Wattpad Block Party - Summer Edition IV

_angelikamaria Presents: Conquering Writer's Block

Hello, y'all! I'm Angelika, _angelikamaria on Wattpad, an Austrian writer, and a cat person. I'm feeling very honoured and special to be part of this marvellous party again! Thank you, Kelly, for the invitation. It means a lot to me.

For a long time, I didn't know what my post should be about until I came to a decision. A certain disease EVERY writer knows—and occasionally suffers from it—has bothered me the past half year:

Writer's block.

This may have sent chills up and down your spine. Those wee, sneaky words love to get on our nerves, steal our motivation and creativity. For me, a lack of ideas is the worst.

So I did a lot of research to get myself inspired. Let me tell you, there are a ton of ways and probably not every single one will work for you. My favourites are listed below. I bet a handful of you've heard at least some of them before if not all. Anyways, I hope you still find them helpful or find new ones, so let's get started!

1. The Blank Paper Turns Into a Letter

Don't you hate it? You're looking at your screen and see nothing but white. Everywhere. As if the White Witch from Narnia has captured your document, barring spring to come and words to sprout.

Okay, so you don't have any ideas what to write about. You may know some scenes of your story, maybe you even want to write a specific scene right now, but you don't know how to get started. No problem. Try something else instead. This I find very helpful:

Don't force yourself to write it now. Think about your character. In which situations will you send him next? How does he feel about it? Have him write a letter to you, another character or a diary entry. Write down his feelings and fears so you understand him better. Once the words are flowing try to write the scene again and this time, you'll understand your character so much better!

Which leads me to my next topic I want to talk about:

2. Get to Know Your Characters

Often I feel like I don't know everything about my characters and am unsure how they'll react to certain things. I want to portray them and their relationships as realistic as possible, but that's no picnic. So here I have another easy task that will make you find out more things about your character.

You've seen them a lot in all of the past Wattpad Block Parties and may have found them fun to read. Trust me, they're also fun to write! Interview your character (or characters) and get to know them. Chat with them about anything and everything. Ask them silly questions, funny questions, serious questions, philosophic questions—anything you want. I love to ask them questions like, "Why are you about to do what you're about to do?" or "Do you regret doing...?" or "Why won't you speak to...?" Ask them how they're feeling about things they or other characters have done.

What I love is interviewing multiple characters at the same time. This way, you have the opportunity to have the characters interact with one another, fight, laugh, whisper—basically, anything that shows their relationship.

Once you've done an interview you're a lot closer to them. Hopefully, then you'll find it easier to write your story.

3. To Plot or Not to Plot, That Is the Question

Some love to plan every single detail of their story before they write it. Some just start writing and the ideas will come while doing so. Then again, some do both. Here we have the planners, the pantsers and the planters.