Profile Guide | ZeninaD

Writer's Block: A Total Inconvenience

Since I have been stuck and people usually complain about writer's block very often, I am writing down all the tips and tricks that have worked for me in overcoming it in the past (and I hope these work out now too, I am going to try all one by one).

A long time ago, I had written help books on my original account Purplemist14 so the following excerpts are taken from there with a few modifications to suit the DC theme of this account.

Of course there comes a time when all of us experience this and unfortunately, I am currently going through it. Either authors lose the inspiration to write or they are stuck in a situation knowing not what to do with their story next.

What exactly is Writer's Block?

Writer's block is a condition, primarily associated with writing, in which an author loses the ability to produce new work, or experiences a creative slowdown. The condition ranges in difficulty from coming up with original ideas to being unable to produce a work for years.

[Definition credits go to Wikipedia].

Following are some ideas for you to overcome writer's block:

* Brainstorming

Now this method works all the time. Brainstorming is great when you are stuck at a story.

For instance, let's suppose you're writing a story on Tim Drake's life and you are stuck. All you have to do is relax and take a paper and pen.

On the paper state in bullets the important events you have covered in your story and also list all the events that would follow according to the timeline present in the Wiki (but for DC, no one really cares about the timeline so make one up on your own, it doesn't matter).

In that way you will get a clear mental outline on all the important events that will take place in the story and trust me, once you get a hold on the main stuff, you will be easily able to add in the chapters which lead to the main events.

You should always set a goal before proceeding towards it and in this case, the main events become your goal and the filler chapters or other chapters constitute the journey.

This is called Brainstorming. And it helps a lot.

Also, when you're not progressing in your writing, write/note down everything you can think of, even if it's bad. Lower your standards and keep writing. You can refer to them later and might conveniently construct a new idea.

In other words, don't be a perfectionist at this point of time, just write what you can think of, as you can always edit it later. Even if it's not related to what you're currently writing, write it down. It might come in handy in your next projects. Abandon nothing when it comes to writing ideas.

* Collective Suggestions

Collective Suggestion means asking a friend on what should be done. Taking other people's suggestions always helps.

If you are stuck and don't know what to do onwards, worry no more. Ask a friend or a continuous reader on what he/she thinks about the story so far. This not only helps you out by getting to know what your readers are expecting from you but it also makes you a quite approachable writer.

Authors don't always take reader's suggestions because they have this slight issue of what would their readers think about them if they did, whether their story counts would drop or some such sort of unnecessary phobias.

Trust me, there is nothing wrong in asking for an opinion.

In fact, readers feel more connected to the story in that way.