Writer's Block is an Excuse: Don't use it!

[Brovo]

Wait! Wait, don't put me to the torch! Let me explain, because this will improve your writing. Just give me a few minutes of your time, and I will teach you how to destroy this plague. It also involves a certain degree of life advice, which may sound weird now, but, it'll make sense later.

So, first, let's quickly (and objectively) define what writer's block is. Just so we're all working on the same page.

Writer's Block is when someone experiences a creative slowdown, typically to an absolute crawl or outright termination of the ability to write anything at all. It has afflicted professional authors, cartoonists, and others who do this sort of thing for a living.

So, what do I mean when I say that it's an excuse? Because it's, obviously, a real phenomena. Well, what I mean by it being an excuse, is that, simply saying "I have writer's block" and then succumbing to failure is an unhealthy way of approaching any problem in life. For example: Just because a TV Show writer may fall into writer's block doesn't mean they're suddenly off the hook for writing next week's episode. Imagine if you applied this sort of logic to a job, or schoolwork. "I don't feel like going to work today" means you're fired. "I can't figure out this math equation" means you get a failing grade. Therefore, throw away the self-defeating attitude of "I have writer's block." Remove that sentence from your vocabulary, it no longer exists, because we're going to adopt a healthier attitude to this problem. We're going to try and fix it!

Except, well, that definition is pretty vague and pretty broad. It includes a lot of potential things. So, let's break this down objectively, like a scientist. The first rule we will assume for anything writer's block related shall be applying the law of equal and opposite reactions. That is: Every effect, has a cause. Therefore, writer's block must be caused by something. So to solve a problem, we must first know what the problem is, and acknowledge it. Here's a list of the more common causes of writer's block that have affected me personally, or people I know.

#1: Emotional issues.
This afflicts everyone several times in their lives, throughout their lives. Emotional issues, depending on severity, will affect people in a myriad of different ways, but as a rule of thumb, emotions affect every facet of a person's life, including their hobbies. Which, yes, includes writing, of any kind.
Solution: This is extremely complicated and there is no universal answer to this, because it is usually entirely dependent on context. As a rule of thumb, though, you need to address whatever it is that is fucking you up internally and resolve it. Whether that's to gain more discipline and strength over your emotions, or to remove problematic aspects of your life that cause you emotional turmoil, you won't be able to focus properly on any hobby if you're suffering emotionally. You cannot master anything until you have mastered yourself, and that includes your emotions. It's part of growing into a functioning adult.

#2: Lack of inspiration.
Usually as a result of exciting distractions or when the allure of a newly started role play has worn off, one's interest peters out and all the excitement you had is gone. After that, it's hard to convince yourself to write anything, because nothing comes to mind.
Solution: You dun' fucked up. Discipline yourself, gain control, don't let yourself be easily distracted. Remove distractions, and focus on the story in front of yourself. Don't let excitement blindly lead you everywhere: Figure out your consistent interests, and join role plays that reflect those interests. You can figure out your interests by seeing what kinds of stories you consistently enjoy in other media, like games, films, and books. Role plays are group activities, you are making a commitment to the group that you will regularly produce content for the story with that group when you join one. You wouldn't seriously join a soccer team, or a hockey team, and then bail on everyone without warning a week later because you just didn't feel like kicking a ball, or skating... Would you?

#3: Too many distractions.
We live in a multimedia age where your cell phone has more processing power and applications on it than NASA's super computers had when they were calculating mankind's first trajectory paths to reach the moon. It's very easy to be excited by a role play--or, hell, to be planning on doing anything at all--and then losing yourself in the massive amount of noise that is generated by the things around you instead. This is a problem. A problem you need to remove to the best of your ability.
Solution: More discipline (more on that later), and removing all the distractions located in the spoilerbb below.

