Do you suffer from Writerus Blockitis?

[sun-star]

Writer's block is the bane of my life. I have the plot, the characters and what I want to say about them, and I sit in front of the computer and can't work out how to say it. Then I feel like a failure . Somehow I only write freely when I have other things I'm supposed to be doing...

I feel lucky that I don't have all your problems with names. I'm not a fantasy writer, so my main characters are currently called Alice, Jonathan, Claire... It's much easier that way (though I did stretch a point and call one character Dorian, in a weak moment )

[Aralyn]

A cup of coffee usually cures writer's block for me. Or people watching. I get stopped in the middle of stories when I'm not sure how to end it but I don't stop writing. I write a poem or a descrip of something or thought writing to get myself thinking so I don't think I really get Writer's Block that often (but I still like the coffee)

[Earniel]

I don't think I've actually experienced a writer's block before but then again I'm probably not writing long enough to have one. I'm sure it'll come up when I write bigger parts and for a longer time.

What I do have from time to time is plot blocks, when you realised something is screwed up in your plot and to remove the error is to remove a part that you really want in it. In this stage writing is not involved yet. Having to figure out a way around the problem without removing the parts that you like, tends to happen annoyingly often with me.

So far I've always found a way around it. But it happens often that I simply let that part of the story be for a while and think out another episode of the story or simply another story. When I return to the first problem, sometimes after months, a solution tends to come more quickly.

[Lalaith]

No, I didn't really have Writerus blockitis, but I suffered from being stuck in the story. You know you have different parts of a story and if one part is told to it's end, you have to think of a new one. That was rather difficult for me. I had no problems when I found a new storyline, but without ... uh, can't think of it.
I hope you understand what I mean.

[Elvellyn]

We had a substitute teacher in Agriculture class today, so I figured it would be a good time to work on my story. SoI sat there and the whole period the only words that would come to my head were "Mim the Petty-dwarf". Of course once I got to softball practice, I had plenty of ideas.
Writerus Blockitis is cured at the most annoying times.

[Coney]

Originally posted by Elvellyn
Writerus Blockitis is cured at the most annoying times.

Ain't that the truth

I've kept a notepad in my bedside cabinet for years..........inspiration has an annoying habbit of hitting just as I'm drifting off to seep.

I once had a great idea for a story while I was at the dentist......couldn't remember it after the tooth butcher had finished working on me.........but I know it was a great idea

[Laurelyn]

I suffer constantly from that dreaded disease! I stare blankly at my paper/screen and say, what next? Then after a while I find some way to put off working on it. Which is what I'm doing now . . . .

[elvendrummer87]

omg, sometimes i think i have perpetual writers block! I'll start writing, and i'll get to page 5, and i won't know what to put next! i like to think of it as stop drop and roll: you stop writing from lack of ideas,
you drop the story, and procrastinate as long as possible until you get an idea,
and then when you know what to put next, you read what you've qritten so far and end up rolling on the floor laughing at the stupidity of what you wrote before!

[Kalile]

Yeah, I see what you mean. I started a novel when I was eleven, I think, and worked on it for months, got to twenty pages, and couldn't get back to it. Still, every time I look at it, I get no writing done because it sounds so juvinile I change everything.
To those who have trouble with names:
a.String together letters until one sounds right. It usually works. b.Make nature names like Wintersky or Snowfire.
c.Find a cool name in a book and use it, or change a few letters
d. Be liberal with apostrophes. They add new pronunciation to a name. ex. Darian ---- Dar'ian
Tobias----Tob'ias or T'obias

[Aralyn]

Originally posted by Kalile
Yeah, I see what you mean. I started a novel when I was eleven, I think, and worked on it for months, got to twenty pages, and couldn't get back to it. Still, every time I look at it, I get no writing done because it sounds so juvinile I change everything.

Yeah I do that. By the time I go back to proofread it I've changed the story completely

[Kalile]

It's a real pain. sigh.

[Ninquelote]

Originally posted by Kalile
To those who have trouble with names:
a.String together letters until one sounds right. It usually works. b.Make nature names like Wintersky or Snowfire.
c.Find a cool name in a book and use it, or change a few letters
d. Be liberal with apostrophes. They add new pronunciation to a name. ex. Darian ---- Dar'ian
Tobias----Tob'ias or T'obias

Names made like that all sound really silly, like the creator cheated on making names or something... I mean, if the names have to carry a certain theme, then nothing you've stated works.

[Indril Anarion]

There are times when I just get the biggest block a writer has ever faced...to get me back in the mood, I listen to music, go outside, read a book with the same genre as the book I'm writing, or just take a break...inspiration strikes in the wierdest moments...

Like right now, I am beginning my fourth book in a series of 5. I've been working on this project for like 2 years already, you'd think I'd be finished by now, especially since the books are too short for a novel, yet too long for a short story...

Oh, well, that's the life of a writer/student

[Kalile]

Originally posted by Ninquelote
Names made like that all sound really silly, like the creator cheated on making names or something... I mean, if the names have to carry a certain theme, then nothing you've stated works.

Well, themes can be a problem, but if your setting is a fantasy world then it's great. My username came from Kalilae, but I took the "a" out, and I have an entirely different name.

Really, the name Tom started as someone stringing sounds together. Sometimes the best names come that way. I think the name Janera, for example, is lovely, and I made it up two seconds ago.
And the nature names actually come directly from a series of Mercades Lackey books.

These may not work for you, but they've yet to fail me.

[IronParrot]

"a.String together letters until one sounds right. It usually works. b.Make nature names like Wintersky or Snowfire.
c.Find a cool name in a book and use it, or change a few letters
d. Be liberal with apostrophes. They add new pronunciation to a name. ex. Darian ---- Dar'ian
Tobias----Tob'ias or T'obias"

The first three aren't bad points of advice, but as a reader - please, for the love of all that is good and holy, don't start with the apostrophes.

[Kalile]

Ok then, scratch that last. At least there weren't two and three apostrophes - I've seen that. Ouch!

[Gwaimir Windgem]

I personally don't think the apostrophes are that bad. I've used them on ocassion, to try and get across the correct pronunciation.

[Kalile]

Well, I like Dar'ian, but some people do get a little weird. A while back, I knew a girl named E'leshia who would yell at whoever didn't pronounce it right.

Moderation in apostrophes!

[Lief Erikson]

I don't think it's bad either. I used the name Drarian once for a character in an RPG. Apostrophes aren't that bad either, though I don't use them at all often. The only character I can think of in my book who has an apostrophe in his name is It'Madiv.

But I do always try to fit the name to the personality, so that makes finding my names a little more complicated than your finding yours, Kalile. Though the process is basically the same- stringing together cool letters, and such .

[Gwaimir Windgem]

That's pretty much what I do, though for some in my stories I use a form of rudimentary language (no doubt even more boring than my pantheon stuff ), and in Tolkien I always do my best to make sure that my names fit in well with him.