Do you suffer from Writerus Blockitis?

[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.

[Ninquelote]

Ach, my setting is fantasy, and thus I try to keep a certain theme within the names among certain groups of people.

[Kalile]

Well, back to writerus blockirus.

I finally got going on a story that I really think I can finish, and I lost my notebook at school... Waaaah!!!! Still looking, and thank you to this forum and thread. I really do think I can finish it now.

[frodosgirlfriend]

*sob* My story I’ve been working on for a year (40 pages) and it's been going so well! I want to write it, there a part i really want to get to and I know once I do I'll have no trouble writing at all. I plane out my story before I write it and I’m between two major parts and i can't think of anything to put in between!

[IronParrot]

I haven't worked on my novel in three weeks. This, my friends, is what video game addiction does to you.

[Earniel]

That's not suffering from Writerus Blockitis, that's a serious case of Videogamitis. But I know from experience that's just as bad.

[The Ben]

Originally posted by IronParrot
After several attempts and rewrites over the past three years, my full-length novel is still on the fourteenth page.

Anyone else having a similar problem? Of course. Now fess up.

You bet I do. I ... oh darn it. What should I write? lets see... lets see...

[Tamuril Sirfalas]

Originally Posted by IronParrot

After several attempts and rewrites over the past three years, my full-length novel is still on the fourteenth page.

Anyone else having a similar problem? Of course. Now fess up.

ok right now i am on my 20th page and am very stuck! the second novel is on its like 48th page and i cant seem to get inspired.help!!lol

[Curubethion]

Originally Posted by Me

To get unstuck, you might want to consider throwing in a dilemma of minor to grand scale. Possibly tie it into the plot...

Or, if you're getting hung up on a scene, write its conclusion as is, and go on. You can edit later.

This is the best advice I can think of now...

[Acalewia]

Agreed. Writing the ending helps a lot. For me I've had problems with how to word minor events leading up to a major event. Which is the problem im having with one of my novels.
If your having problems with names, sometimes a baby name book will help. Of course this depends on the type of story your writing. It's not very helpful with fantasy, I've found.

[Lady Marion Magdalena]

First, I think if you`re willing to spend that much time re-writing a couple of pages a million times, why not just do it after you`ve got more done?

Minor obsessive-compulsive tendencies? It makes sense if you think about. After all, what are stories except ideas which the writer becomes fixated on to the point where they keep growing and eventually become too large for the writer's mind to handle at which point the writer puts them down on paper.

If one couples the ability to be so obsessed with an idea that it becomes a full fledged story with perfectionist tendencies then the compulsion to rewrite small chunks over and over and over again emerges.

Or it could just be a reaction to the discovery that if one does 'get more done' and then decides to change a key idea, suddenly instead of just a few pages to rewrite one has an entire book to revise and a lot of that revision will turn out to be scrapping and starting from scratch about half the scenes one has already struggled through.

So those of us who rewrite as we go are either obsessive-cumpulsive, perfectionists, lazy or a combination of the three.

If your having problems with names, sometimes a baby name book will help. Of course this depends on the type of story your writing. It's not very helpful with fantasy, I've found.

That is a difficult trap to get out of... if you find you've used names whose meanings depend on real-world linguistics/culture in a fantasy world and you really don't want to have to change the names of all your characters there are a couple ways to gloss it over.

First: Don't use the melting pot rule of naming. Readers are more likely to notice that the names have been transplanted if you take names from several different languages and mix them together. Instead give groups of characters who share orgins within the fantasy world names which share linguistic orgins from this world.
e.g. Give characters from Kingdom A names derived from germanic languages and characters from Kingdom B names derived from sanskrit.

Second: Perfect the other elements, if the reader is enjoying the story enough they'll probably forgive the name discrepancy. Also known as the 'They'll never notice...' principle.

And speaking of writerus blockitus... I should really be working on a short story for creative writing right now. Oops!

[Serenoli]

I think I have, for quite a while, suffered from the re-writing problem. Which is why, for a long long time, I never progressed beyond page 3!

And, recently, i told myself what Katya says, (not in so many words, of course) and I'm glad to say its disappearing... with occasional relapses... I think I'm rather lazy, and a perfectiontist.