Coming from someone who would love to be writing at the moment, but can't seem to string two words together: What are the best methods of dealing with writers' block? We've all encountered the same problem at one point or another, you want to write your fic, but your completely devoid of inspiration, the words don’t simply come the way you'd like them to. You can struggle, and force yourself to make sentences just to get the job done (or get to a part of your storyline that doesn't seem to be blocked), but if you do, your story might suffer, On the other hand, you have to write something soon if you ever want another chapter posted. So what is the best method of tackling writers' block?

I find myself facing this problem constantly. For whatever reason, I always think of the middle or ending of a story first, and getting there becomes a major issue. More often than not, I find myself staring at a blank word document. Recently, I started listening to music while I brainstormed. For my Indiana Jones fic in particular, I listen to the soundtrack repetedly, or a song I imagine goes along with the mood of the chapter. This has helped me out a lot because I can see the story clearer in my mind if there's music to go along with it. And I always have a journal and pen with me wherever I go, so I don't have to keep ideas locked in my head until I reach a computer.

:P I understand the feeling. I too find that I have some parts of my fics very nicely planned, and I can't wait to write them, but once I start to, I realize that some parts of individual chapters are more developed in my mind than others, and the underdeveloped ones give me a block. I wish music worked for me, the only thing that cures my problem is writing something else (this has caused a mass up of uncompleted one-shots on my computer), or read a fic with a similar scene, or a well written novel. For example, in my current CCS fic, I'm stuck on a CxY scene, so I took to reading other Clow x Yue fics. Sometimes my only solution is to overhaul the section I'm stuck on and try it again differently. Perhaps not the best method, but the only sound one I've come across.

Hi! I too had writer's block with my Story Gochikku Hon'ya, and one day, I was imagining on the bus. I was thinking of sequals, and POOF! I can now finish my story, and I'm having fun creating everything again! :3

I too listen to music while I write my story, and it works wonders. I sometimes will replay a song over and over to get the idea of the scene I'm writing.

I hope I helped! =3

I love listening to music while writing, too, and depending on what is happening in my story I listen to calming or fast-paced music, or sometimes I listen to sad music so I can connect with my/the characters in the story better for whatever's going on. I try to understand their feelings so I can convey better how I want them to react. Sometimes if I feel like I made them act a little weird I go back and re-write it, either writing more realistically, or sometimes I want them to react crazily/strangely to things. My mood probably comes across a lot in different chapters of stories I write.

I also write down stuff that I want to include in my story right away, no matter where I am or what time it is, or else I know I'll forget it and even if it's for chapters that I haven't written yet. Even if it's a minor event, just for comedy, a small event that will help a bigger one later, or a solution for a big problem, I get a notebook and write it down because sometimes ideas just come at me like a bolt from the blue. Although I usually get ideas for what I want my characters to do, and what I want to happen in the story in the present and future, just by thinking a lot, I also get inspiration from things my family members and friends and even my pets do and I write down the ideas on paper for those times too. I hope that helped a bit, those are usually just things that I've noticed I do.

XP I envy you all. Listening to music seems to be a pretty popular remedy. A friend of mine actually recommended me that same thing last year when I had hit a major block and couldn't even think how to start a chapter. I think above all though, a tactic I've discovered recently (and never heard on the site, so maybe this could be useful to somebody) is focusing on the narration when you don't know what to write. Lately, I've been switching my writing mode from third person subjective to the occasional moment of universal omniscient, and it's really quite fun. Stepping back a moment, and writing about something else entirely different—the finer features of the clock in a particular character's house, for instance—or else working ** a description or other purely narrative bit seems to lead me more easily into greater character-based sections which were previously giving me trouble. If nothing else, it makes for a more interesting narrative :P

I also can sympathize with Sanlris, I’ve also had that problem that I’m trying so hard to write one section, but can’t stop thinking about some ‘brilliant’ idea I’ve suddenly had for a bit 20 chapters down the road or so. Personally, I wish I could do like you’ve mentioned and write it down when ideas occur, but somehow, whenever I give in to my eagerness to jot some things down to use later, by the time I actually *get* to that scene, I usually hate what I’ve written and have to start over. :P I kind of just keep the whole storyline stuffed in my head. One think I’ve found that does help me though, is to create an outline of how events in the story are supposed to flow, family trees, maps of important locations, and things of that nature so that I have a pile of ready-made information that I can just look up quickly and incorporate into the story as I have need for it. Research of a topic seems helpful too (on an unrelated note, sorry). If I want to say, incorporate a doctor’s character in a pre-modern fic, then whenever I get stuck on his character, I might research a bit what his practice would have been like, and a lot of the times, it gives me inspiration of something I can talk about for a bit till I get back on track.

No, you're right about the research thing. I've found myself doing a lot of research for a story I'm writing now and it's been really fun. Some days I don't write much--I am writing, but then hit a point where I realize I don't know much about what I'm writing so I just stop and start researching stuff. I've looked up locations and found out a lot of interesting stuff about a place I put my characters in--it's fun :) Plus I couldn't just write stuff without knowing about it--it'd drive me crazy, you know what I mean? I try and make sure I get facts and location information right or else I can't take what I've written seriously...it's kind of funny.

The story I'm writing now is in the late 1800s so I be careful to not accidentally mention something like someone turning on a light switch or having a character using some other form of modern technology. It's a little hard sometimes to remind myself that the characters can't start using a cell phone but it's a fun challenge and it keeps me on my toes. ^^

I like that you mentioned having a character like a doctor in the past and researching a doctor's job back then. That's what I like about writing a story not set in modern times...most things were different and it's fun to look up those differences.

I never thought about doing family trees. I have two characters and they're related but they're the only family members I really think about. If I did any kind of tree for my story, it'd probably end up being a 'Friend Tree', but maybe that's also a thing that helps writer's block (or at the very least it sounds like a fun thing to do).

Nice to know I'm not crazy for the researching thing. :) It's interesting that you mention location, because I discovered after posting the first few chapters of my current fic that the village I had made up does in fact exist in roughly the same part of the world I had portrayed is as. It was quite creepy, but of course, as a result, some of my facts about the area are incorrect. I suppose that's a case in point for researching location before hand, as you suggested!

It's also nice to know that someone else is bothering to care about the time difference between now and the century/decade they’re writing about. I couldn't tell you how many times I've seen fics where people underestimate how far back some innovations (like glasswork, mirrors, clocks) date, and at the same time overestimate how recently others have come into play. It's really kind of shocking to see how misconstrued history can gradually become among a fan fiction community simply because so few people care to research. I agree with you, however: I think it's wonderful fun :D !

On a similar note, I feel your struggle with the 1800s. So many changes were occurring all over the world in that century that it must be quite a handful to keep straight what state society was in during the events of your piece! I'm working a story right now set (at the moment) in 1682, and hoping to end in 1814 myself, so I defiantly know what you mean about being worried about technology. I was once so worried about the lighting problem that I spent over an hour researching the history of oil lamps to find out if they were in common use!

As for the family trees, it's only something I've done for my most recent piece because it's a past-fic and because it spans so many decades. I've drawn up floor plans for buildings and maps for towns and the like for other projects, though, and it seems to help me keep things straight. (And it is kind of fun too, particularly when you can't think what to write next but want to stay in the mood :P)

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