A list of distractions

1. Instant Messengers: Constant visual/auditory attention grabbing. Your focus is turned from writing a story to responding to your friends. "It's just a quick question" you think to yourself as you think of a witty reply. Two hours and a few hundred messages later, the story page is still blank, and you've forgotten what you were trying to write.
2. Music: Some say it helps, some say it hinders, but let me teach you something about the way human brains tick. Whenever the brain hears spoken words, it tries to understand them, taking valuable brain power away from whatever other things you're thinking about, like writing. Ergo, songs with lyrics, are probably your worst enemy. You want pleasant sounds, something to put in the background, something that melts away life's distractions around you while you zone in on whatever it is you're doing. So you probably want something more like this, or this. Something with minimal to no lyrics, and which is primarily a series of continuous sounds, something that'll keep you calm, and steady, and focused. If music of any kind distracts you, but you still need sound to mute out the outside world, try this. Whatever it is, ensure you don't have to constantly press "repeat" on it, that will distract you too.
3. Video Games: Games. GAMES. Probably one of my biggest vices personally, especially if a new game has come out. Why? Because it's easy. You load a game and you think "ah I'll just play a few minutes" and before you know it, it's 3 AM and you're writing a guide about writer's block... Completely unrelated, obviously. Anyway, the best thing you can do for yourself is shut off Steam/Origin/GoG/Battle.net/et cetera, and keep those programs closed until you're done writing. If you are absolutely totally excited about a new game and can't stop thinking about it, let everyone know you have a new game you are absolutely dying to play, and then go completely ham and binge/obsess over it for a couple of days. Get it out of your system. Go ahead, do it, and then come back. Better to binge for a couple of days and work it out rather than struggling against temptation for two weeks straight and writing nothing because you can't stop thinking about it. You may also want more discipline, but we'll talk more about that later.
4. Sugary Foods/Tons of Caffeine: Really, anything that will wire you up into an energetic state is bad for writing. Writing is a thinking man's activity. You sit in one place for a long time, and think of a scene, series of actions, lines of dialogue, et cetera. Sugar and caffeine wake you up, they make you alert, they push you to do things physically. Writing is mental. Stop drinking energy drinks, soda, eating candy, or other garbage like that a couple hours before you start writing, or you're only going to torture yourself.
5. YouTube, Netflix, Movies, Television: These are bad for all the same reasons that instant messengers and video games are bad. It combines both of them into one category. Close your YouTube tabs, shut off Netflix, turn off the TV, and don't put in the extended blu-ray edition of Lord of the Rings.
6. Hunger & Other Bodily Woes: Don't try to write while your bladder is full. Don't try to write while starving. Don't try to write when your body is physically giving you signals compelling you to act on its woes, deal with the woes first. The brain is only as sharp as the body allows it to be.

#4: You don't know what to do with a device, object, piece of scenery, et cetera.
This usually happens when attempting to describe something you're unfamiliar with. You stare at the page, and you don't know what to do. Instead of writing anything, you choke, and nothing gets done. You beat yourself up and start blaming it on our good old friend, writer's block: The nasty whale of the sea has struck again, and has taken your leg from you. Yarr.
Solution: You will encounter this all of your life. You simply... Did not know. You lack knowledge. If you're trying to describe how something works but you have no idea how it works (ex: guns) look them up on Google and YouTube and Wikipedia, and spend the day learning about them. Come back to the post the next day, now armed with more knowledge than you had before. If you know how they work, but just don't feel confident describing it and that's what's stopping you, go down to the "perfectionist" entry, which is #6.

#5: Trapped in a scene.
So, you managed to get past the opening choke, and are in the midst of writing an exciting scene with players around you. Suddenly, in the middle of the scene (or perhaps the end of the scene), you come upon a terrible realization: You have no idea how to progress this scene! It was all going perfectly before, but now, you don't know how to fix it. You aren't sure how to resolve the problem you just created.
Solution: What you've just done is write yourself into a corner, and now, you don't know how to get out of the problem you've created for yourself. Whether that problem is that you lack any motivation for your character in the scene, or you created an obstacle too humongous for them to reasonably overcome. The solution to this is to go to the OOC and ask for help from your partner (if it's a 1x1), or fellow players/the GM (if it's a group RP). If they have no idea how to solve it either, ask them if it would be okay to go back to an earlier point in the story, or if you can have a "miracle" occur where your character suddenly finds a way to resolve the problem even if it's hard to believe (ex: a deus ex machina device). Learn from your mistake, and plan future scenes better next time. If you aren't planning out how scenes will go (at least some rough guideline about them), you uh... You should probably start doing that. Narratives don't spontaneously come into existence, you have to create them yourself. At least have some idea what the current scene is going to be about--what the objective of your scene is (more on that below). After all, if you have no idea where you are, how are you supposed to know where you're going?

