Tips for writer's block/lack of inspiration?

[pk.]

I'm sure we have all had times where we wanted to write something down but have had trouble doing so, for whatever reasons, and was wondering how you deal with such issues? Any tips? Any insights?

 

[ForEverAfter]

When I sit down to write, I find it's best to let inspiration come to me rather than trying to force it. Writer's block, for me anyway, tends to happen when I think too much about what I'm writing and whether or not it is worthy of being written. You don't need to have spectacular ideas or incredible concepts. Sometimes it's best to just start writing, and see where it goes. Even if you have to throw away the first ten or twenty pages.

thujone posted some good suggestions recently in the workshop thread

generate ideas for a plot by engaging in activities you wouldn't normally pursue. bonus points if it involves meeting new people. all nature is full of challenges, and all lives are full of stories.

This is great advice. Go out somewhere, with no plan, and for no reason. Observe people. Talk to them. Public transport is a great source of inspiration because you encounter such a wide diversity of people and can eavesdrop on their conversations. Leave the car at home, jump on a random bus and see where it takes you. Always works for me.

 

[Max Power]

read.

 

[hydroazuanacaine]

"lower your standards" is common, and i buy it to some extent.

 

[xxxyyy]

read.

this is easily the best advice to give. also foreverafter is on to something, forcing creativity never works.
also, i know this is very much contrary to everything this forum is for, but drugs have sometimes helped me, to a limited extent. it never works when i drop whatever substance with the expectation that it will make writing easier/better, but at times when i least expected it, drugs have been an incredible muse. above all else, opioids, but to a lesser degree amphetamines too.

 

[CoffeeDrinker]

read.

Absolutely!
A poetry teacher once told me a quote from someone I forget, but I'll say it's his because it is: "If you write more than you read, and if you talk more than you listen, you will always be an amateur."

The "Just do it" approach is also undeniably helpful.

Also try looking for that book I told you about once called "The War of Art" by Steven Pressfield, any tip I could give you he has already figured out, and then some.

 

[pk.]

Awesome, thanks for the advice, looks like I'll be spending a lot of time in the library this month =)

 

[Max Power]

forcing creativity never works.

"don't try" - bukowski

if it doesn't come bursting out of you
in spite of everything,
don't do it.
unless it comes unasked out of your
heart and your mind and your mouth
and your gut,
don't do it.
if you have to sit for hours
staring at your computer screen
or hunched over your
typewriter
searching for words,
don't do it.
if you're doing it for money or
fame,
don't do it.
if you're doing it because you want
women in your bed,
don't do it.
if you have to sit there and
rewrite it again and again,
don't do it.
if it's hard work just thinking about doing it,
don't do it.
if you're trying to write like somebody
else,
forget about it.
if you have to wait for it to roar out of
you,
then wait patiently.
if it never does roar out of you,
do something else.

if you first have to read it to your wife
or your girlfriend or your boyfriend
or your parents or to anybody at all,
you're not ready.

don't be like so many writers,
don't be like so many thousands of
people who call themselves writers,
don't be dull and boring and
pretentious, don't be consumed with self-
love.
the libraries of the world have
yawned themselves to
sleep
over your kind.
don't add to that.
don't do it.
unless it comes out of
your soul like a rocket,
unless being still would
drive you to madness or
suicide or murder,
don't do it.
unless the sun inside you is
burning your gut,
don't do it.

when it is truly time,
and if you have been chosen,
it will do it by
itself and it will keep on doing it
until you die or it dies in you.

there is no other way.

and there never was.

 

[CoffeeDrinker]

I totally disagree, you can definitely force it. "Fake it till you make it" isn't just a slogan for people going to AA ime.

Writing something well, and feeling like you wrote something well, are two totally different things. Plus, there's no harm in writing something that you forced, if nothing else it's an exercise. It's not like every time you sit down to write you're trying to have the words on that page published.

That Bukowski piece is a little too preachy for my tastes. It really doesn't make sense to me. Forcing yourself to write is good for your mind. Not slaving away fruitlessly and getting a cramp in your back from being hunched over a note pad or keyboard, but just doing it without inspiration for only a few hours will never hurt you. The need to feel inspired is an insidious form of writers block, and that Bukowski piece only fuels that type of resistance to which this thread was dedicated. I do like the second half of that poem though.

