I get two types of writer's block; one is when I'm stuck on a plot point and can't move a story forward from that point, the other is when the words just aren't coming (usually when I'm trying to start a piece).
For the first, I usually end up turning the problem into the solution; e.g. I was writing something recently where I was fretting enormously about the time it would take some characters to travel from point A to point B, and how to make this consistent with action going on elsewhere in the story. I spent hours worrying at detail, how the journey would work and so on. Eventually I realized that what really mattered was to convey passage of time in some way, and so I made passage of time the subject of the (irritatingly few!) paragraphs which ended up getting this bit of the story across.
For the second, the only really useful technique is to sit down and try to put words on the page. Usually I set a wordcount-reward system ("I'll do 50 words now, then check email, then 50 words..."). Doesn't matter if the words are useless - they're there, and better ideas invariably start coming from that. So, the best cure for writer's block is... writing.
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momijizukamori
no subject
Date: 2005-02-16 03:00 am (UTC)For the first, I usually end up turning the problem into the solution; e.g. I was writing something recently where I was fretting enormously about the time it would take some characters to travel from point A to point B, and how to make this consistent with action going on elsewhere in the story. I spent hours worrying at detail, how the journey would work and so on. Eventually I realized that what really mattered was to convey passage of time in some way, and so I made passage of time the subject of the (irritatingly few!) paragraphs which ended up getting this bit of the story across.
For the second, the only really useful technique is to sit down and try to put words on the page. Usually I set a wordcount-reward system ("I'll do 50 words now, then check email, then 50 words..."). Doesn't matter if the words are useless - they're there, and better ideas invariably start coming from that. So, the best cure for writer's block is... writing.