#6: Perfectionism.
Everything you write is terrible, so why bother writing at all? There's always someone better than you. You'll never be better than Game of Thrones or Lord of the Rings...
Solution: You are your own worst critic. All works have flaws, all stories have errors, all people make mistakes. Atop that, entertainment is a purely subjective point of view: Some people will love what you write, others will hate it, no matter what you do. There are people out there who hate Game of Thrones and Lord of the Rings. So don't worry about it. Don't worry about what others will think of your work, or how imperfect it is, simply write it. Create it. Do not let the fear of failure rule over your life, you will become a stronger, healthier person for it in the real world, and it will allow you to improve your writing too. You cannot learn how to walk without falling down first.

#7: Limited by Character.
You create Loner Joe, the world's most underrated Avenger. Except, why would Avenger Joe care about any of the people around him? How can you justify him doing anything at all? You just trapped yourself in a scene again, but this time, it's because you have no idea what your character would do.
Solution: This is a two pronged solution. First, make sure your character always has a motivation to see the situation at hand resolved. If they don't have a motivation, then when you get in their head to write for them, neither will you. Second, if your character is of the non-social variety (ex: won't start conversations), then make plans with other players to have your characters physically bump into each other, or be forced into a situation where they must interact. You're the writer, you have more tools than just the character itself to get scenes going, but a lot of people act as though they're limited by their characters, and thus give themselves writer's block.

#8: Not enough time.
You really do mean to post on time, you do, but you just keep failing to find the time because of other responsibilities in your life.
Solution: Make time or don't role play. Really goes hand in hand with most hobbies. You don't become a better musician without putting time into it, you can't participate on a sports team if you don't make time for it, and you can't role play unless you consistently have some time to respond to role plays. You may also want to control how many role plays you join: Joining too many at once will make it harder to keep up and induce writer's block.

#9: I forgot about the role play I joined. Completely.
...
Solution: Install a calender app and put a daily/weekly reminder on it to check your role plays. If you still can't remember...

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Those are ways to combat writer's block when you encounter it. Now, here's a few tips to avoid getting it in the first place.

Mindset: Never allow yourself to succumb to the words "I can't." You will not accomplish anything in life that way. You can, you simply have to try. If you fail, get back up and try again, and again, and again, until you figure out a solution and make it work. Writer's Block occurs more frequently to people who beat themselves up and give up whenever they encounter problems.

Fellowship: Most writers have friends and family they go and talk to in order to bounce ideas for their novel. Have you ever wondered why most TV shows and video games have multiple writers on staff? It's mainly for this reason: Idea bouncing. As a role player, you have an inherent advantage in that you always have at least one other person you can talk to about the story to plan things out and work on issues with. USE YOUR FRIENDSHIPS TO COMBAT WRITER'S BLOCK! Friends can help you! Let them help you, and help them when they need it! Hell, a random discussion with friends about writer's block is what prompted/inspired me to write this guide about it! (Thanks @Snakey & @RedWillow really, among others. )

Take a Break: No, really. If you're just aggravating yourself, take a step back. Go grab a snack (not a sugary food) out of the cupboard, listen to some music, and think about the scene you want to write. Don't focus on the problem, focus on the potential for the scene. Once you do that, the problem won't seem so big anymore, and you can go back and tackle it later.

Discipline: See? I told you we would come back to this. If you want to become good at anything, unless you're some kind of incredible genius savant, you need to discipline your mind. Be in control over yourself, so you can better fight off distractions and discord in your life. The more control you have over your mind and yourself, the more power you will have to defeat writer's block and focus on your stories. As a bonus, it will help with other parts of your life, too. SO LEARN DISCIPLINE OVER YOURSELF!

Plot things out: Forgive the pun, but you really should have some loose idea of what you're doing. You don't need to plan out the entire story from front to back, but when you start a new scene, have an objective for that scene. At least one. Even if it's something as simple as "George and Martha walk into a bar to share a drink and small talk, thus developing their relationship." When you have an objective for a scene, you'll know what to pursue, and by extension, what to do. Which, even if you're suffering from a creative hiccup or a series of distractions, at least allows you to continue the story, because you know how to continue the story.

Maintain physical and mental well being: This shouldn't have to be said, but, well, here it is. I'll be your parents and remind you to eat decent food, brush your teeth, shower regularly, do some sort of physical activity so you can keep yourself healthy, et cetera. As said above, your mind is only as sharp as the body allows it to be. If you are suffering physical health issues, it will spill over into your mental state. The two are inseparable, don't kid yourself otherwise. As for mental issues, you have to address them. Whether that's a disorder you get treated with therapy and/or medicine, or emotional scars you have to overcome. Any mental barrier that prevents you from writing properly, or dictates when and where you can write, is your enemy as a writer.

