Writer's Block

Tips and Tricks to Writing

Yes, we have all suffered from it. And if you some how miraculously avoided it, I can tell you this confidently and whole heartedly. It's literally word constipation. It's painful and you're just stuck but with words.

Writer's block comes and goes and although I hate to say it, there's really nothing you can do to stop it. Even the most avid writers suffer from it and it's simply the worst; nothing more can be said to explain it. Over the years, I've had my fair share of writer's block and I don't know about everyone else but mine likes to take its sweet time playin' with my emotions. And when I say "sweet time", I seriously mean a very prolonged and overly exaggerated period of time to the point that it's just ridiculous. For example, before I started writing again, I literally had writer's block for a good 5 months and I don't know about anyone else but 5 months without being able to write a single decent piece was enough to drive me crazy. But because of my long and painful months of suffering, I've come up with a list of ways to help me fight through my writer's block and eventually spew out something worth posting-ish.

So! To overcome writer's block, these are the best methods I've come across so far:

  1. Keep Writing. Normally when you start writing, by around the second of thrid paragraph, you can tell whether or not you're going to like your piece or not. When going through writer's block, a person would get frustrated when the words don't come to them or when the sentences don't flow as smoothly as they should. In this case, just keep writing. Don't you dare go back and look at your work. Just keep writing and force the words out of you until you have nothing left to say, even if it and sounds choppy. Think of Dory from Finding Nemo but instead of swimming, keep writing.
  2. Inspiration. I've found that it's easier to get over your writer's block when you're given a type of inspiration. What I mean by this is that it is not a burst of desire to write a series fanfic but rather a cute (or gore, whatever floats your boat) little prompt that doesn't require so much from you. From there, you just have to stop what you're doing and just write as much of it down as you can. And just like tip 1, just keep writing until all of it's out, even if it .
  3. Music. Now when I say music, I'm not talking about all the different types of music in the world. Rather, I'm talking about more classical pieces or calming music in languages that you don't understand. I would rather prefer lyric-less music since it's easier on your thought process and you don't have random words being pushed into your ears that will cause a disjuntion in your flow of writing. Normally, I would listen to one song over and over again while I'm writing a piece or a playlist of similar songs that sets me in the mood for whatever I'm writing. And if you're wondering what you were supposed to write about if you were to use this method, just write about anything. Don't worry about an intro or an opening or anything like that. Just start writing wherever the music takes you. It sounds kind of dumb but I swear it works. These are some of the playlists I like to listen to when I'm trying to write but nothing is coming out (or it's coming out all wrong): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. They're also super calming so they're just nice to listen to in general ^^
  4. Role Play. Now this is going to sound really lame and I'm going to be a bit shameless here for the sake of helping you out but I've found this to actually work. Take your favorite anime, show, series, whatever and just imagine yourself in the story. You don't have to physically imagine yourself in the story. More like, assign a character that closely mirrors you (faults and all) and imagine interactions you would have with these fictional characters. Use plots already created by the original author of the series as little prompts to pick you back to speed. Imagine how your character would react in that one episode/chapter, which characters your character would like, et cetra. This way, you're giving your brain a chance to ease itself back into the flow of plot, characters, depth, so on and so forth but it's already done for you. And note: these pieces do not have to be even publish worthy. They can be small (or long) chapters of shameless writing. Anything that will get your brain kicking and ready to go.
  5. Real life events. Now I know that it is always said that the author should never include themselves in the story and to a point, that is correct but to another point, that is incorrect. An author should never physically input themselves into a story, this is kind of self explanitory, but it doesn't mean that the author can't use their experiences to fuel storylines. Truthfully speaking, obtaining storylines from previous events in your life and inputting your emotions from that experience into your story is the best way to write a piece because it brings a sense of realism and makes the work more relatable to readers. Not only this but you know what you're talking about because you're the one who experienced it. You can twist some of the details and play with what you have, anything that will get your gears going and put you back to writing shape.
  6. Setting. I don't know if it's just me but whenever I write, it normally helps for me to be in one place and stay in that one place until it's finished. Normally I would finish my pieces in one go and have my rough draft by the time I have to do something else but sometimes I would stop in the middle of a piece, leave for a bit, come back and write again, those kinds of things. And although it's not my preferred method, it's something I cannot avoid because life is a and it just likes to get in my way. Anywho, I found that setting helps when writing and when the setting is constant, it allows you to get to the thought process of your work more quickly then compared to going to a new place and trying to pick up from there. 

These little tips and tricks may not work for everyone and maybe all of them might not work for someone but these are what I found to be useful when dealing with something like writer's block and these are the typical methods I would take to overcome them. Obviously these aren't the only methods and these are probably not the best ones. I can easily google a bunch of tips for overcoming writer's block but I know that these for sure are the ones that help me the most when it comes to my writing and I thought it would be useful to all of you. So take it as it is, merely a tip for a reader tryin' to get by.

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Dangerousluv1 #1
Chapter 4: You're little rant towards the end was a good edition and I agree with the points you mentioned