 

[hydroazuanacaine]

if i didn't force, i wouldn't write anything but bluelight posts.

 

[ugly]

Use a search engine. Enter writer's block.

You will find so many pages of suggestions you won't know what to do.

I have found brilliant guidelines for creating characters, doing foreshadows, writing flashbacks, and even plain old journal suggestions.

When I taught, my students had to journal the first five minutes of class. That way I could take roll. Also, I got to know the students better than their other teachers because they wrote about their lives.

Those journals often cured MY writers block.

It's a beautiful thing.

 

[CoffeeDrinker]

if i didn't force, i wouldn't write anything but bluelight posts.

lol agreed.

 

[Max Power]

I totally disagree, you can definitely force it.

I can't. Well, technically I can but it's not enjoyable and personally has never produced anything remotely close to productive or helpful, even by association. This holds true for other aspects of my life as well, not just writing.

 

[Thou]

Since I started writing fiction which took years to gain the courage to do, I find that my mind automatically creates parts of the story, universe parameters, plot, characters, etc. It's really interesting. This usually happens when I'm just walking about, or lying in bed awaiting sleep, I like it.

Today I just today started experimenting with my dexedrine to really dig into it. I wouldn't advocate it, but I've apparantly legitimate focus problems, so I don't think it's cheating. Plus the mind is so clear and the memory retention becomes quite pronounced on ideas conjured up sporadically long ago.

Lenny Bruce use to shoot pure methedrine and his standup is some of the best around, philosophically and just plain fucking hilarious.

George Carlin was doing 5 grams of cocaine per day at one point. Writers tend to get into lush though, no stage fright I suppose.

 

[ugly]

Greg Giraldo? Was he abusing anything?

I know Mitch Hedberg was abusing something... I adored him. I still do.

Sam Kinison was amazing on stage... holy shit. He filled a whole room with electricity. I know he has some substance muses too.

I miss those guys. When I start looking at youtube clips I get sad. I really miss them.

 

[ForEverAfter]

"If you write more than you read, and if you talk more than you listen, you will always be an amateur."

I disagree with this. I know a lot of writers who read way too much, for this reason, and it destroys their ability to write. While reading other people's words can inspire, it's important not to rely too heavily on reading to inspire. In the end, writing is more important than reading. Much more important, in my opinion. Writers should write more than they read. Or, at the very least, it should be pretty balanced. You don't need to read a thousand great novels to be able to write one. The most common advice I hear for writers is what Max Power said:

read.

I know hundreds of writers. Most of them spend the vast majority of their time reading. What I've noticed is that the writers I know who spend the vast majority of their time writing, rapidly improve their skills. The same cannot be said for readers. Somebody said, I forget who, you need to spend ten thousand hours doing something to master it. This is true for writing, I believe. You can spend ten thousand hours reading, and remain a terrible writer; but if you put in same amount of time writing, you will improve dramatically.

And, I agree with CoffeeDrinker - that you can force yourself to write. In fact, I think you have to. If you wait for inspiration, you will not get the hours you need to master the craft. You may not be able to force inspiration, but you can certainly force yourself through a writer's block. Doesn't matter if you write crap. Don't be too critical of yourself. Quantity is more important than quality at the early stages of a developing writer's career. That might sound crazy, but it's true. When you start writing, if you limit yourself to a high standard you won't write anything. So lower your standards (as hydro said) and just write.

 

[Thou]

Greg Giraldo? Was he abusing anything?

I know Mitch Hedberg was abusing something... I adored him. I still do.

Sam Kinison was amazing on stage... holy shit. He filled a whole room with electricity. I know he has some substance muses too.

I miss those guys. When I start looking at youtube clips I get sad. I really miss them.