Write something, anything: No, really. Do it. Even if what you write is complete garbage, remember that nothing's final until it goes to print. In other words, you can write total trash, but once it's out of your head and in the post box or word processor, a gem of a good idea might be in there, and you can edit around that good idea. At the very least, you keep the story going--you can always fix it later. The edit button will always be there. You can always retcon mistakes you've made with others around you so long as you practice some good old Fellowship.

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Alright. There. I'm done now. I've taken a few minutes of your time to explain myself. If you still wish to stab me with a pitchfork, go ahead. If, however, you've learned something, then I'm glad I could help you. Because you'll never become a better writer until you can at least understand and fight against your inner demons of ego, impatience, and doubt. I'm not at all saying that I'm better than any of you when I write this guide because, well, hey, sometimes I still fall into a writer's block and I have to fight it too. Thing is, aside from one point this year where my life fell apart and I had to walk away to deal with it, (which I came back from a month later), writer's block doesn't stop me from posting anymore. It hasn't in almost two years. It can slow me down, or cause a delay to a post, but it never stops me from posting anymore. And all I wish to do, with this provocative thread title, is to get your attention and hopefully help you defeat your demons, so you can become a better writer... And, even, to a certain extent, a happier person.

 

[Pahn]

You cannot master anything until you have mastered yourself, and that includes your emotions.

After all, if you have no idea where you are, how are you supposed to know where you're going?

If you fail, get back up and try again, and again, and again, until you figure out a solution and make it work.

USE YOUR FRIENDSHIPS TO COMBAT WRITER'S BLOCK! Friends can help you! Let them help you, and help them when they need it! Hell, a random discussion with friends about writer's block is what prompted/inspired me to write this guide about it! (Thanks @Snakey & @RedWillow really, among others. )

The more control you have over your mind and yourself, the more power you will have to defeat writer's block and focus on your stories.

As said above, your mind is only as sharp as the body allows it to be.

Any mental barrier that prevents you from writing properly, or dictates when and where you can write, is your enemy as a writer.

Write something, anything: No, really. Do it. Even if what you write is complete garbage, remember that nothing's final until it goes to print. In other words, you can write total trash, but once it's out of your head and in the post box or word processor, a gem of a good idea might be in there, and you can edit around that good idea. At the very least, you keep the story going--you can always fix it later. The edit button will always be there. You can always retcon mistakes you've made with others around you so long as you practice some good old Fellowship.

^ TL;DR

Thank you for this guide, I think it pins down a lot of concerns and excuses some writers are afraid to admit to. Just the distraction and healthiness parts are, I think, underrated when it comes to one's ability to concentrate properly to express creativity (whether it be writing or other artistic venues). Your mind becomes less cluttered, you breathe better.

Cheers mon ami!

 

[The Mood is Write]

Beautiful! I'm sending this to all my friends!

 

[☆Luna☆]

I just came out of a pretty big case of writer's block. This has been my first experience with it, so I really just had to take a long break from writing. I think in my case, it was most certainly caused by my sudden change in lifestyle. I recently got surgery to fix an infected ingrown toenail. Turns out that physical activity is important to my creative process, since being in bed all day did a number on my ability to immerse myself in my character. Now that I'm up and about again, suddenly the block is gone, and I'm replying to all my RPs. I'm glad that everyone showed me a lot of patience in getting through it.

I liked how this guide addressed the various aspects of writer's block and gave people a path towards doing something about it. Great work as always Brovo :).

 

[Shounen Senpai]

My unmoving and hesitant fingers and arms said otherwise. No one can conquer laziness. Especially on vacation.

TORCH 'IM.

 

[Hades]

I like what you wrote and would like to talk a little bit about my personal troubles that make some RPs freeze...

1 - Lack of time - this is out of my control - at my house I lack privacy and time to RP, I own no smart devices I do it from my working desktop computer at work, sometimes I have time sometimes I don't, I am always honest about it and avoid creating false expectations in me partners.

2 - Lack of interest - this is often a result from lack of time, when I start and RP I am thrilled with a new idea, I am in a certain mood and mindset, if I can keep like at least on post every couple days I can cling to it, if I don't there's a high chance that I'll just lose interest and if I lose interest I drop the RP. RPs are my escape from reality, if I rely on escapism to get on with the overwhelming circumstances I live in, there's no point pursuing an RP that's not giving me any pleasure and only blocking me from engaging into more interesting RPs.

