Writers Block

[Suicycho]

I am suffering terrible writers block. I have been working on Deadrise 5 for nearly 2 years now. I am stuck with roughly 80% of the story finished. I have the story outlined & plotted out. I know exactly what is going to happen in the final few chapters, but getting it written has just been brutal. But I am determined to grind it out. I have gotten a lot of positive feedback on the Deadrise saga ( in the fiction section) and am anxious to get this next installment submitted.

[rightwing401]

What works for me when I have writer's block is to think long and hard about the overall situation where I'm stuck at, then I play some music that fits appropriately to that scene. I've found a little mood music goes a long way towards getting the brain blood flowing. Sometimes I also try to imangine myself as the characters to get a feel on how they would react to certain situations. That's helped get me through a couple of slow places in my stories. But if all else fails, then I try to just write without giving too much time to think. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Hope this helps you out a bit and good luck with getting the rest finished.

[Neil]

What works for me when I have writer's block is to think long and hard about the overall situation where I'm stuck at, then I play some music that fits appropriately to that scene. I've found a little mood music goes a long way towards getting the brain blood flowing. Sometimes I also try to imangine myself as the characters to get a feel on how they would react to certain situations. That's helped get me through a couple of slow places in my stories. But if all else fails, then I try to just write without giving too much time to think. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Hope this helps you out a bit and good luck with getting the rest finished. I'm certainly no natural writer, so not really qualified to give out advice. But I must admit while writing "The Midas Touch", I fell into the problem of not being able to finish it, and having little/no time to do so, and in the end I just stitched it up as best I could to at least complete it. I also remember playing music a lot to get the creative juices flowing!

[Exatreides]

Whenever I'm stuck on a particular story. I simply write on a forum, another story, anything else for a little bit to try to spark something going for that story.

[wayzim]

I am suffering terrible writers block. I have been working on Deadrise 5 for nearly 2 years now. I am stuck with roughly 80% of the story finished. I have the story outlined & plotted out. I know exactly what is going to happen in the final few chapters, but getting it written has just been brutal. But I am determined to grind it out. I have gotten a lot of positive feedback on the Deadrise saga ( in the fiction section) and am anxious to get this next installment submitted. Preachin to the choir, I'll tell ya. Here's a small list of stuck/abandoned Zombie stories I have set up like ducks in a row. DeadFall; The Retreat. Sunday Afternoon Sermon: The Deviants ( a sequel, sorta, to Tuesday Morning Pick Up ) DeadFall; Fools on The Hill. Oh, and a recent start to a nicely macabre idea entitled Frostbidden. Part of my excuse was I'd been hammering away at a larger novel (currently set aside for Real Life issues ) all this time, but that's BS as I'd actually generated several new shorts for a few non Horror sites I've been contributing to. It's all nonsense in any case. We either write or we don't. Wayne Z Harlan Ellison To J Michael Strazynski - "You don't sell because you're writing Shit. Stop writing Shit and you'll sell. "

[krakenslayer]

I have a huge problem with this. My issue is that I already know everything that is going to happen in the story; I have been through the story and imagery many times in my head, planned it down to the tiniest detail. This means that turning those thoughts and images into words and grammar on a sheet of paper becomes a task of boring, grinding drudgery. The imaginative part has aleady been done, so the actual writing is nothing more than the petty, menial and repetitive task of regurgitating ideas by rote, tinkering with word order, structuring paragraphs, etc. I find it quite soul destroying after a while...

[BillyRay]

I have a huge problem with this. My issue is that I already know everything that is going to happen in the story; I have been through the story and imagery many times in my head, planned it down to the tiniest detail. This means that turning those thoughts and images into words and grammar on a sheet of paper becomes a task of boring, grinding drudgery. The imaginative part has aleady been done, so the actual writing is nothing more than the petty, menial and repetitive task of regurgitating ideas by rote, tinkering with word order, structuring paragraphs, etc. I find it quite soul destroying after a while... Thank you. I'm trying to write a script for a short film this weekend. I had promised to do it months ago, before the puppets took over. Now I've been called out to get it done, possibly storyboarded too. The beginning and ending are clear in my head. The middle is still undercooked, but I know how I'm getting through there. I just hate sitting in front of a computer, all alone, no tv & no radio (distractions). It's like a homework assignment that I could do easily, but I'd rather go outside to play.

[Rancid Carcass]

I am suffering terrible writers block. I have been working on Deadrise 5 for nearly 2 years now. I am stuck with roughly 80% of the story finished. I have the story outlined & plotted out. I know exactly what is going to happen in the final few chapters, but getting it written has just been brutal. But I am determined to grind it out. I have gotten a lot of positive feedback on the Deadrise saga ( in the fiction section) and am anxious to get this next installment submitted. I think what you're experiencing is usually refered to as resistance, rather than writers block - you've got your story you just need to do it. I take it you're finding 'other things' to do - I'll just nip to loo, make a cuppa, watch the news, then I'll do it, but something always seems to come up? It's quite common. If you're having difficulties break it down into smaller chunks, either write for just 1 hour or do three pages a day, but do it everyday. You'll get through it pretty quickly without taking too much time out of your day and avoid that sinking feeling you get when you've got an overwhelming mountain of work to get through. Small, manageable daily goals I guess is what I'm trying to say! Hope it helps.

[Suicycho]

I think what you're experiencing is usually refered to as resistance, rather than writers block - you've got your story you just need to do it. I take it you're finding 'other things' to do - I'll just nip to loo, make a cuppa, watch the news, then I'll do it, but something always seems to come up? It's quite common. If you're having difficulties break it down into smaller chunks, either write for just 1 hour or do three pages a day, but do it everyday. You'll get through it pretty quickly without taking too much time out of your day and avoid that sinking feeling you get when you've got an overwhelming mountain of work to get through. Small, manageable daily goals I guess is what I'm trying to say! Hope it helps. You nailed it! And thats what I've been trying to do.

[Neil]

You nailed it! And thats what I've been trying to do. Music always helped me... Linking this to another thread in the forum - http://forum.homepageofthedead.com/s...ad.php?t=16652 ie:- For example I played this track loads while I was writing "The Midas Touch":- Infact parts of it (eg: from 5:40) inspired the entire opening section...