I dont how many of you have suffered from writer's block, but if you have, and found a way to get your muse in gear again, I'd love to get some advice .
any advice on coaxing a reluctant muse.
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Hi, Dottie!
For me, very strong painkillers (Dilaudid, morphine, NuBain, Norco and/or oxycontin) seem to help. For another of my friends, a combination of OTC sleep aids and fine wine helps *grin*
Seriously, though, get into a quiet room, with no distractions. Play some music you like (for me, it's usually a good Wagner opus or some J-Pop or anime themes) and light some incense or scented candles. Then, just free-write. Forget about spelling, punctuation, and grammar. Focus only on getting the story OUT, on paper or another medium of your choice. You can always edit LATER.
Hope this helps, Luv.
BTW, 1st comment!
*Kisses Always*
Haylee V
Re: Hi, Dottie!
I agree with the quiet room part with no distractions. You can do as Haylee suggests or just chill.
Sometimes we need to let the nasty stuff out before we can get into the nitty gritty of writing. Sometimes the stress helps us to get that next piece written. Forcing oneself to write when the muse isn't cooperating is only going to throw your stress levels into overdrive.
First and foremost, though, take care of yourself, worry about the stories later.
If you do manage to write something, and need someone to look it over, you can send it my way.
Try writing in a different
Try writing in a different style than you normally do. If you write in the 3rd person write in the 1st. Try writing from different characters' perspectives on the same event. Write about a first date from the two people's point of view. Get a generic topic sentence and a story which starts from there. Jeff Jett never understood why his father always went away on the second weekend in July until he found that letter. See where that sentence or one which is similar takes you.
I know this sound counter productive just walk away from writing. Do not try to force it, trying to force it makes it feel like work and for most of us on the site it is a hobby.
I hope these ideas helped
snuggles
Sarah
Your life lately has been more exciting than any story, Hun
I sit down with any of my stories, starting at the beginning, and just read a little. This has worked for me.
Good luck!
Hugs, Karen
some rather strange ideas
The others had good ideas. Blank room and all. If those don't help then maybe some rather strange ones help. Cassy to the rescue!!
- Write an end scene! Throw random characters at it and random resolved things. Then chapter by chapter, write the story from the end to the beginning.
- Go to a newspaper stand or better yet a dedicated shop. Look for magazines you don't normally read and page through them.
Look for interesting things you didn't know yet. You don't need to buy the magazines (though I usually do). Today I picked one up about urban survival and everyday-spy-stuff. I already got a new story idea out of it and I have only paged through it for now.
- Same counts for libraries. Read outside of your usual fare.
- Write down every planned chapter name and the intended highlights of it. Try giving them an intended size that should let you write for 45 mins. Every time you finish a chapter reward yourself with something that takes about 15 mins. Know beforehand what the next reward is. So you have always something to look forward to and you get breaks. Breaks are more important than one might think.
- Sometimes it is okay not to write even you think you have to. Taking a break of a week or two can do wonders. Important is that even if you have inspiration before the time is up to stick with the writing vacation.
- if inspiration is missing try to set yourself challenges. For example. Take a movie that is covered by cinema sins you have watched recently. Watch the cinema sins video and write down your top five of the pointed out "worst tropes". Try to create a story plot with all those five tropes in it.
- And last but not least. If it is the inspiration you are missing and nothing else helps ask around your (TBC) friends to supply a story idea for you to write.
I agree with you
Cass. When I write a parable, I always start moral first and work backward. As you can see by my writings, sometimes it's dark and brooding (Demons), sometimes contemplative and deep (Parables), sometimes silly (Jokes and stuff), and sometimes just seriously (forgive me here, folks) F***ed up (Tarry Fails). Don't stress over it. Your muse will speak when he (or she, or it, or they) is/are ready. You're such a wonderful person, that I'm sure it'll come soon. If nothing else, just write on daily happenings, like your blog (I tend to live vicariously through them, especially your church and Wal Mart ones). (Yes, I closely follow your exploits on your blog, as I'm sure many others do as well.)
Know, as well, that you always have my love.
Huggles!
*Kisses Always*
Haylee V
Push
For me, writer's block goes in parallel with procrastination. So it's just push. Again, for me, the more often I write, the weaker the block becomes. When I was near the end of my longest story -- in revision, addressing Elrod's concerns as well as my own -- you may remember what story that was -- it was rather easy to whip out a new version responding to his concerns. (Sometimes, I removed it. Sometimes I cited canon stories to keep it. Sometimes, I ran with Elrod's issue.)
-- Daphne Xu
My Muse is rather indelicate
She usually finds me in the bath tub. No appreciation of modesty at all! I keep complaining.
Complaining?
I guess it depends on whether you view your muse more as your mother or more as your lover.
-- Daphne Xu
More in the line of a cat burglar sneaking in
Fortunately I don't have a cat.
Your cat burglar
Surely, by now you are intimately familiar with this cat burglar, and you must welcome her with open arms and other extended protrusions when she slips in.
-- Daphne Xu
I don't think there's any
I don't think there's any right way. I think there are a lot of great suggestions here though. It's such an individual thing in the end.
I sometimes like a short line of dialogue as a starter. Just some random anything can so often lead to something deliciously unplanned. Something like...
"Excuse me miss. I think you dropped this."
It can be fun almost reading what happens next as you write!
Hugs,
Stacy
I have noticed
when this happen with other authors I know we have chatted and there suggestion is to work on another story or two if you can.
I have had this problem recently where the story I am working has hit a brick wall and went to do some ideas for future stories and came back to work on the story I was stuck with
SamanthaAnn
Just write....
It could be anything, a paragraph or three about your day, a very descriptive paragraph about what you had to eat, or drink last or an activity. Read a book, or listen to a podcast.