cures for writer's block...any suggestion??

try this for all the times i write under the headings could i not find anything to write keep it to yourself note the first letter cheers peter

Find something really boring that has be done by tomorrow (my biology coursework for example). The you will suddenly have thousands of ideas that you simply HAVE to write about. If you need any help finding boring things that have to be done, just ask ... I have the work piling up on my floor and deadlines looming :P.

A writer's block is like a rock or a mountain you face and you don't know how to get to the other side. I usually write and keep on writing until I know what is causing the writer's block which is something I don't want to talk about or am shamed of or feel guilty about. Of course, at other times, it is a matter of how to describe something that is so enormous and painful that one cannot describe it no matter how much she tries. You feel like nothing after the event and therefore, you have nothing to say as in 9/11/01. All one can do is remember. Memory itself is meaning then, and the ability to not let things build up to a 9/11/01. So that, in our current dealings with terrorists, we are not just going to let little things pass until it becomes an insurmountable problem. SO try to figure out what psychological damn is causing the writer's block and find a stylistic method of writing about an experience that is painful. Pitiful writing starts with "I am so sad, so sad and you should be so sad because you see how sad I am, damn sad."

I don't suffer from writer's block, but sometimes I feel myself starting to plod. When I feel this happening, I stop writing and spend exactly an hour dancing to full-blast punk or trance, much to the annoyance of my neighbours. Then when I go back to the work, I am hyped up. I call this "dancing up a story". My belief is that we only have so much word power in us for the day, and that we might use that up talking to people, or reading, or writing things such as notes, letters, or whatever. So, if I really want to write, I restrict myself as much as possible to non-verbal relaxations, like dancing, kipping, walking, bathing, cooking, and walking. I srore up ideas during these activities. If a friend comes to visit me and we talk for a long time, or go out, then I give up the idea of writing for that day, and use my psychic energy for my friend. This doesn't frustrate me, because we have to live too.

get a new desk?

Purchase a bottle of banana flavoured milk from your nearest newsagent. Walk to the nearest bus stop but one. Stand on one leg and drink approximately 40% of your bottle of milk in one gulp. Works every time.

Really? Must try it...

yeah, i'm a bit the same as you, Callum. i just tend to let ideas build up inside me over a period of time, and then they emerge all at once in the writing. reading other people's stuff on abc has helped sometimes - it's helped to get me out of my style, freed me up from myself a bit. reading something that you wouldn't normally read - outside your usual sphere of interest - also helps for me. months does sound like a long time though. has it really been that long? i know everyone says you should 'write every day, no matter what', but when i do that i only seem to have the letters 'c', 'r', 'a', and 'p' available on my keyboard, and so just end up throwing whatever i've written away. doing something completely different, learning something completely different is the best way i've found to get round it. (i've spent the Easter skateboarding, rather than trying to write, as i know i just don't have any ideas at the moment). then you can come back to the writing fresh.

Thanks Chant, months....hmm, probably, yeah. I've written odd line or two, but nothing complete that I feel is any good. I posted something new on here a few days ago, but I know it's @!#$ and makes no sense. It has good lines in it, but it just doesn't jell. Partly I think it's the way I write, which is fairly disjointed and sporadic anyway, and so ideas tend to come like that too. It's a good idea I think to read something different, like you say, outside my normal sphere of influence. I've recently been reading Martin Amis's 'Money', which isn't something I would normally read, but I've found it a refreshing change. Also, I think because I write about the monotony of work, the dull routine of work-home-sleep that fuels my writing, also hinders it. Bloody frustrating. Maybe I'll try some skateboarding as well, and knowing my luck, end up breaking my flaming neck! :) Cheers

Dear Desk clerk. I had a similair problem twenty five years ago. I got promoted and from that time had to write letters to...whoever. I always got a far as "Dear Sir or Madam" after that I really got writers block I had no idea what to say and didn't know how to achieve it. What I did was to write down the first word that came into my head. without pausing the second and so on. Just like that test that psychiatrists give patients. "I say a word and you answer with the first thing that comes into your head." before a couple of minutes were up I was writing in sentences. Logical literate sentences. Ben Elton is correct in what he says but just write down rubbish words at the rate of a machine gun and before you know it the brain takes charge and tries to put some sense to your ramblings. I wish you luck regards Memor

Man I'am always getting writers block. To me it is when whatever I write is just total c.rap. I can write pages and pages of it, but my heart and soul isn't really in it and I end up re-reading it and cringing. Throwing it away after. For me I jus do what Chant does, I go and do something else and completely forget about writing otherwise it starts to seriously do my head. I wait for inspiration to hit me. I know it's probably not the right thing to do. I should be writing everyday; but the process of writing is too torturous and dull if I don't put my heart and soul into it. I lose interest in it. It's just bland words that I don't really care about. I can't write anything half decent without some kind of inspiration; and inspiration can be elusive at times, seems to pick it's moments when it wants to show, like a mysterious friend. Somedays it can be unexpected, just suddenly WHAM you get an idea for a story. Other times it can be as long as weeks, months, you feel like your creative well is emptier than your wallet. Then oneday you're walking along down the street not even thinking about writing - and WHAM you see it. A whole fantastic story unfolding before your eyes, and you get excited and look around desperately for a pen and paper to write it down and can't find one. That's why it's always good to have a notepad with you man. I always get caught out by that one. I get home and forget most of the story, and never end up writing it. You have to be quick to catch inspiration sometimes. Sometimes my inspiration comes from dreams. I can dream incredibly complex and entertaining stories - well all of us can. Everyone has dreams that move them, that scare them, that totally immerse them. The sleeping mind is deeply creative. If you watch your dreams closely, you get to see a pattern emerging, where themes from previous dreams continue into other dreams. Almost like the unconscious mind is creating an ongoing story with the same characters appearing at different times in different dreams. I try and write my dreams down on paper when I get up in the morning, then sort of put them through a cut and paste sieve: cutting away the unnecessary bits and adding new stuff to them - to try and make a readable story out of it all. Be wary of frustration and perfectionism though. Becoming frustrated with your writing and trieing to write something that's got to be perfect, trieing to write some kind of masterpiece - can lead to madness and ego-dementia; as I've experienced in the past, and it's not nice when that one happens. It's like fighting against an invisible opponent who knows everything about you, cause he is you; a bit of a dark night of the soul, a crisis. Some people are stronger than others when it comes to dealing with this. Me I jus keep battling with it irrationally till oneday I wake up and realise that none of it matters, and that all that matters is I treat other people with respect and put my heart into what I do. There aint no pedastal heaven, so don't try to go there. The only heaven is the one where you see everybody on a pedestal. Where everybody is dancing on the stage, and nobodies idolising anyone. Everybody is equal. We were all born with the same creative potential, it's upto us what we make with it. We are all as different at writing as we are at dancing, as we are at everything else in this life. -Respect- -funky_seagull2002-