3 - bad partnerships - this is not blaming the partner, everyone is great, some people just don't work together, sometimes me and a partner plot really awesome stuff together, but then when it comes to RPing my partner ideas and preferences are incompatible with mine and I am left with two choices, have an RP that gives me no fun at all, or pressure my partner to do things I want, sorta forcing my partner to have no fun at all... neither option is good, so, when I have no good options behind door number 1 and door number 2, I choose door number 3, in this case the one that leads out of the RP.

I really enjoy reading this thread and wanted to share this thoughts :)

Cheers all!

 

[Daedilus Rius]

The few reasons I have found for 'writers block' are:

1. Real life stress- I notice I seem to let stress drain me and makes it difficult to do the thing I love
2. I have found in the past my 'inner writer' wants more with role play, whether it is making a new character to break away from your main OC or I need to step up my writing style and I will admit I get into a routine it makes it hard for me to try something new.
3. You and your character lost the big message they want to communicate through the writer. This kills me more than the other reasons cause it feels like you lost a piece of yourself.

 

[Ner0]

The few reasons I have found for 'writers block' are:

1. Real life stress- I notice I seem to let stress drain me and makes it difficult to do the thing I love
2. I have found in the past my 'inner writer' wants more with role play, whether it is making a new character to break away from your main OC or I need to step up my writing style and I will admit I get into a routine it makes it hard for me to try something new.
3. You and your character lost the big message they want to communicate through the writer. This kills me more than the other reasons cause it feels like you lost a piece of yourself.

Allow me to help with these issues:

1: Try and think of writing as a destresser, because that is what it is. The things you love exist to leviate your stresses, use them for such.

2: Routine is bad, I agree. A way to solve this is too let your character evolve. As your character has more experiences, their opinions and motives should always be changing. This is a dynamic character, and when done right it can feel like a living breathing person when read.

3: This one does suck, but again it is all in how you control the flow of your character and how you look upon it as an issue. As I mentioned in point 2, your character should be constantly evolving. In turn this would mean that their message is changing. Remember too that you are in a collaborative rp. Other characters are going to rain on your parade. The greatest example of this would be during an old rp I took part in when a Character named Valen came in contact with another character, Jeremiah Knox. Within the first three pages of the IC Jeremiah had murdered all of Valens' family and completely ruined the original intention my good friend had for playing the character. But he rolled with it and eventuall Valen became one of the deepest characters in the entire rp.

Change is good, and if you are always open to it your characters will sprout their own beauty.

 

[Karakui]

Personally I feel that distractions actually help with writers block. When you're staring at a blank page, I think people get into a habit of repeating the same thought in their head over and over, attempting to make sense of it but never really getting anywhere. If you spend some time not actually thinking about it, a new idea might pop into your head and give that one a go. It's finding the balance between distractions and focus. Getting distracted too much is obviously bad, but letting your mind wander to whatever's on the TV in the next room for a couple of minutes can refresh your attitude. It also helps approach the same thought from a different perspective.

 

[Brovo]

I like what you wrote

1 - Lack of time - this is out of my control - at my house I lack privacy and time to RP, I own no smart devices I do it from my working desktop computer at work, sometimes I have time sometimes I don't, I am always honest about it and avoid creating false expectations in me partners.

#8: Not enough time.
You really do mean to post on time, you do, but you just keep failing to find the time because of other responsibilities in your life.
Solution: Make time or don't role play. Really goes hand in hand with most hobbies. You don't become a better musician without putting time into it, you can't participate on a sports team if you don't make time for it, and you can't role play unless you consistently have some time to respond to role plays. You may also want to control how many role plays you join: Joining too many at once will make it harder to keep up and induce writer's block.

If you lack privacy, either write without privacy, or don't write. Inform future people you are role playing with that your posts may be sporadic because you don't have a consistent time to role play, otherwise you are setting up false expectations for others. Since you have a job, you could save a few pennies for a couple months (or a year if you're poor) and get a cheap laptop to write posts on, giving you the privacy to write wherever you please for a couple hundred bucks. There's always a cheap solution to most any problem, just have to look for it.

Also, no cell phone? Or still a flip phone? Mate, there's lots of cheap smart phones out there. Even I have one, even if I barely use the damn thing. Can be nice to write some notes down on it while on break at work though, or while outside in a park getting some fresh air.

