Got writers block?

[dustinzgirl]

I found this site very interesting:

http://www.sff.net/people/LisaRC/

This is probably my favorite quote from there:

[SIZE=+0]The curse of the talented. Once you know you're good, it's hard not to think that somehow, in some way you should be better. And from better, it is really only a small hop, skip and jump right over into the realm of best and even perfect. And herein lies the trap -- because if everything you get down on paper could be better, then it's also easy to fall into the fallacy that nothing you've done is really good enough. And the gap between not good enough and best is pretty hard to bridge first thing in the morning, even with a cup of really good coffee in your hand.

[/SIZE][SIZE=+0]I rathere like that because I always get stuck thinking that I can make it better, that it should be better....
[/SIZE]

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Yes, I've heard it said there is one sure-fire cure for writers block: lower your standards.

My fear has always been, what if they stay low after that?

 

[Culhwch]

I expect all my work to be execrable. Hasn't helped me get past writer's block....

 

[FelineEyes]

Someone on here...and I don't remember who, though I am greatful to them...sent me to an article written by an author that talked about writer's block. She said there is only one true kind of writer's block...the kind where you stare at the page wanting to write, but you just can't...there are no words in your head to put down on paper. She also said at that point you should probably find a shrink 'cause something else might be halting your ability to write. Like depression or something similar.

 

[LeoCrow]

My opinion on writer's block is that it usually happens when you try to force yourself to write,without really have the desire to write. so you get stressed about it and then you get terrified. you think that you cannot write so that fear takes over your writing abilities. so you probably should just smell the flowers for a while,take a break and try writting when you feel like it. don't force it! this website has that cause for writer's block listed last but i think that may be the most important reason

 

[the_faery_queen]

when i get stuck, i edit. i try and do something different. or i write down why im stuck, usually on live journal. i would write out the entire problem, and i find that often gives me an idea. but when i am totally stuck, with no ideas and nothing to weite, i play sims i find i can always manage to write a sim story. it's not the same, it's just silly, but it's still writing, so i still feel im doing something.

i always think thngs can be improved on. i edited my novel so often to get it perfect. now i just wait for it to click. to be good enough that it doesn't niggle at me for being bad. then it's ok. i try not to overdo things because that can actually make it stiff and ruin it.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

She also said at that point you should probably find a shrink 'cause something else might be halting your ability to write. Like depression or something similar.

This is exactly right -- although I would have said see a medical doctor and then a shrink, because the problem could be physical, like uncontrolled diabetes, or anemia. If you can make it go away as easily as some people think it's not writers block, any more than feeling unhappy during a period of stress is clinical depression. All those cures that people mention work well for when the creative flow is a little sluggish, but they won't do anything for a genuine block.

And as I keep saying, it's a symptom not a disease. The disease is likely to be something far more tangible, but if you don't recognize it and treat it you may be in for a long, long period of frustration.

 

[Rosemary]

Writing can also be a good outlet for those suffering from clinical depression. Teresa. Perhaps not up to publishing standards but suprisingly well thought out stories.

I have obviously not been smelling the flowers enough, so will just continue to plod along until the creativity starts to flow!

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

My experience of depression is that it stifles the words so that even writing up a grocery list can be a real chore -- it may manifest itself in different ways for different people, I don't know.

But we were talking about writers block, not writing-as-therapy, and what I said still stands. If you cannot write over an extended period of time (this only applies to people who ordinarily do write, of course), then it's time to consult a doctor and try to find out what else is wrong.

 

[Riven]

Yes, I've heard it said there is one sure-fire cure for writers block: lower your standards.

That something you tell yourself all the time, but for me, and I dont know if anyone else feels this way, when I'm writing something, even though I write for my enjoyment most of the time, I ususally start thinking that, if by some miracle this was to be published I start thinking that I need to make every sentence as fluent and flowing as possible so the reader can enjoy the story to its fullest, and that causes me to go into fits where I'll write something, and from my perspective I dont think works good enough and so I delete it and start over again, or it causes insane fits of writers block and lowers my self confidence in story telling.

Were it not for this, I might have completed one of my novels by now and not have half a dozen notebooks lying around with plots, characters and other such information for stories @_@

That message though, I am going to save and have handy at all times.

 

[SpaceShip]

A piece of advice I was given to try to stop writer's block from attacking in the first place was to always finish your day's writing in the middle of a chapter - never at the end. That way, you will be itching to get back to finish it and ideas for finishing it will be swimming in your mind until you get on with it. Obviously, once you've done that bit, you finish in the middle of the next chapter. So far, for me, it works.

 

[j d worthington]

A piece of advice I was given to try to stop writer's block from attacking in the first place was to always finish your day's writing in the middle of a chapter - never at the end. That way, you will be itching to get back to finish it and ideas for finishing it will be swimming in your mind until you get on with it. Obviously, once you've done that bit, you finish in the middle of the next chapter. So far, for me, it works.

It has been noted that something similar was used by no few of the pulp hounds. In fact, according to some sources, Lester Dent (who often wrote under the house name of Kenneth Robeson, and who wrote the majority of the Doc Savage stories) had the trick of stopping in the middle of a sentence, whether to go to the bathroom, have a lunch, break for the day, etc., in order to pick up again in motion, as it were. Whether this is actually accurate, I can't say, but if so, it certainly worked for him, as Dent was one of the most prolific of the pulp writers ... and eventually overcame a great deal of the restrictions of the pulp formulas and wrote some fine stories in his career.

 

[dustinzgirl]

Unfortunately I am cursed with a disorder that goes along with my ADHD called Hyper-focusing disorder. I zone in and it can be hours, sometimes days before I can pull back. well, that was until I had KIDS! lol.