Don't forget Bill Hicks who loved to proclaim "I've taken my own body weight in psilocybin mushrooms." "Today a young man on acid realized that all matter is merely energy condensed to a slow vibration, that there's no such thing as death and we are the imagination of ourselves. Here's Tom with the weather." Tool sampled that forget which album. It's not a war on drugs, he would argue. It's a war on personal freedom, and he was quite ahead of his time in this regard (as far as comics went). He was sober when he died though, had been 5 years or something like that.

He was friends with Kinison and all those other cats. He was one of us. But yeah check out Lenny Bruce if you have time he was killed by an overdose of police.

Also Joe Rogan who I don't find funny but he's consistently venerating psychedelics and I even just saw him in a few short spots narrating "DMT: the spirit molecule." Great documentary, better book. I digress.

I disagree with this. I know a lot of writers who read way too much, for this reason, and it destroys their ability to write. While reading other people's words can inspire, it's important not to rely too heavily on reading to inspire. In the end, writing is more important than reading. Much more important, in my opinion. Writers should write more than they read. Or, at the very least, it should be pretty balanced. You don't need to read a thousand great novels to be able to write one. The most common advice I hear for writers is what Max Power said:


I know hundreds of writers. Most of them spend the vast majority of their time reading. What I've noticed is that the writers I know who spend the vast majority of their time writing, rapidly improve their skills. The same cannot be said for readers. Somebody said, I forget who, you need to spend ten thousand hours doing something to master it. This is true for writing, I believe. You can spend ten thousand hours reading, and remain a terrible writer; but if you put in same amount of time writing, you will improve dramatically.

And, I agree with CoffeeDrinker - that you can force yourself to write. In fact, I think you have to. If you wait for inspiration, you will not get the hours you need to master the craft. You may not be able to force inspiration, but you can certainly force yourself through a writer's block. Doesn't matter if you write crap. Don't be too critical of yourself. Quantity is more important than quality at the early stages of a developing writer's career. That might sound crazy, but it's true. When you start writing, if you limit yourself to a high standard you won't write anything. So lower your standards (as hydro said) and just write.

I've been devouring books since the tender age of, shit I don't know when. I first got into Thompson, Huxley, Wolfe, Hahn, Fanon, and Blake when I was around 15 or so. Since then I've added many a reread, and countless other great books. I have a kindle now with 1000 books on it I recieved all for free. (off topic: kindle touch has a feature whereby should you come across a term alien to you you can highlight it and learn the definition immediately. It's increased my vocabularly and my means of expressing myself in words exponentially. I think every child in public school should be given one of this equipped with a libraries worth of books as well as their text books. Far cheaper than hitting up the educational publishers like a junk-sick youth with no vision and no skills in thinking outside 'the box,' as it were.

I just recently, after many years of writing only essays, long responses to posts, letters, etc. have I actually gained the courage to write fiction. I completed my first short story last night and have a novel outline with several characters already developed. I don't know what I was scared of, failure I suppose.

That said, I just wanted to thank you for this advice. I will certainly adhere to it to see if its for me. Interestingly enough I've not been reading much since I started writing, and I was halfway through Moby Dick, The Selfish Gene, and A Short History of Everything. Books are great for benzo withdrawal, as I don't watch television and often can't tolerate music unless I'm rather happy. I listen to a lot of audio lectures, college q&a's as well as well-spoken, sharp comedians like Lenny Bruce, Bill Hicks and the like, watch a fair amount of documentaries. I also experiment with entheogens quite often, not so much these days as money is tight and mental health is at a fragile crossroads. I believe these influences have sparked a character of prose and world view highly conducive to writing interesting material.

 

[ForEverAfter]

Reading is by no means bad. It is great that you've read that much. This might sound weird, but it sounds like you've read "enough" for the time being. You have been stockpiling literature in your brain for decades by the sound of it. I would recommend you stop reading, for a while, and start writing an absolute fuck ton of words. Like spend a month or two writing for hours, every day. The fact that you don't watch television is hugely beneficial to your potential as a writer. Television is, for the most part, utter shit. People waste so much time on television and Facebook. I haven't had a television, with an aerial, for over five years. I watch a few select shows that I download. No commercials. No free-to-air brain rot. At the moment, I'm taking a 6 month break from film and television. Focusing entirely on reading, writing and University. Literature is such a competitive industry that - in order to be published - you need to make major sacrifices. I've got to stop taking drugs, too.

