Any advice greatly appreciated!

One thing we can all do even on the most blocked days is read. Anything, everything. Books, poems, magazines, does it matter what? No. People have told me a good trick is to read something you would avoid reading if it was the only book on a desert island. That might work too.

I can't say I've ever suffered from real 'Writer's Block': I might go a couple of days without writing anything, but that hardly counts. So, I guess, I'm saying I force myself to write and think about the standards later. In my opinion, you should discard nothing; leave what you write on the down days and go back to it much later on a good day. Rewrite it - or not. You might just have thought it no good just because you read it on the same bad day you wrote it. That's possible too, isn't it?

Write about the block?

To go back to reading, read on here and comment. If your comment provokes discussion with the writer that often inspires writing, or has done for me.

Good Luck
Ewan.

Ewan offers some very good advice and I would only add to it.

Since you mention depression then try to make sure you get out for a walk every day!
It can be very difficult to propel yourself through the door into a world outside your den but both the exercise and the fresh air are very therapeutic.
Try to make it around the same time every day so that it becomes a routine.
Parks are great places to go! That's why so many writers and poets go there.
If you can, borrow a dog; dog walkers are always happy to chat to other dog walkers.
Get as much sunshine as you can and you will find that stories write themselves as you explore God's garden!

Many thanks, both of you, for your helpful advice :)
Some very good ideas here.

Hi SC. I too suffer depression; a most insidious bedfellow! I live with it but have learned to 'Manage' it. I have a couple of 'tricks' that I use; one is to - as suggested - take the dogs for a run to the beach. Another is to read something funny; Tom Sharpe is my favourite. Also listening to music (mostly from the 60's). Everyone is different and different things work for different people. The main thing is to try something; get out, or get in and DO SOMETHING. DO NOT sit there and wonder at the world because, lets face it, that would depress anyone lol. I know all about the extreme highs and bottomless lows that are part and parcel of what I (you) suffer. There is light at the end of the tunnel; just make sure when in the tunnel, that you are facing the right way. This may be of no help whatsoever and I will not be the least bit insulted if you tell me to go and f... myself - I used to do it all the time.
By the way; you write some great stuff, keep it up.

Chris ;)

(Best read with a Wurzel accent ;) )

I don't know a lot about writer's block
But I do know a bit 'bout depression
There's a plant you see whose potency
Can stop it right now from progressin'
It changed my whole life, found a dog, found a wife
And now I just can't stop smilin'
Called hypericum, it'll bring back the fun
And your block'll unblock, it's beguilin' ;)

http://www.nelsonshomoeopathy.co.uk/coffee/pages/0992109996.shtml

(The homeopathic version is best. Dissolve under the tongue or chew. As always with homeopathic medicines do not eat or drink for 20 minutes either side of taking it. Not good with warfarin or SSRI's - if in doubt consult GP)

Had a quite astonishing impact on me.
Hope it helps you too.
Good luck!

The placebo effect can be very powerful.

FTSE you are right.

Is your observation related to my comment?

I can assure you that in my situation this was no placebo effect.

How would you know? You can't say 'because it worked'. That's the whole point about the placebo effect - it works! Particularly for depression, where a placebo is every bit as effective as an SSRI for the majority of patients. So if you're inclined to list the miraculous changes to your life, just ask yourself what that is evidence for: the distilled water effect or the placebo effect?

The placebo effect can be very powerful and can bring about miraculous changes.

(Sounds as if it should be sung to the tune of 'Suicide is Painless'.)

FTSE I was simply attempting to pass on helpful information to someone regarding a substance which worked spectacularly for me.

I think calling it a placebo only muddies the water and could prevent people from getting what might be lifesaving help.

If hypericum were a placebo then by calling it so, those who it might have worked for will now avoid it and even if they were to take it, without believing that it might work for them, the placebo effect would not occur.

Driving people into the arms of the SSRI drug barons could be fatal given reported complications such as a potential increase in suicidal thoughts.

There are many anecdotal tales of the effect of successful homeopathic treatments of children and animals neither of which were in a position to delude their brains that the treatment would work.

Just one cotton pickin' minute, I didn't say St John's Wort was a placebo. Far from it. But distilled water?

I'm glad you said 'anecdotal tales'.

If hypericum were a placebo then by calling it so, those who it might have worked for will now avoid it and even if they were to take it, without believing that it might work for them, the placebo effect would not occur.

