One Stop Shop for Writing Inspiration: Writer's Block

You sit down at your computer, ready to write the next chapter in your story, but nothing happens. Your problem might be that you’re having trouble typing the words, but for 99% of you, that’s not the issue I’m talking about.

It’s writer’s block. Two words that cause writers so much frustration. It’s so infuriating that you’ll just want to rip the hair from your head. One taste of it, and you’ll never want to experience it again. Sometimes it can take weeks to shake it, while other times just hours or days. Hopefully, with my advice, you’ll be rid of this pesky problem in no time.

The Types of Writer’s Block

Well, slap me silly and call me sally. I never knew there was more than one type of writer’s block. I guess I’ve just been slopping it all together and calling it by one name. With that being said, these are the types of writer’s block:

• You can't come up with an idea.
• You have a ton of ideas but can't commit to any of them, and they all fizzle out.
• You have an outline, but you can't get through one part of it.
• You're stuck in the middle, and have no idea what happens next.
• You have a terrible feeling your story took a wrong turn a hundred pages back.
• You're bored with all these characters and they won't do anything.
• You keep imagining all the reasons people are going to say your story sucks, and it paralyzes you.
• You can't think of the right words for what you're trying to convey in one portion.
• You had this incredibly cool story in your head, and now you're turning it into words on a screen, and it's suddenly dumb.

The Classic: Can’t Come Up With an Idea

Personally, I hate this one the most. How hard can it be to come up with an idea? Turns out it can be quite hard to do so. Nothing infuriates me more than watching the blinking of the cursor against the blank backdrop of Word.

The first piece of advice I offer is to know that ideas are hard to come by and take time to form. Don’t expect to open your writing software and automatically have an idea and then beat yourself up when you don’t. Like all great things, ideas come with time. I recommend doing those cheesy writing exercises your English teachers have been making you do for ages. Not only will it help you generate new story ideas, but it will also enhance your writing skills as an author. It’s like killing two birds with one stone—metaphorically that is.

The one thing that never fails me in helping with the idea department is reading. For me, it gets those writing juices pumping. I’ll find a genre closely related to what I think I want to write, and by the time I’m done with the book, I have a clear idea of what I want to do.

The Frustrating: Ton of ideas With Commitment Issues

There they are—all these brilliant ideas just taunting you to be written. The only thing stopping you from writing them is commitment issues. You just can’t seem to like one enough to take the next big step, and when you do, they just fizzle out. Sadly, I can’t mend your relationship with Idea 1 or Idea 25. They unfortunately go into the pile I like to call, ‘It Was a Fling, Not Meant to Be a Thing.’ Okay, that may not be what I call the pile, but I do have one of those. My writing folder on my desktop is filled with multiple ideas that just weren’t working out for me. The good news, though, is you may be able to return in a few weeks or years and finally have that hot passionate relationship with Idea 25.

The Road Block: Stuck In the Middle with No Idea on What Happens Next

You’ve been doing so well and the words have been flowing, but one day you reach the middle and realize you have no clue on the next event. It happens. Possibly, you are spent and just need a little time to recharge those writing juices.

Try taking some time away from your story and come back when you feel ready. Re-read the chapter/section leading up to the point of doom to see if that jump starts the writing again. If it’s been awhile and the cobwebs are forming on your baby, make up a good plot twist, throw a wrench into the story, and take a sharp unexpected turn. Hopefully it helps and you discover an idea to help get yourself out of this jam.

The Fear: A Terrible Feeling Your Story Took One Costly Turn a Hundred Pages Ago

Possibly the worst thing you will ever experience with your story. For the first hundred pages, you’ve been feeling pretty good with each twist and turn you have thrown at your readers, only to realize it might have been one incredibly terrible mistake.

Option 1: Continue On

The Good: You don’t have to stop only continue writing in the way you envision the story to be now.

The Bad: You’ll have to venture back to this point and fill in everything that does not match up with the new vision.

Option 2: Retrace To the Mistake

The Good: You have now corrected that terrible mistake and won’t have to dwell anymore.

The Bad: Everything after that mistake will need to be corrected to accommodate it.

With either option just know you will have two entirely different parts that will need to match with the vision.

The Rejection: Paralyzed by the People Might Say, ‘Your Story Sucks’

I can almost guarantee you that this will not happen. Well, at least not on Mibba. Here, we don’t bite unless you ask us to. Actually, we still might not even do it then. Anyway, this is only natural. It’s happened to me. I spent so much time pondering what choice the reader wouldn’t laugh at or say is stupid. Just take a deep breath and relax. Your choices are nowhere near as bad as you believe. On a positive note, anything and everything can be changed.

Tongue Tied: Can’t Convey the Right Words For a Paragraph

I have this thing when I write that I must have just the right word in a sentence before I can move along. The whole story comes to a halt when I begin to be a writing perfectionist. If you are like me, welcome to the Writing Perfectionist Club, population you and me. It seems like you spend forever just searching for the right word to tie everything together. Without it, the whole cookie will crumble. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with this, but if you’re stuck for a long time, just throw a word in and change it later. The beauty of writing is revising.

The Let Down: An Incredibly Cool Story Turned into Words and Now It’s Dumb

This one could potentially be a real life problem. You are noticing that something is wrong with this “cool story”. You could scrap it entirely and forget that it ever existed, but chances are there is something worth saving. Better yet, what you think is dumb, could actually be that cool story all along! It could be that it just wasn’t your best go at it, and it just needs a little magic touch to bring that incredibly cool story to life. Give it a look over and see if there is any other way of going about writing it, maybe a different point of view or writing style is what is needed.

The Blah: Characters Won’t Do Anything

They sleep, they wake up and they live on the couch. Well, it’s not their fault they have yet to do anything else. You are your character’s life and excitement. Breathe it into them. You need to find the thing that gets them moving around. You haven’t found it. You are still searching for what they want and the conflict they need. Give them something that will get them springing off the couch and into action.

Hopefully, this will help in with whatever form of writer’s block you may be experiencing.