2 - Lack of interest - this is often a result from lack of time, when I start and RP I am thrilled with a new idea, I am in a certain mood and mindset, if I can keep like at least on post every couple days I can cling to it, if I don't there's a high chance that I'll just lose interest and if I lose interest I drop the RP. RPs are my escape from reality, if I rely on escapism to get on with the overwhelming circumstances I live in, there's no point pursuing an RP that's not giving me any pleasure and only blocking me from engaging into more interesting RPs.

#2: Lack of inspiration.
Usually as a result of exciting distractions or when the allure of a newly started role play has worn off, one's interest peters out and all the excitement you had is gone. After that, it's hard to convince yourself to write anything, because nothing comes to mind.
Solution: You dun' fucked up. Discipline yourself, gain control, don't let yourself be easily distracted. Remove distractions, and focus on the story in front of yourself. Don't let excitement blindly lead you everywhere: Figure out your consistent interests, and join role plays that reflect those interests. You can figure out your interests by seeing what kinds of stories you consistently enjoy in other media, like games, films, and books. Role plays are group activities, you are making a commitment to the group that you will regularly produce content for the story with that group when you join one. You wouldn't seriously join a soccer team, or a hockey team, and then bail on everyone without warning a week later because you just didn't feel like kicking a ball, or skating... Would you?

Joining RP's and then dropping them a few days later is rather impolite to other people involved who may be investing even more time than you into the idea. It's fine to bail if you lose interest, but try not to make a habit out of it--this is what causes other people to start feeling worthless and shitty: When people keep bailing on them every few days. It's highly discouraging. It doesn't make you a bad person for dropping an RP, but always try to improve the lifetime values of your RP's when you can--such as learning what consistently has your interest, and pursuing it.

3 - bad partnerships - this is not blaming the partner, everyone is great, some people just don't work together, sometimes me and a partner plot really awesome stuff together, but then when it comes to RPing my partner ideas and preferences are incompatible with mine and I am left with two choices, have an RP that gives me no fun at all, or pressure my partner to do things I want, sorta forcing my partner to have no fun at all... neither option is good, so, when I have no good options behind door number 1 and door number 2, I choose door number 3, in this case the one that leads out of the RP.

If communication (Fellowship) fails because of irrevocable differences in desired direction for stories, then yes, let it go. That's the right answer. Just make sure to ask the other person how they feel about your ideas first--you never know, they might enjoy writing it and simply didn't ask for it. Even if it wasn't what they originally intended.

1. Real life stress- I notice I seem to let stress drain me and makes it difficult to do the thing I love

Aye. Stress in general is fatiguing toward any hobby or endeavour you'll do in life. Ergo, if you have too much stress, attempt to reduce the stress. If it's elements in your life outside of your control, attempt to plot a path away from those elements when possible.

Again, as with the emotional answer, there is no "easy answer" to life's problems. All I can say is that you'll need to deal with the stress before you can focus on your writing at full strength.

2. I have found in the past my 'inner writer' wants more with role play, whether it is making a new character to break away from your main OC or I need to step up my writing style and I will admit I get into a routine it makes it hard for me to try something new.

To be honest, there's nothing entirely wrong with routine. Having a stable method merely means you've found a pattern (or series of patterns) that works for you. Change for its own sake is not always a good thing. That being said, wanting to try new things is a healthy mindset, just ensure that the new ideas aren't always crushing old ones--you can't develop something into a grand story filled with obstacles and emotionally fulfilling moments without a little patience.

3. You and your character lost the big message they want to communicate through the writer. This kills me more than the other reasons cause it feels like you lost a piece of yourself.

I admit not being sure I understand.

If you have a "big message" or "grand point" you want to make with your character, there's generally two ways I've found to fix that.

1. Never give the choice to walk away from that major message. (Ex: "All roads lead to Rome" meaning you'll always get to Rome no matter what path you choose to get there.)
2. Reset the circumstances for the message later on in the story if it's missed early on. (Ex: If the message is about a character injury and you miss it on your first attempt, make a second attempt of it later.)

It's rare for a story to go 100% according to plan, so always plot things out and have backup plans in case something integral fails. This is the art of writing a plot, and not just a premise.

1: Try and think of writing as a destresser, because that is what it is. The things you love exist to leviate your stresses, use them for such.

+1. Also, consider that every emotion in your life serves a purpose. Anger, frustration, and sorrow are not bad emotions--they are simply emotions. Express them, as you would in anything in life: Balance is key. If you need to cry, then cry. If you need to yell, then yell. Just ensure you remain in control so if someone needs you for something else in that moment, you can hold off until later. Nothing good comes of bottling up emotions until you're so stressed out that you have a mental meltdown.

