Workshop - Writer's Block 

 

I'm far from an expert writer. FAAAAAAR from. But, for whatever reason, I'm asked for advice on writing from time to time, and I'm always willing to just share what I know. I asked a handful of people, and they weren't opposed to the idea of me running a blog workshop, just giving little pointers on the things I do when I write. 

 

This kind of stuff might not apply to you at all, and like I said, I'm no expert. But I thought I'd give this workshop idea a try. First up, Writer's Block. 

 

A lot of people tend to ask me if there's some kind of be all and end all to the horrid curse of writer's block. 

 

The answer: no. There isn't. 

 

Writer's Block (WB) is one of those things that will plague everybody from time to time. Whether it's an essay for school, a fanfic, a document for work, or something else... It's gonna happen. 

 

WRITER'S BLOCK IS COMING FOR YOU. (Dun dun dunnn)

 

A couple of my friends on here think, for various reasons, that I don't get writers block. Not true. 

 

"But TOPcorn, you write one shots all the time! You can create stories in like an HOUR. That's not writer's block!"

 

Confession: I write one shots most frequently when I have WB for my multi chaps. When was the last time I updated some of my multichaps? Go have a look, you might be surprised. 

 

It's unavoidable sometimes, but there are a few things that I find are somewhat helpful. It's not a guarantee, but here are some of the things I do when I have a little cloud over my head, blocking my brain goo from functioning properly:

 

• don't force it - I found pretty early on that if I had WB, I would end up trying to FORCE the story to happen, and as a result, quality slipped. It was the same for if I rushed a story, or if I ran out of ideas, and I didn't bother with any semblance of plot or character development because I wanted everything done NOW, damn it. Take a breather from a story if you need to, and as difficult as it may be, DO NOT LET READERS PRESSURE YOU INTO UPDATING. Common mistake, and it tends to dishearten writers quite easily, because they feel they're letting people down by not updating. Your readers won't mind if it takes a bit longer for you to update if the quality is GOOD. Stick to your comfort zone when it comes to the speed of your updates. 

 

• Don't limit your writing options - Another common issue with WB is people thinking "I can't work on story b because story a needs to be updated first!" Wrong. If story b is nagging at you, if your writing flow is sticking with story b, then write story b. Your brain will often tell you what the right story to work on is, and you cannot always control that, so don't try to. You don't have to UPDATE story b first, but don't limit your own creativity. If you're writing a ToDae angst for example, but you just can't handle the feels and you keep leaning towards something sweet and cuddly, maybe write a fluffy ToDae oneshot to perk yourself up and come back to the angst when the mood is right. 

 

• Draw inspiration from things that are around you - You might not even have a story going. You might want to start a story, or you might have a basic idea, but no idea where to go with it, and that's ok. Once again, it's not a be all and end all solution, but you may find that simple things can inspire you when you're not really looking for it. I have literally lost count of the amount of chapters, or stories in total, or anything like that, that were inspired by listening to music. Listening to stories and applying them to characters, or adjusting them to situations that I know and love. If you're writing fics based on real people, you're essentially already doing this simply by imagining that you know these people. That by watching, listening, learning, you know stories and relationships and you just KNOW about things between person a and person b is more than friendship. 

 

Hint: ya don't. 

 

You don't KNOW this stuff, you've just taken visual and audio cues, and applied it how you saw fit. Keep doing that. Got a favourite song? Think of it applying to your bias. Got a movie plot that you really love? Imagine how your character would react differently. The more you think about these things and allow external influences to brush up on you, the easier things should flow. 

 

• Speak to others in the fandom - This is almost the same as above. I don't know how many times I've had chats with #teamtodae, and one of the crazy girls will be like "DID YOU SEE THIS HAPPEN?" And one of the others will reply "YES. I BET THIS HAPPENED BACKSTAGE" and we'll all giggle and theorise, and then my brain will go "Waaaaiiiit a minute... That's actually a good idea for a story." (Ask BlueJohnXD and diamondgurl88 about how I got carried away during the 'T-bulge' scenario at F1.) Conversations happen. You might find that quite a few authors will have stories where it says in the foreword: "So I was talking to _______ and..." Or "This was written originally on twitter based off of a conversation that _______ and I had". It's no coincidence. 

 

• Prompt fics - Those on my friends list may be familiar with my story 'Peaches' which I wrote for Nyaori. Basically, I wanted to write him a story, but I wasn't sure where to go with it, what I wanted to do, etc. So, I basically said "Answer these questions" and threw a bunch of questions his way. He answered them, and I used those answers to help coax a story out from between them. It doesn't have to be a prompt system like that. There are also a bunch of places where there are fic prompts that already exist. Have you ever gone to a story and thought "OOOH. I LIKE THAT IDEA. But if I wrote it, I would have done it this way instead." Those are essentially what prompt communities do. They give you a few lines, a concept, and BAM, off you go. You take the reigns and do what you like with it. That's the beauty of fiction. Nobody is gonna ride your about facts. You want GD to be adopted and raised by a unicorn? Sure. Youngbae abducted by aliens? Go for it. Seungri goes swimming in a lake and gets attacked by Cthulhu? Poor guy, but sure, whatever you want. 

 

• read other people's stories - sometimes reading someone else's stuff is also a mind key. Do NOT plagiarise, by any means, but sometimes reading someone's fic might make you think "Hey, that's a good idea" and it might stem something else from that thought train. Once again, your brain goo isn't always gonna flow how you want it too. That's oooookaaaayyy. 

 

• Trust in the community - I know some people are scared to post. Maybe you don't think you're good enough. Maybe your English isn't so great. Maybe you're worried that people won't comment or sub, or that they won't like your idea. Let me tell you one thing: I have been through various websites, various means, various methods of posting fan fiction, and this website's community is one of the best. Think hard about the last time you saw a really negative comment that someone had left on a story. 

 

Can you think of one? Probably not. If you can, think of this: when was the last time you saw a comment on someone's story that was supportive? That was a heck of a lot easier to recall, huh? That's cause the people here are wonderfully diverse. 

 

Many people don't speak English as their first language. There are about a billion different pairings, a billion ships, and about a billion captains sailing each of them. You read GTOP and only GTOP? That's ok. You prefer ToDae over GRi? Awesome. You prefer Jongkey fics to SunDae? Also fine. People are gonna provide you with support. They're gonna write stuff whether you read it or not. And people are gonna read it if you write it. They don't comment? Pffsh, no biggy. Doesn't mean they didn't like it. Maybe they're shy. There's a million different reasons. Trust in the community and they will trust in you. 

 

There are a whole bunch of other things I could cover, but I find myself telling people these the most. 

 

Everybody has their own ways of motivating themselves, of producing fanfic, of getting into the zone. No two people are the same, and nor should they be, or the site would be full of the exact same stories over and over. There's diversity, and there is a huuuuuge world of imagination out there. 

 

Tap into it in whatever way you can, and if you can't, stress less. 

 

If you wanted to know anything else, or want me to continue these crummy little workshops and have a request, let me know! <3