Apr 24 2009
How to Beat Writer’s Block, Part 1
Here are a few tricks to help you keep writing after you get stuck.
- Switch problems. Writer’s block often sets after a hero has resolved a problem and it’s not clear where the story is headed. Are there any problems left? Could you introduce a new problem?
- Add a complication. Last chapter, it may have looked like the hero’s solution worked perfectly. Well, that was last chapter. What went wrong? For example, perhaps the hero inadvertently made a new enemy or the villain is quickly working on a way to get around whatever the hero did.
- Switch solutions. Have your hero try to look at his problems in a new way. Maybe he has to use ingenuity instead of brute force, or diplomacy instead of coercion, or careful planning rather than impulsiveness. (Or vice versa). For example, Heroes takes away the characters’ powers from from time to time.
- Switch scenes. “Meanwhile, thousands of miles away…” Moving the story very far will probably feel disjointed at first, but you can add a smoother transition after you determine where the story is going.
- Look at an important character in a new way. Perhaps there’s some aspect to your hero that could be developed more.
- Give up on perfectionism. If you’re worried about being perfect, it will be very hard for you to start writing. Don’t set ridiculously high standards for yourself on the first draft. No one writes rough drafts that are good enough to publish. It is much easier to write a few pages a day– even if they aren’t any good– and later rewrite them into something publishable.
- If you’re truly desperate, consider throwing in a new antagonist or obstacle. This may reduce plot coherence, but the most important thing is to keep writing. You can smooth out the connections later.
- If the plot has totally stalled, consider switching your angle. Sometimes, writers pick an angle because it’s conventional. “I want to write about a magical university, so my story will be about a young wizard who studies there and eventually saves the world from great evil.” Harry Potter used that focus quite well, but it’s not the only possibility. What if you told a story about the teachers? Or campus security? Or the admissions office? Or the Ministry of Magic? Or the bad guys? Or the broom-flying instructors? Or the headmaster? Your story almost certainly has many such possibilities. At the very least, any of these perspectives could add another chapter to help you develop your main character in a different direction.
Did you find this article helpful? If so, please check out How to Beat Writer’s Block, Part 2. Thanks!
Thanks for this post! It’s really helpful. My problem isn’t that I run out of ideas, it’s that I have way too many! Some of them are years in the future of the storyline, and so are absolutely no good for the time being. Just today I planned out a whole scene where Isaac gets into an argument with his next love interest, and I won’t need it until the second book. I’m only 36900 words into the first one, too! Haha.
You sound kinda like me. I can come up with all kinds of stuff to use LATER, but I have trouble coming up with stuff to use NOW. I recommend writing down those stray ideas somewhere. Trust me, you’ll need them later.
I get this a lot.
It normally occurs once I’ve planned the story out too much, and I lose interest.
- Wings
I love this list-thing. I shall refer back to it often when I am stuck.
Just today I thought up another idea for a story. Hmm, it would seem I am Cursed with Awesome, the “awesome” being a never ending cycle of ideas. I’ll never finish them all.
Snap. I just did the same thing. I have a new idea for a comic but I’m gonna finish my novel first.
“Just today I thought up another idea for a story. Hmm, it would seem I am Cursed with Awesome, the ‘awesome’ being a never ending cycle of ideas. I’ll never finish them all.”
I have the same problem. I also have a ton of half-finished first drafts rotting around in my folder, because I used to try to do everything at once. And I want to finish all of them. XD
Exactly, Alice.
Not counting this novel I’m working on now, I’ve got eleven full-length novel ideas/plans to write. Totally unrelated to one another except for two of them. I’m never at loss for ideas. Hahah~!
I get basic ideas and then forget to fill them out.
Not counting my ‘oh, that would make a good story’ notes, I have 8 stories planned out. One of those is a series. This is not counting my current project or my two unfinished NaNo ones. D:
Writer’s block is a pain in the ass.
These tips will definitely be helpful, particularly number six. Perfectionism has always been a problem for me and it’s practically become a phobia. Maybe one day I’ll be able to get down and dirty with my thoughts and words. That came out wrong, but you get the picture.