2: Routine is bad, I agree. A way to solve this is too let your character evolve. As your character has more experiences, their opinions and motives should always be changing. This is a dynamic character, and when done right it can feel like a living breathing person when read.

Routine isn't necessarily bad, but, yes. Characters do need to grow. A character that experiences no growth is stagnant, and there is little interesting to read about "John smashed the enemy." Best way to invoke change is to put the character in a situation where they experience loss or failure, thus forcing change in order to avoid that state of loss or failure again. If it's outside of their control, it can at least result in emotional maturity.

3: This one does suck, but again it is all in how you control the flow of your character and how you look upon it as an issue. As I mentioned in point 2, your character should be constantly evolving. In turn this would mean that their message is changing. Remember too that you are in a collaborative rp. Other characters are going to rain on your parade. The greatest example of this would be during an old rp I took part in when a Character named Valen came in contact with another character, Jeremiah Knox. Within the first three pages of the IC Jeremiah had murdered all of Valens' family and completely ruined the original intention my good friend had for playing the character. But he rolled with it and eventuall Valen became one of the deepest characters in the entire rp.

Change is good, and if you are always open to it your characters will sprout their own beauty.

Most people would have rage quit after murdering a family off like that. Rolling with it and evolving it into part of the plot to continue the story in interesting directions which you found fulfilling? That's fantastic!

Personally I feel that distractions actually help with writers block. When you're staring at a blank page, I think people get into a habit of repeating the same thought in their head over and over, attempting to make sense of it but never really getting anywhere. If you spend some time not actually thinking about it, a new idea might pop into your head and give that one a go. It's finding the balance between distractions and focus. Getting distracted too much is obviously bad, but letting your mind wander to whatever's on the TV in the next room for a couple of minutes can refresh your attitude. It also helps approach the same thought from a different perspective.

DRAT. I KNEW I WAS FORGETTING SOMETHING.

Yes, sometimes, the best solution when you're staring at a screen and drawing a blank is to walk away from it and engage in other activities. Don't walk away for too long though--you want a few minutes, maybe an hour to goof around and relax.

In the "video games" entry for distractions, I do mention that sometimes the best answer is "just walk away from RPing and enjoy your new shiny thing for a couple days."

 

[The Mood is Write]

Yes, sometimes, the best solution when you're staring at a screen and drawing a blank is to walk away from it and engage in other activities. Don't walk away for too long though--you want a few minutes, maybe an hour to goof around and relax.

Actually did this on accident last night, and because I ended up snuggling my cat and unable to move from my bed, I posted two posts on my phone. Would have done three, but my phone was dying.

 

[LogicfromLogic]

#8: Not enough time.
You really do mean to post on time, you do, but you just keep failing to find the time because of other responsibilities in your life.
Solution: Make time or don't role play. Really goes hand in hand with most hobbies. You don't become a better musician without putting time into it, you can't participate on a sports team if you don't make time for it, and you can't role play unless you consistently have some time to respond to role plays. You may also want to control how many role plays you join: Joining too many at once will make it harder to keep up and induce writer's block.

This I am a little more hesitant to agree with. It depends on who you are and what you do for a living, and what exactly is going on in one's life. For some people roleplaying is a coping method but sometimes work and other real life issues have got to take the time you would have used in a roleplay. However, on the flip side, if you are that busy in your real life that you cannot maintain a roleplay life as frequently as you used to and/or wanted to, you should make that part very clear to your partners.

A great example is I'm a stable hand at a very high end farm, I get up at the crack of dawn and get back late afternoon, and sometimes I am far too tired to respond. I don't like rushing through a response, it makes my writing sloppy and really hard to respond to. I get one day out of the week that I have off, and work 30 hours every week.

But I love my roleplays and being able to share my writing with other people. But with my hours and what I do, it takes a lot out of me. But I set up time sometime in the week vs. every day that I respond.

In a way I do agree with what you are saying @Brovo, it makes a lot of sense. But I must add that partners should have one thing clear; Real life comes before roleplay life. A roleplay can wait, life however is not patient.

 

[Brovo]

This I am a little more hesitant to agree with. It depends on who you are and what you do for a living, and what exactly is going on in one's life. For some people roleplaying is a coping method but sometimes work and other real life issues have got to take the time you would have used in a roleplay. However, on the flip side, if you are that busy in your real life that you cannot maintain a roleplay life as frequently as you used to and/or wanted to, you should make that part very clear to your partners.