I've long since lost the link, but I'm pretty sure there was a study which demonstrated that the placebo effect still works even when you know it's a placebo.

You're so very dry FTSE
I cannot work out
If your comments are friendly
Or said with a shout ;D

I'm not here to argue
Nor seeking to thrill
But my life was saved
By a tiny white pill

If I've misunderstood
Is that such a crime
As long as I wrote
In good faith at the time?

I'd like to move on now
If that is ok?
Got a poem to write
And four more on the way ;)

Hi Maddan

Not aware of that study myself, there may be something in it, I guess it depends who did it and who paid them to do it.

Nice to meet you.

Nice to meet you too.

Wow! It's a mental health related topic and I agree (broadly) with FTSE. An exciting turn up for the books.

Hey Bukh!
I'd never swap a turnip for a book, no matter how exciting it was.

I must change these glasses.

Hi SundaysChild

I have only just come back to the ABC site after a long time away, so I picked up your thread rather late. However I did want to say something, because I'm in a very similar position! I'm half way through a writing MA, had to take a year out because of depression and other health problems, and some family issues, and have found writing over the last year to be rather like pulling teeth and finding each and every one of them more or less rotten.

All of which is no good to you as I have no answer to your query! However, just thought you might like to know you are not alone. I don't know where the blocks come from, but I think keeping on writing something, anything, even crap, every day, just to keep some of the juices flowing, is the best thing to do. Even though I don't always do it!

Hope you get back into your writing course. Depression is a right bugger. And sometimes the treatment IS almost as bad as the condition - I'm half convinced that one of the reasons I've found it so hard to write for almost a year is the medication I was on. I wasn't depressed, as such, while I was taking it, but I was like something out of Stepford. Nothing seemed to matter. I knew what I was writing was rubbish, but that didn't matter either. I don't have the knowledge to join in the discussion about alternative therapies and so forth; I can't say the little pills didn't work for me because they did, in a way, but I hated what went with it.

Just keep reminding yourself you have talent, and every piece you write is practice, if nothing else. Good Luck!

Good Grief! Looks like I'm in the right place here. I’ve just been off for 2 years with depression during which time I re-wrote some stuff I'd been playing around with for a couple of years (or more!) and found it very therapeutic. I put in some characters based on people who'd contributed to my condition (mainly the senior management at work) and made them into the bad guys in the story. It kind of worked. I tried killing them off in several horrible ways (fictionally!) but then I found that I needed them for the story. Maybe that’s how life is?

My vote is for SSRI’s, chocolate, and a good Jeeves and Wooster omnibus.

Actually I blame the whole thing on Monty Python. As an impressionable teenager they showed me how crazy the world was, but then failed to explain how to survive in it.

B.

I've suffered with chronic pain for 17 years, which naturally led to depression. My clinical psychologist suggested I try St John's Wort (hypericum) which has been proved to work in clinical trials. And boy does it! I can't tell you how much it's lifted my mood, and, even better, there's none of the side effects I was experiencing with drugs. If you take any other medication though, you MUST check with your doctor before trying St John's Wort as it can interfere with the efficiency of certain drugs.

Hi Whiskey. With you all the way on this one. Had a magical impact on me too - with no side effects and no dependancy either. Good on your psychologist for not prescribing SSRI's. ;-)

It's superb, isn't it? So glad it's made a difference to your life too, Jupiter. :-)

Wow thanks to all those who have replied to my post.
It really means a lot. I have been without internet connection for a while now, so apologies for the late reply.

Depression is NO fun! I agree that exercise is good and re writing, trying to do something everyday-to keep the juices flowing is a good plan.

I will be investigating some of the medical advice and tips given here.

Thanks again for the feedback,
SundaysChild x

i am very late to this thread; i've only recently started exploring the forums. i agree with some of the very first comments about reading to work through writer's block. this site offers so many different styles and points of view...so many topics...get yourself a bit lost in it and enjoy it. something you read might spark an idea. a few back and forth comments might open up a friendship that inspires you. before signing up on this site, i hadn't written anything in almost 6 years...now that's writers block! i had plenty of ideas. just couldn't get 'em out. but pouring through this site opened things up for me.
also, i didn't work for me (cuz i'm lazy) but keeping a journal might help. just jot down ideas or observations. no worring about form or grammar. no editing on the fly. just ideas.
good luck! you've certainly got talent and style.

jason

Hi Sunday. I'm late to the thread too but I just wanted to add that I have been through depression and with the help of therapy learned to acknowledge it, feel it and allow it to pass. Walking by the river helps me as does eating well, lots of fruit and veg, and writing. I only started writing as a means of therapy and the comments and community I feel here had undoubtedly helped me. Sometimes I was almost catatonic, watching jeremy Kyle and eating junk. Now I can recognise when I am depressed and try to help myself. It doesn't stop it but it sure as hell doesn't last as long. Good luck!
sarah x

Thanks jason and sarah for the kind comments and feedback.
Greatly appreciated.