- ScriptSour
All of these are problems I have. I have a seemingly unlimited fount of cool ideas, but because there are so many, I never have been able to finish any of them. This site has helped me focus a lot more though, and has given me new, cool ideas.
“Switch perspectives, as a last resort”
I didn’t want to do this. I so didn’t want to do this. I did. The story turned out much better. I was reading an article that said your protagonist should always be the one with the most at stake. My initial response was, “well, duh!”
But then I realized my hero’s rival had much more at stake.
“Not counting my ‘oh, that would make a good story’ notes, I have 8 stories planned out.”
I just counted my list of story plans, and not counting my notes, I have nineteen planned out. I never realised how active my brain was. Haha. But I often take characters from one and put them in another, so they’re interconnected. I have to make up some new characters for them.
Of the nineteen, eight of them have males as the main character, seven have a male/female team as the main characters and four have a girl as a main character.
Of the eight male characters, three are based on an original character plan, and even share a name. I’ll sort it out later when I redesign them.
Wow, RW … (forgot if you had shorter name … Whovian?) we are so much alike! Holy cow … 19 stories/plans? Really? That’s probably how many I have … >>
I’m working on one right now and I still have like 5 other ‘main’ unfinished stories.
Make that twenty. Haha. I just thought up another. I’d better write it down.
I’ve started work on a few of my ideas, but I just write down little bits that I could fit in somewhere, rather than make a proper start. One of my character concepts is a really dark, mysterious guy who talks about doom and gloom all the time.
I’ve written up a bunch of lines for him to say as part of his character plan.
“Life is fleeting… and thank God for that, because it sucks.”
(He gets over it as part of his character development)
Make that twenty one. My brain won’t stop thinking! Oh, wait, I guess that’s good… Haha.
Thanks for this article. It helped me a lot!
Wow, I’m having huge writer’s block. Thanks.
This is probably going to help during NaNo. =o I always have trouble sticking to the ONE (just one, dammit!) story that I’m writing for all 50,000 words. It’s sad, but I only passed last year by adding in a “Chapter Zero”, which was a compilation of all my schoowork for that November, made story-fied by adding in a character running around a computer lab to submit/print/write each work at an individual station. I didn’t even finish the actual story. =(
Aww. If it makes you feel better, I didn’t finish mine, either. I got halfway.
I quit NaNo finally. First I realized I was shirking my responsibilities and practically ignoring school, but now my uncle is sick. My heart’s just not in it anymore. I can’t do NaNo this month.
I feel ashamed, but I can’t say I’m all that choked up. When all this chaos is over and I boot up WordPad again, Gabriel and I are gonna have one happy reunion. It’s only the fourteenth and I’ve missed my old novel like heck.
I might make it next year; who knows?
I’m still in it, but after a computer ban I have the proverbial snowball’s chance of catching up. My new goal is just to get to 10,000 and if I reach that, 20,000 words. At the very least I have a lot of chapters for P to beta-read and later post for the world to see.
On a brighter note, I’ve come up with an idea for realistic fiction ((Was thinking about Hurricane Katrina and listening to the song “Better Days” by the Goo Goo Dolls at the same time. Idea came when I reached the line “when the world begins again”)): To Sweep Away Identities, about a criminal who’s records are completely lost after a destructive hurricane and has the chance to completely rewrite his past.
- Wings
I think the concept for the criminal losing his records is very interesting– but the title is a bit awkward.
Was that a pop culture reference? I mean, those fly straight over my head. Like, several miles over.
Just a working title though (Other possible choice is To Wash Away Identities). Heck, The Special and Doomsday went on to become How To Save The World and The Apocalypse Will Not Be Televised. Anything can happen!
- Wings
My apologies. Curse my computer’s short term memory!
- Wings
Hey. I just started the fourth volume to a vampire series I had been working on for about five years now. I was kind of thinking of introducing a vampire race? Any suggestions?
Good stuff here, I will definitely be referring back to this. Now if I can just keep myself from writing individual scenes out of context and in no particular order!
I definitely bookmark this page. Hehe, the only thing I do is get on forums and play Write or Die or make up a random subplot (7-ish).
I’ll have 10 unused subplots by the time I finish.
I used to do 8 but, then I sort of drifted away from that. I think I’ll start on that again.