Any cures… List them here.

Mine is to basically just write bs until I can write something sensible

Or

Let some question simmer for a few days and it will dislodge some nuggets out that flow into the computer.

I walk away from it all.

I play games, listen to music, pretend that I am no longer a writer.

I stopped ‘forced’ writing when I turned full time.

The longest to date is four weeks before words started forming in my mind while going to sleep.
I’ve also stopped using ‘blockage time’ to do editing.
I decided that if I cannot be creative with new stuff, what the hell is my editing going to be like.

It’s funny.
Once I do start writing again, I can mix and match editing older writing, working on current stuff, and often also start something new.
The other funny thing – usually the blockage ends when I become bored with not writing.

I suppose, for me, I want to always write for the love of it.
The years are passing, I’m buggered if I’m going to do something I don’t love anymore.

I agree with avedis. It comes in time. If you can’t come up with something, sitting there for hours isn’t going to solve it. I’ve also found that keeping a notepad next to the bed helps for when one wakes up in the middle of the night with an idea.

True, my writings have been sporadic at best, but I only write something when I’m comfortable with it. Forced stories (as when I was taking writing classes) I found didn’t have the same quality or consistency.

Also, reading helps. I’ve read books and found something in there that sparked an idea. For example, I heard a line on a CD today that got me thinking about a whole story. So, inspiration is everywhere. Don’t try and force it out.

Hope this helps.

YES reading always helps. Also playing a few games of Minesweeper works wonders. Most people have a form of this game already on their computer. What’s good about it is that it forces you to think completely rationally and use logic. When writing I usually play a few games to let the creative juices replenish themselves and give ol’ right brain a rest.

I NEVER read when I have a block.
Same mad idea that I applied when I started creating music – I felt that, if I wanted to be original, being able to copy someone else was not a good start.
With my music, I was certainly original – and often BAD.
But I worked through that.
In retrospect, my approach took a hell of a lot longer than if I had played along with Eric and co.

Back to the writing – I like to get stimulus indirectly, from music, from vision, maybe from conversations or talking on forums, but never from other fiction.

I’m reminded of people that watch a soap opera and say “See, that’s how people behave”. NO! That’s how script writers depict how people behave.

Of course everyone has their own ways of dealing with the dreaded block, but I don’t think reading a book (or a newspaper/magazine) necessarily equates to inciting plagaristic tendencies. IMHO, reading allows an escape/distraction from the problem at hand while re-fueling the mind with vocabulary/various ways to structure sentences/syntax and the like.

Taking a nice walk or a exercising with the significant other always helps too…

“necessarily equates to inciting plagaristic tendencies”
No, nor do I.
My point, though, was that getting inspiration from real life is more first hand.

Ahhh! I’m in violent agreement with you then.

I don’t really have a cure for writer’s block. When my husband upset me, I would escape by writing. I got rid of the bastard, life is great, and I have absolutely zero desire to write. (Sigh) That makes me bummed. I need to find someone to abuse me so I can start writing again.

Hellbunny:

A great cure for you then – start playing MSN Internet Backgammon.

You get total amateurs (rating themselves as expert) doing every wrong move in the book.
But, of course, that luck they rely upon rewards them in buckets.
Doubles when they need them, always exactly the dice required to let them play their favorite “See how many times I can jump you”.
While, of course, your own dice ALWAYS fall such that you have to expose yourself to them.
Even then you start to claw a win, but then they get five double sixes in a row.

Now if that doesn’t inspire you to write a ‘maniac runs murderously riot” story, nothing will.

Incidentally, I’ve read people on some forums that do not understand the nature of luck – claiming that there is a MSN Backgammon cheat program available to everyone except them.

That sounds good, but I think I did something even better: I posted the plot synopsis for my fantasy trilogy on a Christian message board. ROFL! The very fact my main character is half satyr should amount enough abuse for me to start writing again.

Oooo… maybe I should mention she was conceived out of wedlock.

Yes! MSN Backgammon is another great distraction when the writing gets tough. I don’t know about cheat programs… That would be pretty pathetic. If anyone knows of a free online scrabble site open to U.S. citizens please let me know.

Hellbunny:

Ah, come on now. Christian bating (and by Christian, I mean the hypocrites and the fanatics) is like running over road kill.
You know exactly what is going to happen and you know they can’t avoid it. It’s just plain mean.

Sorry, Avedis. I couldn’t help it. I’m a solid believing Christian, but hypocrite bating is a favorite past-time of mine. (Un)Fortunately, I ended up on a good site, and people are encouraging me. (Darn)

I know what you mean. I love asking those questions they refuse to answer.
How do you detect a good Christian?
They admit that they sometimes have doubts and that there are questions for which they do not know the answers.
That puts them in the same camp as us good atheists.

I’ve met some very hypocritical christians. IMO. but I suppose its a free world, If they have their beliefs its up to them. I’m not interested in having them forced upon me. But if someone does I’ll give them a good arguement/ debate I mean.

Alright, new plan! I’ll bate the non-believers instead. After I get knocked around a bit, then I’ll start writing again!

There is a flaw in that plan… I happen to like Avedis and Maria. Hmmm… I guess it’s time to learn to play backgammon.

Curt. Check out www.pogo.com. They’ve got a version of Scrabble on there called QWERTY.

Hope it helps.

Baiting religious hypocrites is always entertaining (for short periods, as long as you don’t have to be around them all the time), regardless of what religion they claim. Ever encountered a hypocritical pagan? Kinda funny, in a pathetic way. Not that I’ve tried messing with such a person as a method of overcoming writer’s block…

Sometimes I have found that listening to the right music can be helpful. My clone-sib puts together “soundtracks” for stories he’s working on, and listens to that music while writing. Sometimes I’ll latch on to one song that I associate with a specific character to get me in the right frame of mind. (Emma Bull said that “something exciting on the stereo” is one of the requirements for a good writing environment; the other two are coffee and cookies.)

When all else fails, I talk to my major characters and ask them why they aren’t cooperating. :)

I go swimming.

Then I sit around a eat cakes.

Then I get depressed and punch the walls.

Then I drink gin.

Then the sentences come.

I dance. Naked.

Given the climate over here, and the lack of neighbors, that’s just normal daily behavior for me.

Avedis, as far as taking inspiration from a work of fiction, I felt the need to clarify a bit. I’m not talking about ‘fan-fic’ or anything like that. I’m talking about one line in a story that has given me inspiration. Or a part of a scene.

For example, Joe walks into the bar. Punches guy in face. Leaves bar. Goes home. Kills self. (Shortened version of every teenage angst story).

However, in the non-Cliff Notes version, I might pull out a line that is something like, “Purple elephants eat my face every night.” Then get inspiration to write about the evolution of purple elephants. It’s not plagiarism in any way. I don’t care about Joe in my story, rather, I care about the purple elephants and their evolution.

Probably a little obscure, but I think (and hope) that you get where I am coming from with that.

tnd:

Indeed I do.

My preference for getting some ‘input’ from real life as opposed to from books is a mute point really.
Someone says something, sings it, writes it, it’s all a thought from someone else really isn’t it.
Maybe it’s my decades of reading in the past, maybe it’s the interaction from ‘live’ sources, whatever – just an individual prejudice really.
I rarely do something like fall down a cliff and think, “Hey, I must write about that” – so inspiration usually does come from someone else.
I just like to think my observation process personalises it more.

Good thoughts and methods. Although Dancing naked is one I have tried to no avail. Eating cake only gets me more hungry. And trying to find inspiration in other things only gets me depressed as I usually come up with very dark stories.

What I do think gets me flowing more is to start a routine. So I will start again..