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I deal with it by listening to music and sitting in front of my computer to try and get myself to write. Doesn't work too well, but it can sometimes snap me back into writing after a long period of writer's block. So, what do you do?
Read some dakka fiction! I find it is a great way to keep motivated. Not to steal ideas i must stress, just to see the general quality of most amateur writers. Also to go through them with an eye for edits seeing what you would improve etc, it's all good practise. If you go back through them there are some hidden gems, some with only a handful of views. I would comment on alot more if it weren't for threadomancy.
I generally ignore the generic army fluff ones though, prefer an actual story.
Also, as i see you already do, write a one off. But Try and make it a challenge, get out the blood and bolters comfort zone. Maybe one with no violence but still set in the 40k universe, or a female/alien protaganist perhaps even a detective story or murder mystery.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2012/01/14 01:10:46
Mary Sue wrote: Perkustin is even more awesome than me!
If I get stuck, I tend to focus on a single idea, or image, then see what comes of it. Sitting down and thinking that you've got to come up with an entire story from scratch can be daunting, so it's nice to be able to just think 'what if ... ' and roll with it.
A paragraph can become a scene can become a chapter. Who knows!
Well I deal with it by reading books I enjoy, or playing games that relate to the things I intend to writhe about. Be it fantasy, scien ficton or something else
If I'm writing a piece and get writers block I'll start writing something else. Maybe that will persuade the ideas to come forth for the other piece. If I'm completely unable to write anything then I'll stop writing for several days, purposefully, and during those periods where my mind is normally more creative, when out walking or just before going to sleep, I might just let my mind wander and come up with it's own thing and see what happens. Or if you know what you want to write later on but can't write the current bit, start on that latter part - you can always edit and link them together later so why get bogged down when there is something else you want to write?
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2012/01/15 12:56:36
Unfortunately, I have a really hard time dealing with writer's block. I have over ten thousand words of a novella I'm trying to write, and I can't seem to progress any further. Its been sitting at its current word count for months and I can't seem to get anywhere with it.
Same goes for my DIY chapter. Incredibly frustrating. The worst part is, if I added up every post I put here on Dakka, I'd have a novel.
Just can't seem to break it.
Mordian Iron Guard - Major Overhaul in Progress
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Live near Halifax, NS? Ask me about our group, the Ordo Haligonias!
Usually, I just forget about it and go on my way for a bit. Between school, gym, homework, friends, and 40k, my brain usually begins to be imaginative again after about a day or so.
Reading the Codex for the race I'm writing about helps too.
I either sit down with a good audio book/book or whatever. Something to get my imagination flowing. Or sometimes ill just put on some inspirational music and just think for a while. Currently listening to Flowing streams performed by guan pinghu, usually with some rainy background soundtrack. Works everytime. Really anything by Guan pinghu works for me.
"You have ruled this galaxy for ten thousand years, yet have little of account to show for you efforts. Order. Unity. Obedience. We taught the galaxy these things, and we shall do so again."
I'm not having writer's block. I'm having writer's crud.
I wrote the Jilted, character background I've posted on here for my BC character. It wasn't bad, it wasn't pleasant, I rather enjoyed it. I've written other backgrounds or char stories in the past that have kept my GMs up at nights or given them nightmares.
Now? Now I try to write 40k, and it comes out like Enid Blyton. No matter how grimdark I try to make it, it's happy fluffy grox-crud, or 40k-Lite Now With Reduced Grit or something.
I try re-reading some of my better pieces, am re-reading Night Lords (ADB writes grimdark and gritty sooo well), listen to my fav 40k inspired music and it's still not happening.
I'm in the middle of a sizable piece and gotten so frustrated I've not touched it for a while, so I'm relying on my notes to remember where it's going because the inspiration just isn't coming to me.
But I write a background for a WoD Mage character I'll be playing next year and that wasn't nice, almost made one of my friends cry when she read it. Come back to 40k? Let's hold hands and sing campfire songs. Argh!
Any advice?
-Cadian Commander
able to snatch defeat from the jaws of the surest victories.
Catachan 222nd Regiment Command Squad Gamma Platoon: Captain JKB JayneKateBob (JKB) Sniper (loving her longlas more than any man)
I don't, if my brain doesn't want to write, then it doesn't want to write, and nothing I try can make it.
But that's probably just because my brain is FUBAR.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2012/04/23 00:53:05
Mandorallen turned back toward the insolently sneering baron. 'My Lord,' The great knight said distantly, 'I find thy face apelike and thy form misshapen. Thy beard, moreover, is an offence against decency, resembling more closely the scabrous fur which doth decorate the hinder portion of a mongrel dog than a proper adornment for a human face. Is it possibly that thy mother, seized by some wild lechery, did dally at some time past with a randy goat?' - Mimbrate Knight Protector Mandorallen.
Excerpt from "Seeress of Kell", Book Five of The Malloreon series by David Eddings.
"You need not fear us, unless you are a dark heart, a vile one who preys on the innocent; I promise, you can’t hide forever in the empty darkness, for we will hunt you down like the animals you are, and pull you into the very bowels of hell." Iron - Within Temptation
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Watch for Gerry.