And I'm even later! Just like to say again it's great to have you back SundaysChild because you really are a great writer!

Ok - my suggestions for writer's block? I agree completely with Ewan that reading really helps - my appointed writer's block curing anthology is 'Staying Alive' - a really inspirational collection.

I also like taking walks. Just go for a wander, see what you encounter. I find a lot of my inspiration in nature so parks are always a good spot for me.

Another thing to do is play games with your writing - have fun. Try write a poem about something really random and unpoetic like making toast in a morning or missing your bus. One thing I've done before with kids in my creative writing clubis make loads of 'flash cards' with random words on e.g 'tree' 'cat' 'honey' put them in a hat then pick one out at random and write a poem on it like flash poetry!

Sorry I've rambled. Hope some of this has helped just a little bit ;)

Magic xxx

I'm even later!

Sunday, I am a big fan of your writing and it saddens me to learn that you've been suffering. I've been off work for over a year with chronic depression and anxiety and I know just how crippling it can be to the creative process.

Recently - thanks to wonder drugs - I've been better and I've been writing again, but it is a case of managing your illness. Don't worry too much about the bad days. I had a creative writing tutor who told me that she was always writing, even when she was blocked, because she was always thinking about it. It's like compost - sometimes it needs some time to rot down.

Also, as some of the excellent advice above has mentioned, don't be afraid to write on the bad days. Pour it all out and then look back on it when you're well - there is usually something you can use.

I also joined a local creative writing class. Not as intense as my MA and only for a couple of hours a week. I go when I can and the exercises are always inspiring.

Hope to see you posting on abc again very soon.

Best wishes
Sikander x

Probably the best advice I could give you would be to wait until there's something you really want to write about - an entire story formed in your mind or a particularly compelling scene around which to base a poem. The worst thing I could imagine would be to force myself into writing something when I didn't necessarily need to. There would just be so many reasons to stop.

Charles Bukowski probably said it best in his poem 'So You Want To Be A Writer';

if it doesn't come bursting out of you
in spite of everything,
don't do it.
unless it comes unasked out of your
heart and your mind and your mouth
and your gut,
don't do it.
if you have to sit for hours
staring at your computer screen
or hunched over your
typewriter
searching for words,
don't do it.
if you're doing it for money or
fame,
don't do it.
if you're doing it because you want
women in your bed,
don't do it.
if you have to sit there and
rewrite it again and again,
don't do it.
if it's hard work just thinking about doing it,
don't do it.
if you're trying to write like somebody
else,
forget about it.
if you have to wait for it to roar out of
you,
then wait patiently.
if it never does roar out of you,
do something else.

if you first have to read it to your wife
or your girlfriend or your boyfriend
or your parents or to anybody at all,
you're not ready.

don't be like so many writers,
don't be like so many thousands of
people who call themselves writers,
don't be dull and boring and
pretentious, don't be consumed with self-
love.
the libraries of the world have
yawned themselves to
sleep
over your kind.
don't add to that.
don't do it.
unless it comes out of
your soul like a rocket,
unless being still would
drive you to madness or
suicide or murder,
don't do it.
unless the sun inside you is
burning your gut,
don't do it.

when it is truly time,
and if you have been chosen,
it will do it by
itself and it will keep on doing it
until you die or it dies in you.

there is no other way.

All I know is that this poem makes a lot of sense to me. I hope it does for you too. I know a few people who've suffered with depression, so I've had some insight into how debilitating it can be. I don't know exactly what I'm wanting to say here - I guess the gist of it is good luck.

Writer's Block,
Just write, the Alphabeth, numbers, nonsense, street names advertenties! It is possible to fool your brain before you know it you really will be writing.

Good luck!

You know I’ve often thought about this. Take for instance this Viagra racket. The guy has no desire and therefore no need. Now he goes and (at great expense) creates a desire and therefore a need, his need seems to be in fact really to have a need? It’s nonsensical really.