I see what you're saying funky, and agree with it, especially about using dreams. I do that a lot, when I remember them, which is getting less and less. I also relate to that WHAM, suddenly a story hits you and you find yourself without a pen and paper, happens all the time. What Memor says is useful too. A lot of my own writing is actually created through sitting and battering down what comes out, I strongly believe in 'automatic' writing, and use it a lot, then edit it into something more coherent...occasionally! Thanks for the advice folks, shall put most of it into practise. Cheers Callum

I think if what you're wanting to write is stuff with imagination and passion and intensity, then you can't force that. I know that a lot of people are quite strong about this write something every day discipline, but for me, it is best not to force it. I need a story to kick around in my head for a while before it is ready to come out onto paper - sometimes they die before you get them down, but it isn't that big a deal. If you want to write every day, great, but don't write if you don't feel like it and don't sit there looking at a blank screen. I did have bad block where everything I wrote just died on the page, and I solved that in the end by just writing non-fiction - reviews of stuff I was passionate about. I also find starting a novel is the best way to come up with ideas for short stories, just as revising for an exam is the best way to get your cupboards tidied.

Get it down on paper and rewrite and rewrite and rewrite. The chap who wrote Three weddings etc rewrote it seventeen times before he got it correct. Just remember that your brain is just like any other muscle in your body. An athlete wouldn't dream of competing in a race without training. So it is with writing. Yes force yourself to write even if its crap keep churning out junk. Dont wait for inspiration you could be waiting for years even your whole lifetime, Keep writing inspiration will come. I thought as Andrew. I have just wasted Five years of my writing life. Get anything down on paper even if its a shopping list. By even writing rubbish you learn what is rubbish and also what is not. In this media practice, practice, practice, does makes perfect.

Get it down on paper and rewrite and rewrite and rewrite. The chap who wrote Three weddings etc rewrote it seventeen times before he got it correct. Just remember that your brain is just like any other muscle in your body. An athlete wouldn't dream of competing in a race without training. So it is with writing. Yes force yourself to write even if its crap keep churning out junk. Dont wait for inspiration you could be waiting for years even your whole lifetime, Keep writing inspiration will come. I thought as Andrew. I have just wasted Five years of my writing life. Get anything down on paper even if its a shopping list. By even writing rubbish you learn what is rubbish and also what is not. In this media practice, practice, practice, does makes perfect.

You only posted that twice. Can we look forwards to 15 rewrites?

Jealous

One way is to join a writer's postal critique which really pushes you to write and also encourages from others comments which you may or may not like. A sort of round robin which consists of say half a dozen people who post their work to each other. good luck anyway

An eighteenth rewrite might have avoided "Is it raining? I hadn't noticed" - easily the clunkiest bit of dialogue I have ever heard in a cinema - can't believe that survived 17 versions... (Or, God forbid, it was WORSE before)

I've found that it helps not to leave a piece of writing feeling 'finished'. Leaving just a little bit to do the next day makes it easier to pick up the thread and carry on with what happens next, rather than being confronted with a blank slate. The other thing that's important is to remember that EVERYONE and I mean EVERYONE gets writer's block. Look on it as an excuse to do the shopping/cooking/gardening/have sex with the neighbour. You never know, a day away from writing might spark off something new. But I suppose that does depend on your neighbour. hope this helps

There is no universal 'cure'. It may be you are inhibited about a particular problem. Inspiration comes from deep inside you, very often met on waking up. Keep paper and pencil by the bed, and in the lavatory, the most ridiculous bits may have more value than you think at the time. The writing bit is craft, keep writing and going back some time later and keep or adapt it. Don't think, do it !

thanks all for offering advice, much appreciated...working on some ideas now, so hopefully have something worth while rather than the tripe I've churned out recently. Cheers! Callum

Another tip... write the first thing which comes into your head and develop it into a story later (it works for me!!!!)

this sometimes works for me write something which is complete and utter crap/twaddle, but enjoy the act of writing it. No restrictions and be as indulgent as you like. now pretending it is not your own work but someone else's , try and make something out of it. It's important to remember it's not your own work, so you can be quite ruthless. The other person is not going to see what you do with it. But if they do it's yourself anyway. I find regarding the writing as someone else's loosens me up, or disconnects me so i don't feel there's anything to lose. Editing other people's work rather than your own is ALWAYS easier.