A great example is I'm a stable hand at a very high end farm, I get up at the crack of dawn and get back late afternoon, and sometimes I am far too tired to respond. I don't like rushing through a response, it makes my writing sloppy and really hard to respond to. I get one day out of the week that I have off, and work 30 hours every week.

But I love my roleplays and being able to share my writing with other people. But with my hours and what I do, it takes a lot out of me. But I set up time sometime in the week vs. every day that I respond.

In a way I do agree with what you are saying @Brovo, it makes a lot of sense. But I must add that partners should have one thing clear; Real life comes before roleplay life. A roleplay can wait, life however is not patient.

Note, that the advice in point #8 isn't "post every day" or "put role playing above real life." It merely states, simply, "make time or don't role play." If you have only one day a week you can consistently post, that's okay--just be consistent. My own role plays usually only advance every week or two. In fact, #1 states that there is no universal solution to emotional problems, and at the very beginning of the guide, I state that writer's block is a real thing that affects people. I'm not proposing to drop all other responsibilities for a hobby, just that this hobby entails a certain level of responsibility to maintain. So, ideally speaking, you should be ensuring that in your busy life schedule, you make time for it.

Not that said time should come at the cost of everything else in your life. Y'know, don't abandon your waifu and laifu. Just... Hobbies take time. C'est la vie.

 

[LogicfromLogic]

Note, that the advice in point #8 isn't "post every day" or "put role playing above real life." It merely states, simply, "make time or don't role play." If you have only one day a week you can consistently post, that's okay--just be consistent. My own role plays usually only advance every week or two. In fact, #1 states that there is no universal solution to emotional problems, and at the very beginning of the guide, I state that writer's block is a real thing that affects people. I'm not proposing to drop all other responsibilities for a hobby, just that this hobby entails a certain level of responsibility to maintain. So, ideally speaking, you should be ensuring that in your busy life schedule, you make time for it.

Not that said time should come at the cost of everything else in your life. Y'know, don't abandon your waifu and laifu. Just... Hobbies take time. C'est la vie.

Point taken, just felt like sharing that sentient though. I've run into a many a problems with people growling that I'm never on (granted they are the minority here) taking things literally.

 

[Durandal]

Completely disagree

 

[Brovo]

Completely disagree

... Gonna provide a reason why, by any chance?

 

[Durandal]

... Gonna provide a reason why, by any chance?

I just do, I don't really wanna debate it as I don't have any involved analysis of that, I just find the premise that 'it's just an excuse when you have writer's block' to be completely wrong.

I just don't think you're right about that

 

[Brovo]

I just find the premise that 'it's just an excuse when you have writer's block' to be completely wrong.

It has afflicted professional authors, cartoonists, and others who do this sort of thing for a living.

So, what do I mean when I say that it's an excuse? Because it's, obviously, a real phenomena.

We're going to try and fix it!

Key word: Try.

I'm not proposing that writer's block isn't real (because it is), or that writer's block can always be fixed with the above methods, or that writer's block is always coherent and understandable, or that if you succumb to writer's block that you're a bad person. This guide attempts to dispel a defeatist mindset: That if you have writer's block, you shouldn't even try to fix it, because it's writer's block. You should always (within reason) try to defeat writer's block, make it your enemy. Make it an issue you can try to work through. I wrote it specifically because I see a lot of people on Iwaku just instantly give up the moment they have writer's block, or use it as an excuse for other, more explicable reasons as to why they can't focus. (Ex: Distractions.)

So, psh. Read beyond the thread title, you'll see I'm not bashing people for being afflicted by writer's block from time to time. I just want people to stop defeating themselves with it before they even try to fix it.

 

[Delusional IIV Idol]

I disagree with you as well, people all have there own reasons for having writers block.

 

[Brovo]

I disagree with you as well, people all have there own reasons for having writers block.

Writer's Block is when someone experiences a creative slowdown, typically to an absolute crawl or outright termination of the ability to write anything at all. It has afflicted professional authors, cartoonists, and others who do this sort of thing for a living.

So, what do I mean when I say that it's an excuse? Because it's, obviously, a real phenomena.

Except, well, that definition is pretty vague and pretty broad. It includes a lot of potential things.

Here's a list of the more common causes of writer's block that have affected me personally, or people I know.

If you're going to make a criticism for someone's work, at least ensure that you're criticizing a point that is actually made. Otherwise it's not useful, and I can't fix this (or future) guides.