My Writing Ideas Are Running Away From Me

I have Writer's Block like no other. It's the bad kind where I need an idea but nothing is coming except for really bad ones. I feel the urge to write and write a lot. I have the supplies in my head to make a good idea but they keep running away. I find myself saying stuff like this:

"There was an eight year old named Jack and a seven year old named Annie. Wait that's the Magic Tree House........... Maybe no one will remember."

The only person that shares in my pain is my cat. How sad is that? If you have ideas for a Children's Chapter book or an idea how to beat Writer's block then please help me!!

I understand really wanting to write but having writers block. And I've found myself saying stuff like that too. It seems like the more you try to come up with something and the more you force it, the farther your ideas will run away from you and the worse your writers block will become. Also, I know how tempting it can be for someone else to give you an idea, but to be honest... If it doesn't come from you, you won't be inspired to work on it or be as interested in where to take it. What are you interested in? What books do you like to read? What book do you want to read? What is something that you think would be cool or different?

Anyway... Take a break from it for a day, or two, a week. Take a walk. Watch your favorite movies or watch a new one! Try something new, read a new book or even listen to music. Sometimes inspiration will comes at the most unexpected times and in the most unlikely places.

I saw movie years back (I was 11-years-old?) that involved staff/stick fighting which is something I had never given a second thought to. After I saw it, I was really inspired to stick fight. I found something that would work and flipped it around for maybe fifteen minutes until I hit myself in the face. Needless to say, I didn't do that anymore. But it did become one of my favorite movies, I developed an interested in stick fighting and now there is stick fighting in my novel. That's just sort of a funny story now I suppose, being eighteen now. But it's an example of where you can find inspiration and what you can do with it.

So just breathe and take a step back from it. Your ideas will come back to you. Best of luck!

-Lefty
P.S. Welcome to the site! Feel free to message me if you have any questions!

Ideas are dime a dozen, and litter the internet. I guarantee if you type into Google "story ideas" you'll get tons of results, some of them great.

If you're deadset on using your own ideas -- I totally get that, by the way -- try imagining an ordinary problem a person might have. Maybe it's a girl who does poorly at school. Now consider how she might solve that problem, and, more entertainingly, what might stand in her way/exacerbate the issue. You can bring in anything. Her dad is abusive. Her friend is dating her ex. Maybe drag in fantasy -- her pencil tells her bawdy jokes in class and she can't concentrate.

Maybe all three.

Now the story can go anywhere, depending on the characters you're writing. Who is this girl? What's her personality? Why is she the way she is? How does that affect how she tries to solve the problem? Why can't she rat out her abusive father? Is he chief of police in this small town? Why can't she reconcile with her friend? Is she rubbing it in her face that she's dating her ex? Why is this pencil talking to her? Does he really think he's all that?

And how is she gonna bring her grades up? Her dad might literally kill her!

Find a problem. Make the problem bigger, or bring in related smaller problems. Ask yourself how the characters are going to defeat said problems. Start writing.

(There are not many bad ideas in fiction. Just a lot of bad execution.)

By children's book. @Prokaryote, I think she was thinking more middle grade. You are talking more young adult. However, I will say, ideas are cheap. But I think I know the problem that you are undergoing, rachell. It is the kind of thing when you hop around from idea to idea. The problem is that you spend so little time thinking about the idea. Then as soon as you start writing it down it seems stupid.

My advice is to keep a running list of ideas that may or may not work. Then, when you need a new story idea, just go mash a few of them together. For right now, I advise you to free write whwterver you want. Sometimes it helps to get something on the page before committing to writing something bigger. I hope this helps!

Thanks guys! This is a huge help. I think I will just take a break for a while. Maybe I will do some free writing. Anyways, thanks for the help and good luck with what you guys are writing.

I have had and I am slowly getting out of writer's block. Here is my advice, even if you are frustrated and have little or no ideas, try this:think like a child would, in the categorizes of a child. Use your imagination and creativity enough if it is dried/burnt out because I know how that feel.Its okay to take a break,but then I hope that you are refreshed and regenrated when you come back.In the meantime stay productive and maybe review or do Storybook posts.
I encourage you so much in your quest in writing!Good luck!

Hey there! I have this problem too once in a while. What I usually do when it happens is write through it. No matter how sucky the writing is, I write through the block. When I've successfully written myself out of writers block, I go back and edit the sucky parts. It may not work for you but it has always worked for me. It's how I got to 25,000 words in my current novel. I hope this helped. If not, I'm sorry and good luck!

Colly