Young Writers Society

Im in the middle of writing my book...its a modern day fantasy. i love everything about it and ive never had any trouble writing before but..but somthings wrong! i cannot concentrate! i keep getting distracted! is this normal? when will it go away?

This is called writer's block.

It's no fun. Believe me.

Steps to take it away:

- Take a long, hot shower.

- Take a nap.

- Don't think about your story for a few days.

- Don't get all fussed up. It's just a little thing that happens to every writer. I'd also listen to instrumental music while writing. Don't use music with words, though. Too distracting. And use the music for the scene you are writing. For instance, if it's a happy scene, put on some happy instrumental music.

:Sythe:

Oh yeah. Totally normal. Sythe is right. Take a break. Read things that may inspire the story, but don't make a point of thinking about the story, and just rest and relax. For people who can do it, this is the time to pull out a second project. There are some writers I know of who are primarily known for their novels, but have also published hundreds of short stories. I wouldn't be surprised if they wrote some of those short stories while they were stuck on the novel they were working on.

If you can't find something to write about, don't write at all...I know that I might get butchered on here for saying that, but I can't 'just write something' because that hardly ever ends well. Get out of the house. Go do something fun with your friends, or do something that settles your soul. Clear your head. After that, chances are that eventually something will come to you.

Well, my friend was writing a story once and couldn't think of something, so she handed it over to me to make sure she didn't write, and when I gave it back she had loads of things to write about. I like to go for a walk or just read and after a while I get another idea. Another thing I do is write down all the things that's bugging me and it just seems to flow out of my mind, leaving more room for writing.

Where ever the inspriration for the story came from you need to go back to it. Mine right now are to movies (though I havent written i two weeks) Twister and Day after Tomorrow. I went back and watched those in about a four hour time fromae and my writers block was cured!

I come on sites like this one when I'm stuck. It helps to keep your mind away from your story, and at the same time get you back into the right mindset.

They say practice makes perfect. It's the same principle, Join an interesting storybook, or something like that.

I agree that listening to music also helps, and I've find that talking to someone else about what's happening in the plot is a surefire way to talk your self through a tricky spot. If you have a good friend who won't find letting you talk for a while, or a sister like I have, it can be really beneficial.

I often see writing a book in terms of suffering from a fever; you have to sweat it out. When I get disheartened or feel like I'm banging my head off a brick wall, I just keep going. I always do this so that my flow isn't disturbed. You can go back and edit, edit, edit later on once you've finished.

Just remember, don't stress. This is your art and passion. It's normal.

Eimear.

I'm going through the same thing. I haven't touched my novel for bout a month now. I don't know if I'm bored with it or what...
I'm just giving myself some time and I know sooner or later I'll get back to it. In the meanwhile I've been writing short stories and poems.

Writer's Blocks are frustrating, but you gotta come to terms with the fact that they happen sooner or later. I say keep writing. No matter how wrong it feels. Just sit down, and write. Even if it's a couple of sentences, and you feel you shouldn't be typing the words down, write. Writer's Block, for me at least, is the inability to get anything good written down. But what's wrong with writing a couple of terrible paragraphs? One day you'll wake up. You'll be cured. You'll notice how bad they are. And then you'll rewrite them. Just don't stop writing because if you do, it'll be harder to get back to the same story when the Block is over.

There are a ton of different ways to go about handling it. I'm not fond of writing short stories because I just love the characters so much, I HAVE to write more! I'm actually considering turning "Flames of Revenge and Waters of Forgiveness" into a novel because of this.

Now, as for actually doing this, this is why I started writing two novels at once. I write one for as long as I can, I get bored with it, switch to the other novel, get bored with it, switch novels, rinse and repeat.

However, this is just how I cure writer's block. The cure that works best for you may be completely different.

you might have just gotten bored with it and need to put it down for a long while...

if you're almost done, all the plot-people should be falling into line, and is relativly easy

just put it down until you can pick it up and be engrossed in the story once again. so much self-editing can get monotonous

I agree with Squishy, you might just be bored right now. That's been happening to me with the story I've been writing for over a year. You might want to try just free-writing your story from where you left off and see where it goes. While you're doing it, you might find some amazing epiphany to kick your writing back into gear again.

What I like to do when I have writer's block is talk to my creative writing teacher about my story. He usually has a lot of tips, so maybe you could as your teacher for some ideas.

I also like to listen to conversations. It may be eavesdropping, but listening to conversations sometimes spurs my creative self and suddenly I'm writing twenty pages on how someone got stood up at a school dance. People inspire me to write, though I never write bad things about people. Go somewhere with a notepad, like a movie theater or a restaurant and observe someone. When you're done taking notes on that person (without them noticing, of couse,) write about a page about them. It might help.

I'm jealous. Not ALL of us have creative writing teachers, you know. Some of us just have essay Nazis who look like dwarves.