Drugs improve my ability to write, and increase my versatility as a writer, but they don't - generally - improve my ability to actually produce finished and polished bodies of work. Amphetamines and opiates are exceptions to the rule, somewhat. I used to be convinced that psychedelics gave me special artistic "abilities". And maybe they do. I come up with amazing ideas when I'm tripping, and I can write in different styles, etc. Mushrooms and marijuana, in particular, allow me to depart from my normal way of thinking. The problem is, I'm not focused enough to produce publishable work or lengthy pieces of writing - like a novel or a feature length screenplay. Amphetamines make me too focused. I don't have room to breathe, creatively. I've tried to write on every drug. Tried to find a shortcut, so I can cheat my way past all the hard work and fast-track my career.

Recently, I've come to the realization that I need to sacrifice drugs as well. Or, at least, I need to use them sparingly. My career can't revolve around drug use. It's bad for my health and - although I've struggled to come to terms with this - it's not a shortcut to success.

You mentioned Hunter S Thompson, and a number of other writer's who used drugs excessively throughout their careers. I used to love Hunter and Philip K Dick and William Burroughs. I still do, but - once upon a time - I thought they were the best writers out there. These days, I don't think they are. I recognize how their work has suffered from drug use. Hunter could have been a greater writer than he was, if he gave up the drugs. I truly believe that. A lot of highly drug-influenced writers have a chaotic quality to their novels. Even when they're not writing about drugs, you can feel the presence of the drugs in their words. Philip K Dick is a great example of this. Most of his novels are incomplete. I used to think that he didn't care about polishing his work, now I'm starting to think that the element he is missing stems from his sober mind.

Sometimes I like to write stories from different angles. I come at them from the psychedelic angle, and the amphetamine angle, and the opiate angle, and the dissociative angle. The "angle" I have most neglected is the most important one. The sober angle. No altered state of consciousness. Just me.

I take writing very seriously, and I've improved a lot over the past five - or so - years. Nothing I have contributed to this site is an indication of where I am as a writer, because I tend to save the work that I deem to have serious potential for fear of exposing myself via bluelight as a drug user. I believe I am capable of producing a publishable novel now. In order to do so, however, I need to get sober. I have sacrificed everything else in my life except for drugs. I keep delaying it. It feels like I'm faced with a choice. I can either: continue to get high, or get published. It's a difficult decision. A couple of years ago, I would have insisted that I would never stop the drugs for a prolonged period of time. But, things change.

One of the incentives is this:

If I get seriously published I can afford to buy massive quantities of high quality drugs. Which is a great motivator, but it means that I'm going to (potentially) be faced with the same dilemma down the road - only of a much grander scale!

 

[thujone]

Somebody said, I forget who, you need to spend ten thousand hours doing something to master it.

FUCK!!! I forget who said it too but my writing mentor was always quoting this. I agree with what you said about the pitfalls of reading too much. I'll edit this post with the rest when I have a moment to think

 

[Max Power]

FUCK!!! I forget who said it too but my writing mentor was always quoting this.

It was Malcolm Gladwell, he wrote about it in Outliers.

I disagree with this. I know a lot of writers who read way too much, for this reason, and it destroys their ability to write. While reading other people's words can inspire, it's important not to rely too heavily on reading to inspire. In the end, writing is more important than reading. Much more important, in my opinion. Writers should write more than they read. Or, at the very least, it should be pretty balanced. You don't need to read a thousand great novels to be able to write one. The most common advice I hear for writers is what Max Power said:

I know hundreds of writers. Most of them spend the vast majority of their time reading. What I've noticed is that the writers I know who spend the vast majority of their time writing, rapidly improve their skills. The same cannot be said for readers. Somebody said, I forget who, you need to spend ten thousand hours doing something to master it. This is true for writing, I believe. You can spend ten thousand hours reading, and remain a terrible writer; but if you put in same amount of time writing, you will improve dramatically.

Good thing this thread is about curing writer's block and not about becoming a better writer.