When you hit a Block

[Pamela Jo]

When training a horse it turns out methods aren't as important as simply time spent doing it. Same thing goes with writing, IMHO. The more time I spend writing the better I become, and the more gets done. So this thread is about tips to avoid a block you feel coming on before it turns into a Titanic sized iceberg. Or how to get out of a stone cold block if you are frozen in one. If you have had an experience that got you back in the chair and writing please share. If you have anything to add please do. Share on this thread and you could be the hero that rescues someone else.

This is an interesting little video and you don't even have to have ADHD for it to be useful.

 

[CageSage]

Loved the vid.
My tip for breaking through for a writer -- it's not about you!

I'm not the writer - the character is the writer and I'm the acter taking on the role of communicating for them, something similar to method acting, but for writing.
I have to do it for them, or they die ... so to speak.

 

[Barbara]

Now, if only I saw a block coming. I'm usually so deep in the writing, that I never see it and smash head first into the wall.

Sometimes, I panic about it. Other times I manage to keep calm and re-focus on the scene in front of me. I ask myself: 'what does the scene need to achieve? What's its overall effect / goal? What odes the protag want in this bit?' That often unlocks things.

Come to think of it, I'm currently experiencing a block (and panicking about it). I shall go and ask those questions.

 

[Hannah F]

I let the character(s) tell the story. It doesn't matter if they go off on a tangent for a while. The tangent may become a new direction or may get edited out, but sometimes the characters need space to breathe too.

 

[Vagabond Heart]

Heya
I know I keep banging on about this, but writing on blue paper really works.
The extraordinary thing about writing is that every single sentence we compose never existed before. Same thing with art and music etc. They are all acts of creation.
So each time we pick up a pen/hover our fingers over the keyboard, we are creating something unique - from nothing.
This works fine when we’ve been mulling it over all the time we were doing the washing up etc., but there’s always a point where we go, ‘right, what next?’
And that’s where the blue paper comes in handy.
Blue stimulates the creative side of the brain (red - the logical/practical one), so this gives you a leg-up when you hit the ‘what now?’ bit. Your brain is already filtering through its creative side, and you’re more likely to be able to move on with something unexpected and satisfying.
Takes about 20 minutes to really kick in with me, so try it and see how it works for you.

And this is one of those weird science things, like how you can walk on custard, and is not to do with people’s emotional response to different colours (cos that changes according to what country you live in, apparently).

 

[Hannah F]

Doesn't work for me. I have a slight blue colour-blindness. The only writing I can easily read on blue paper is white, but writing in white does my head in. Then again, I don't really get writers' block. If I'm staring at a blank screen, I just get out my notepad and pen and write longhand (in fact, I do most of my first drafts longhand) and tell myself it doesn't matter how good/bad it is. Once the words are there, changes can be made. Writers' block is fear. Or juggling too many of life's plates. If it's the latter, reduce the number of plates first. If it's the former, tell yourself, you're the only one who needs to read your very first draft. And your characters won't tell anyone what you've written until you want them to.

 

[Pamela Jo]

Loved the vid.
My tip for breaking through for a writer -- it's not about you!

I'm not the writer - the character is the writer and I'm the acter taking on the role of communicating for them, something similar to method acting, but for writing.
I have to do it for them, or they die ... so to speak.

Nice one.

 

[Josephine]

writing on blue paper

Ooh intriguing! Might try this...

 

[CageSage]

other things that may help:

• Interview the characters
• Write a chain of events (a cause and effect chain) then fill in the emo and transitions (even if it 's just scribbles, it helps keep the focus on the character's journey)
• Rewrite the previous scene in full without looking at it, while keeping in mind what the next logical step is (and then change the next step to something that's a twist, ie look at Kung Fu Panda and see all the places where the audience expectation of what's going to happen next against what actually happens, including, right at the beginning the shadow of his father, and the soup he hands over with the exclamation, "careful, that soup's ... sharp.")
• Imagine you're a famous writer and you're helping a friend get through a rough patch in a story, and then listen/write down the advice you'd offer re the story.

...

 

[Robinne Weiss]

I often skip over the offending block to a place further on in the story that I can write. Later I find it much easier to go back and fill in the gap (in fact, a lot of the time, I realise I don't need to--I was blocked because there was nothing interesting to write between the current scene and the next one I had planned).

I also always have at least two projects on the go at once. When I'm blocked on one, I work on the other. By the time I return, my brain's usually worked through the block and I can get on with the work.

 

[Pamela Jo]

OK, this is about horses, but a lot of middle-aged women and men want to get into horses as they dreamed of when they were kids. It goes for writing too. You have the right to be a learner and you have the right to be in the game. From a horse trainer. "
You have every right to be here -
I had a few teachers and folks I worked with who after leaving, I felt about two inches tall. They made it pretty clear I had no business training and might as well take my shingle down. One told me I was too mentally unstable to train (when I cried after they insulted me), and another told me I was too much of a coward to be a good colt starter (after riding and coming off a horse they personally would not get on either).
I’m not telling you this for your sympathy. I’m telling you because I know you can relate. My students say things like this every day: “oh I’m not good enough to do that.” Their shrinking posture and wobbly voice reminds me of a mental place I’ve been myself.
For years after those experiences, I wanted to hide. I was scared to train but needed to make a living. Scared those people would come after me, scared they would criticize my work, scared that people might see how poor my work was and that I didn’t deserve to be here.
Many of my students can relate in some ways: they’ve been told they didn’t have it, they weren’t good at this, to give up. Someone else’s insecurities projected on them made them feel like shrinking away - hiding into the background, wanting to ask questions but afraid to get yelled at.
What doesn’t kill you sometimes makes you stronger, but sometimes it gives you wicked insecurity and unhealthy coping mechanisms.
If that’s you, I want you to know that you deserve to be here. You deserve to learn and be treated with respect. Your struggling to learn is the same as everyone else’s’ struggling - learning is just hard, there’s nothing wrong with you. You’re not doing better or worse than anyone else - everyone around you is having a hard time, they just might not let on as much.
You deserve to learn! It’s really scary to make that leap again, to put yourself out there when it has not gone well. But it can be so worth it!