Young Writers Society

First of all, when you have writers block, should you just force yourself to try to write, or wait it out until you feel in the mood?

Plus, how can you describe something and provide enough information for a fantasy story without giving away something you want to save for reasons of suspense until later in the story?

I have frequent roadblocks when trying to write a story, so any tips would be helpful and greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

I think I speak for everyone when I say just power on! Just write, it doesn't have to be good. That'll come later.

If you absolutely, positively cannot write, don't. Not at that moment. Of course, there is a fine line between writer's block and laziness. So stop writing for a bit, and do something else for an hour or two. Go for a walk. Watch a good movie. Read a book. Climb a tree. If you stop consciously thinking about it for a while, ideas will come. That's the way the subconscious works.

Hope that helps!

Hi again, Kingdom. ^_^

In my experience, the best thing to do when blocked is to play it by ear. Don't force yourself to write, but don't abandon it altogether - that just makes it twice as hard to get back in the groove when the block passes. If you can, do a few writing exercises, just to keep yourself on course. Do a sketch or two. Take notes on something you saw on the way home from school, a shadow that pleased you or the certain way a leaf fell. Make a list. Make interesting, color-coordinated stacks out of your Post-It notes. Write a terrible poem about said Post-It notes. The point being: do a little bit of both. Be kind to yourself, because after all, it's not the end of the world if you don't write, but don't regard that courtesy as an ignore-the-writing-free-card. Your writing won't come back to you if you don't go back to it - it's just a matter of timing.

In response to your second question, I believe it would depend open the nature of what is to be kept unknown. If it's something like your character's relationship with his enemy, there are certain points that you allow the reader to discover and certain points that you wait to reveal. They're enemies. Okay, so you tell the readers why they're enemies. Antagonist insulted / assaulted / hindered Protagonist, and this trend continues through the story. There's not much to hide. But if at some point you want the reader to stop and go "Oh my God, I just realized that [Antagonist] is [Protagonist]'s long-lost and thought-to-be-dead brother!" then you're going to have to be cautious with what information you dispense and what you keep hidden. Again, it's all a matter of back-and-forth balance. Show a little, hide a little, and in the end, I think you're going to get just the blend of mystery and needed description that story needs.

A great to handle writers block is to set a deadline. Publicly. In person. It's amazing what pressure can do for buckling down.

What I do to keep suspense is to describe something from a character's POV. If your character doesn't know what it is, then you're reader is in the same boat and both will have to try to figure it out.

for the second problem, the best thing to do (at least in the beggining) is to just be vauge. If your two main characters are rivals, but you don't want the reader to know, with any scene that involves the two, you might have one main character do something(like take a detour to avoid his rival) but not really tell why the character did it. Also, make hints to whatever you are hiding brief and have them blend in. Say the main character is a magician, but he goes to a town where magic is out lawed. You might say "(Person) felt a twinge of fear when he read the town rules" and then move on.
Finally, make a list of what information you don't want to say, so you can realise later in the story if you've gone too far.

I think you should force yourself to write, but not to work on whatever your big project is. I always have some silly fanfic going on the side, so that when I just can't work on my Thing, whatever it may be at the time, I have something goofy to work on. It's enjoyable and low stress, and it doesn't matter if it sounds terrible and I hate it later, 'cause it's only fanfic.

(... not dissin' fanfic, or anything.)