Writing

Depends on the day, really, but I usually do some combination of the following. (I mostly write non-fiction.)

• Read a bunch of different books
• Take notes as I’m writing, writing down any thoughts I have or anything that captures my interest (I do this for both fiction and non-fiction)
• Look back over my notes every now and then, looking for recurring themes or interesting links
• Schedule some time for writing and, when I sit down, copy a random note into a doc
• Add any relevant notes and move things around until I have the basic skeleton of something

Basically, I do a bunch of little things too, (a), stoke my curiosity and, (b), do as much as possible before I need to write anything.

I’m also a copywriter by trade and I do similar things when I’m stuck on a project. They mostly boil down to “If I can’t think of one idea, think of 20.” It’s much easier to aim for volume instead of quality (and edit for quality later).

Apologies for responding to an old thread, but I'm newly joined and excited to participate. :-)

Best advice I've heard for this is - Make a goal that you will write one sentence per day. And write that one sentence no matter what. No matter if you do think it's bad.

The reasoning is - some days you will just sit down and write one sentence, and that's fine. But other days you'll find that sentence turns into a paragraph, or a page, or five pages. But if you never sit down to write that one sentence, you never give the chance for those other days to happen.

That advice came from B. Dave Walters from the podcast "Writing about Dragons and Shit" - which is my second bit of advice to you - find a writing podcast you like and listen to it regularly.

I'm on my third pass through the back catalog of "Writing Excuses", but there's a few I listen to. I get motivation, inspiration, and education from them and I try to listen to at least one episode of one writing related podcast daily. It keeps me thinking about my story and usually makes me daydream about how something they are discussing would work in my story.

And I don’t want to force myself because maybe then it turns out to be just bad, you know?

Also - and I say this as someone who is still a couple tens of thousands of words away from the end of my first draft - you are going to have to revise your draft when you are done no matter whether you think it came out bad or not. So don't worry about that.

Another B. Dave Walters nugget: "The worst thing you write is better than the best thing you don't write." An awesome story that lives only in your head lives only in your head.

Hope this is helpful and good luck! I have a hard time getting started again when life gets in the way sometimes too.

Another suggestion is to check out some writing prompts and see if anything jumps at you. I don't write much, but when I do it's because an idea just... sticks to me. @morgiedama mentions dreams, which sometimes inspire me as well.

Unfortunately my favorite source of writing prompts is r/WritingPrompts (currently in the process of saving the ones I've marked over the years) but hopefully there are other sources around as well that might jump start the creative juices a little.

First of all, howdy!

Secondly, for me I go through prolonged stints of writers block or at least motivation issues (like right now) and sometimes I just wait for inspiration to strike. Like it could be a dream I had or a random idea I got from song lyrics or something that just popped into my head. It's not the best way to do things but it's how I function at the moment.

But I think that writing in general is a good way to get past writers block. I don't mean writing a story or novel or anything worth while, but rather journaling or random streams of consciousness. Something to get you in the writing habit and putting words on the screen or paper. Who knows this may spark some ideas and get you unblocked!

Hope this helps!

When in doubt, I refer to my outlines. I'll find the next story beat and skip to it, then find a way to bridge the gap later. I'm definitely more of a plotter than pantser (a painful lesson to learn btw), so having a roadmap really helps.

Hmm, I never have general writer's block beyond being too tired/unfocused at the moment. If I have trouble with my main story, I have two side stories I am slowly developing, plus short stories set in the same world as my other stories, plus lore excerpts I can write for the world ... yeah, I always have something to write about.

I guess I have enough confidence from feedback that my writing itself is decent enough quality, so I don't suffer there. As for whether or not people like my work, well, I've got feedback there too. It's not as popular as I would like, but I know at least a decent number of people enjoy it, and I really want to tell this story anyway, so I am going to continue.