Or the consumption of large quantities of alcoholic beverages at social functions. The reason for such behaviour is ultimately to “loosen up”, lose all inhibitions. What for? And at what cost! Honestly.

And then the smoking of cigarettes. I mean no person in his right mind who has never had a cigarette has a craving for one. So then he feels a need to go and create an addiction, a constant craving for nicotine. Same idea hey?

Look I’m not a church-goer. One has to wait too long for the praying to slip out for a smoke break it gets quite tense you know.

We come to the question of writing love poems to women, and it seems the motivation is simply to write a love poem, or even worse, to write the poem in order to make money from it. It’s crazy man. I know of a sir he rehashed a love song for a princess- who had just died. Queer? My feeling really is if you want to write a love song to a girl you should do it because you love the girl I mean like madly.

So please, why do you want to write if you have nothing to write?

And I'm the latest!

Firstly, I agree with and will certainly try out what Ewan and the many other wise people above have advised in terms how to go about beating the Block. Secondly, I loved reading the Bukowski poem that John Doak posted, which I hadn't come across before and it made an instant connection with me too - so thank you so much for that JD!

I read this thread a couple of weeks ago and was 1)moved by, 2)experienced deja vu while reading and 3)agreed with a lot of the advice above, but I felt that the others had already offered better observations and advice than I was qualified to give.

However, I don't agree with Tom Brown's observations which I've just read; that is I don't believe that the experience of Writer's Block can be put in the same category as the need to take viagra, alcohol or cigarettes!

So in response to his rather sobering question, 'So please, why do you want to write if you have nothing to write?' I'd say that because SundaysChild, and any writer, wants to write because we, well, a)just WANT to, and b)because we love writing… We just, for various reasons, feel insecure (for want of a better word) about our current ideas and are thus reluctant about committing them to paper. However, I guess Tom has a point in that we have to work a bit harder in prodding ourselves to make that committment and see it through. Then, if it's good, we'll know it, and people whose opinions we sort of value (whether that's from discerning friends or from people on this site) will tell us that they like it too and/ or offer constructive crit. Or it’ll just be therapeutic rather than intended for publication, in which case that’s great too!

I realise that this is all very vague and just my opinion. I've never suffered from real depression myself and I certainly don't want to, but I have had bouts of writer's block and until last summer I hadn't written/completed any stories for over 2 years and was despairing that I ever would again (reasons range from not having a 'decent' idea, to doubting that I could pull off any idea, to fear that everyone else would think it was godawful, to me wanting to be authentic and write about ‘what I know’ but then despairing that I everything I knew and had experienced was actually really boring, etc). However, towards the end of last August, I went on a really fun day trip to another city and I wanted to hold on to and record those memories forever and ever… and lo and behold I suddenly had the ingredients for a good story. And so I wrote it down. And while I was writing it, I was still despairing that it was, well, kinda mundane/boring/crap, but for the first time in ages I didn’t care because I was enjoying it so much, and that’s what kept me going. Since then: I showed it to a couple of discerning friends and posted it on here site for feedback; I made some changes in light of said feedback; thought you know what let me research some short story mags that might wana publish it and thus finally I could become a published writer; and then after sending my manuscript off to loadsa places and receiving loadsa rejections, I eventually had it retained for future publication by the editor of a magazine based in Rotherham who said he’ll send me 2 copies of the mag when it appears! Hurrah! (I won’t go into any more details in case it all goes pear-shaped and just doesn’t happen, but IF it does appear I shall no doubt ecstatically proclaim the happy event from the rooftop of the relevant ABC forum).

So, completing that story (which I’ve removed from this site for the above reasons) gave me my drive back to complete more and I have. Of course, it’s not always enjoyable at all and often extremely frustrating trying to decide what I mean and then trying to say what I mean in the way that I want it meant, but I know that nothing compares to that buzz I get when I AM enjoying it and when it’s done and I can say, ‘Yeah man, I did that. (And I like it.)’

Good luck to everyone in their perpetual search for inspiration and with your writing - and belated but heartfelt wishes to you all for a happy and successful new year!

I think Tom was simply joking Scout.

I don't think that writing is an addiction so much as a therapy or perhaps a need to create.
The point of Viagra is not that it creates a need but conversely that it allows those with a need to erect working equipment;O)

The point of this thread was more about dealing with depression than about finding ways to be creative.

Most of the early posts do a good job of offering advice on ways that might help those who are suffering from depression to cope...
if you Suffer just remember, you're not alone!
As Hard as it often is... you WILL get through!