#writersnetwork

[lannegarrett]

[byoldervine]

Types Of Writer’s Block (And How To Fix Them)

1. High inspiration, low motivation. You have so many ideas to write, but you just don’t have the motivation to actually get them down, and even if you can make yourself start writing it you’ll often find yourself getting distracted or disengaged in favour of imagining everything playing out

Try just bullet pointing the ideas you have instead of writing them properly, especially if you won’t remember it afterwards if you don’t. At least you’ll have the ideas ready to use when you have the motivation later on

2. Low inspiration, high motivation. You’re all prepared, you’re so pumped to write, you open your document aaaaand… three hours later, that cursor is still blinking at the top of a blank page

RIP pantsers but this is where plotting wins out; refer back to your plans and figure out where to go from here. You can also use your bullet points from the last point if this is applicable

3. No inspiration, no motivation. You don’t have any ideas, you don’t feel like writing, all in all everything is just sucky when you think about it

Make a deal with yourself; usually when I’m feeling this way I can tell myself “Okay, just write anyway for ten minutes and after that, if you really want to stop, you can stop” and then once my ten minutes is up I’ve often found my flow. Just remember that, if you still don’t want to keep writing after your ten minutes is up, don’t keep writing anyway and break your deal - it’ll be harder to make deals with yourself in future if your brain knows you don’t honour them

4. Can’t bridge the gap. When you’re stuck on this one sentence/paragraph that you just don’t know how to progress through. Until you figure it out, productivity has slowed to a halt

Mark it up, bullet point what you want to happen here, then move on. A lot of people don’t know how to keep writing after skipping a part because they don’t know exactly what happened to lead up to this moment - but you have a general idea just like you do for everything else you’re writing, and that’s enough. Just keep it generic and know you can go back to edit later, at the same time as when you’re filling in the blank. It’ll give editing you a clear purpose, if nothing else

5. Perfectionism and self-doubt. You don’t think your writing is perfect first time, so you struggle to accept that it’s anything better than a total failure. Whether or not you’re aware of the fact that this is an unrealistic standard makes no difference

Perfection is stagnant. If you write the perfect story, which would require you to turn a good story into something objective rather than subjective, then after that you’d never write again, because nothing will ever meet that standard again. That or you would only ever write the same kind of stories over and over, never growing or developing as a writer. If you’re looking back on your writing and saying “This is so bad, I hate it”, that’s generally a good thing; it means you’ve grown and improved. Maybe your current writing isn’t bad, if just matched your skill level at the time, and since then you’re able to maintain a higher standard since you’ve learned more about your craft as time went on

[edgar-allan-homo]

One thing that really annoys me is when writers refuse to let their female characters be eccentric. Like, yeah they pass the bechdel test, yeah they drive the plot forward or whatever, but they just don't get the same attention from fans as the male characters because they aren't allowed to be interesting!! They are reasonable, maybe slightly annoyed at other characters' antics at times, maybe somewhat motherly or very solemn and serious or just a completely normal person – let girls be freaks!! Let girls have weird habits and stupid impulsive ideas and let them be a little short-sighted and arrogant and unintentionally funny!!!! Let girls start out as people with genuine character flaws that they can work through and let them have potential to improve and let them be on par with male characters not only in strength but also in wit and in character.

Thanks for coming to my TED talk.

[fevermuffin]

What’s hotter than an outline? An outline within an outline. Your story finally has flow and detail. Now you can write your chapter with ease. (Just kidding — it’s still painful.)

[alairmena]

Take your writing motivation dose for today:

You will finish that WIP.

You will find people that like it.

You will be recognized by someone as a living legend that you are.

It may not happen today, but it will happen. Stop the worries, stop the overthinking. You got this, you goddamn living legend.

[rheas-chaos-anthology]

REMINDER

THE POINT OF A PLOT TWIST IS TO ENRICH YOUR STORY, NOT OUTSMART YOUR READERS!!!! SPRINKLE IN YOUR FORESHADOWING!!!! LEAVE CLUES!!!

(im not saying to spell it out/make your plot twist cliche or boring. we are going for a "how did I not see that coming" vibe)

[daily-haley]

🗣: Writers need to have social media presence!

Me:

I think Tumblr is okay for now, I like it over here🫶

[teatimewithtanawrites]

POV: You meet another fantasy writer in the wild.

Them: “I just got published.”

You: “How?!”

Them: “Like it’s hard?” (cue Elle Woods moment 💅)

For every writer who’s been working the craft for years and meets a “newbie” who’s suddenly thriving. It’s hilarious. It’s painful. It’s relatable.

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