writer's block! oh no! —

I just hate it when I’m on a roll writing something and then poof any idea in my head disappears. I could go through a whole list of ways to get rid of your writer’s block but there is a chance that it won’t apply to you like it would me.

For one, you have to set the mood. Take off from where you were last. To help you all out I’ll use several excerpts from a selection of my stories to give you an idea on how to handle the writer’s block and how to set a new scene, also known as a new chapter.

Now, this is taken out of my own story, ‘The Thirteenth Floor’ which has a horror genre. For me, when I start to write a new chapter I like to start off with watching something. Each writer has their own method for getting into mood of writing something. In this specific situation when I write a new chapter for this story I watch a horror film, or at least a scene from a horror film. Since now it is October it is actually really common to find one of those right now.

Without further ado, here is the excerpt so that I don’t ramble on too long in this tutorial chapter.

The man pulled away, running his flinger over the blade, cutting himself slightly—splitting the skin in a straight line. “Very good, that sounds about right to me. I suppose someone like you hasn’t watched the movie ‘Scream’ or even ‘Hostel II’. Although, I have say the second movie was much better than the first.”

“What the hell does those movies have to do with strapping me to this ed up chair?!” Youngbae snapped, pushing all his weight forward, doing nothing but exhaust himself.

“The chair is nailed to the ground you see. It is no use to try and get out. You see, for me and my brothers in ways we are much like horror movies that the youth today likes to sit and enjoy, scaring themselves senseless. It is movies like those that make our jobs easy. We don’t even have to come up with ideas of torture ourselves. We can merely watch a simple film and have a new batch of ways of killing those who are stupid enough to trespass on our land.” The man explained.

He continued. “You see in ‘Hostel II’ it starts off pretty slow, boring actually. It is merely a man having a nightmare of being discovered after escaping from his death, barely of course. That way if he was completely dead there wouldn’t have been a sequel at all. You see, where he came from, where he nearly escaped from was a place, much like this one, although we don’t spend a dime; where he came from humans, the lowlifes, those who are lesser beings, are tortured by the higher class and eventually killed. That movie really speaks to me for some reason, don’t you think?”

Do you notice that I mentioned a few movie titles in this excerpt? That’s where I got my inspiration and how I got over my short writer’s block issue.

Now onto a different example that seems less morbid. Below, is an excerpt from one of my contest entries for caline’s ‘Two Mins, One Love’ thing. I’m going to be straightforward and tell you where I got my idea from. It was all thanks to ‘Dear John’ (Nickolas Sparks) that I was able to write this. I didn’t see the movie but I did know it was about John going to war and him and his lover, who was portrayed by some girl whose name escapes me, writing letters back and forth.

August 5, 2010

Dear Minho,

You should've seen it! A rerun of our season of Hello Baby was played yesterday. I remember those days when we were so young. We were all together and happy as one shining SHINee. Once you come back home, which you will because I won't let you do otherwise, we should get the other three together. I hear that Jonghyun is happily living with umma and Jinki is still gorging himself with chicken. I've missed you a lot. I've been thinking about you every day too. You have to come home soon, arasso hyung? If you don't I swear I will come after you.

With love,

Taeminnie

These are just two examples of how I got over writer’s block and was able to write something. I’m sure there are more examples but these, I hope, will get you started. When writing other genres try listening to music to get in the proper mood.