will end up posting on the boards. Maybe, just maybe, you'll have a Kerth in 2014. Good luck!

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far, away, I took a course on "how to write" from a prominent science fiction author who I was a fan of at the time. Funny, I can't even remember his name now.
Anyway, the course was good and fun. There were about 25 of us in the room.
He said, basically, everyone is different and how you go about the process is unique to you. Doesn't sound like much help, does it?
But, he said when he is stuck, he gets up and cleans his house. The rote work frees his mind and it wanders into different worlds. He also loves ironing and that helped him think of something.
Needless to say, he was a bachelor.
So for someone with a family, that might not work.
Sometimes movies and TV spark inspiration.
Take a reality show. What if Superman somehow got wrangled into being on one. Seems to me somebody wrote a story on that, or that was part of one.
Most short stories start with "what if".
Good luck
Artemis

Thanks so much for all your responses! I'm just frustrated. Usually I have lots of ideas and no time, instead of the complete opposite.

Bobbart

That's a good idea. While I have projects I started a while back, they're not going to be short stories. Actually finishing something would be motivating.


Lynn

I hear you. In the past, this has happened for me, especially on the weekends.

That's something else I've thought about doing. I was making myself work for an hour but came up with all sorts of distractions. Just getting any words down might help 'prime the pump'.

VirginiaR

I am surprised given how many stories you've written. But I ran into the same thing when the kids were small. Lack of sleep really kills your creativity. I can't especially claim that now.


Very true. You've got to start somewhere.

Artemis

That does make sense - the idea of engaging your mind in some other fashion. I've been doing more of my quilting but maybe I need to tackle some other project to 'reset' my mind.

Thanks again!

Joan

The mundane tasks theory certainly always worked for me. I think it's one of those perverse laws of nature. The more you focus on being blocked, the more blocked you'll be. But switch off, let your mind wander as you wash dishes or clean the bathroom and you'll suddenly be hit with an idea.

LabRat :-)

I get my best ideas from walking the dog around midnight or early in the morning. With my trusty iphone recording all my words. Most of the words never make it to fanfic, but the mere act of talking out a scene or becoming the character has gotten me out of a lot of 'box canyons' as KenJ would say.

This was how my story Cafe Americana came into being.

Hope this helps!

Some time ago I read about a mystery writer (now deceased) who wrote maybe eight novels in twenty years, which is not a very good rate. He supposedly made himself sit at his typewriter until he wrote a certain number of pages per day or eight hours passed, whichever came first. That means that he either typed at a snail's pace most of the time or spent a ghastly number of days staring at a blank page. He drank a lot, too, which condition might have been linked to the other.

Someone earlier mentioned the "circular file." Please do not throw away anything you write! The words may not make sense to you at the time, it may be total dreck when taken as a whole, but there are probably little nuggets of precious metal here and there in those words. If you keep your non-publishable stuff, eventually you'll find that you have an idea reservoir you can mine for anything from scene transitions to entire chapters. If you are a writer (and you wouldn't be asking about writer's block if you weren't), they'll come in handy later.

Another thing you can do is go back to a point where you know the story works and start reading aloud to yourself as if you were recording your story for books-on-tape. You'll find places where you smile just because of the beauty of what you've written. You'll also find places that make you want to gag because you suddenly realize how poorly you've written them. And when this happens, don't think you're a bad writer because of it. If you were a bad writer, you wouldn't be able to tell what was good and what was bad about your work.

Yet another way to push the boulder up the hill is to edit your story, and by that I mean take a machete to it and chop out everything that doesn't move the plot forward. (Remember to keep what you've cut, though; you'll find use for it later, in another story if not this one.) Be merciless, be cruel, be firm and unyielding. You may find that you're not the one who is blocked - your story is because it has too much extra "stuff" in it.

A more drastic way is to - gasp! - let someone else read it before you finish it! (Terrifying, I know.) Your alpha reader (because the story's not ready for beta yet) may suggest something or comment on something or just ask a question which will shake that stubborn muse loose from his/her/its comfortable nest and help you push the rock uphill.

This is, by no means, an exhaustive list. You could also go to your local library and check out a book or two on writing. Doesn't matter what the focus of the book might be, it will give you ideas if you're open to them. And just because a writer puts something in a book about writing doesn't mean that thing is the only way to get the writing done. Read, learn, digest, and let the information mature in your mind like a vintage wine or hearty Mountain Dew.

You could also read some of the writing magazines your library may have. If they don't, your local Barnes & Noble will gleefully sell them to you. Who knows? A subscription might be in your future. (The mystic muse knows all, sees all - wait, sorry, wrong thread.)

Hope this helps a bit. You're not the first to face this, and I guarantee you won't be the last. Shucks, I may ask you for advice on this subject some day.

I agree, Terry (with everything you said, but particularly this bit.) The best line you've ever written has to go if it doesn't fit into the story.

When I get stuck, I often watch a couple of LnC music vids. Just seeing the characters interact in some favourite scenes usually gets me writing again.

Corrina.

Terry is right on this one. NO MATTER HOW GREAT A LINE IS, IF IT DOESN"T FIT THE STORY...GET RID OF IT.

Save it in a file and use it for another story where it will no doubt be memorable.

The expression I have heard used to describe the painful process of editing out your favourite lines is "killing your darlings."

Joy,
Lynn

Thanks everyone! Those are good suggestions too.

Morgana

I don't have a dog (and my cats would object to walking) but I do love how walking can clear your head.

Terry Leatherwood

Good idea. It might not work for the present story but could be useful in future projects.

That's a good idea too, though not always easy to do.

I used to do this a lot but have gotten away from it. I tend to think I need to show a finished product. But if it could get things moving with these larger projects, it might be worth it.

Female Hawk

I'll have to try that.


BTW, I actually got a new idea yesterday for a L&C short story! Yea!

Joan