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So. Come on,
Chatterbox: Inkwell
So. Come on,
So. Come on, admit it. We've all had writer's block. Don't you wish that some fairy godmother would come and give you the perfect idea? Well that's what this thread is for! When you have an idea you don't want to use for your writing, or don't mind having it altered or used by someone else, you post it here. If you have writer's block, you can use one of the ideas to give you a boost on your writing.
Tip: Shout "I have Writer's Block!" at the top of your lungs.
***
Now that sounded really cheesy. YERSS! Without You from My Fair Lady just came on Pandora. I think it's my new favorite song.
submitted by Gollum, age 12, Mooseflower
(November 6, 2012 - 7:38 pm)
(November 6, 2012 - 7:38 pm)
Pro Tips:
1. Never admit to yourself that you have writers' block. Simply state that you seem to have run low on ideas, and are out hunting for more.
2. Mutant pegasi make everything better.
3. Story at a lull? Introduce a new character.
4. (For WriMos) Don't count your words until you know you're done for the day.
5. Reintroduce an old character-- sometimes, people just show up.
6. DO NOT stop writing.
7. DO NOT erase. Ever. Even if you spelled something wrong or it's a blatant grammar error-- you can fix that later.
8. DO NOT try to "give it time". The more you're away from the thing, the less you will care about it.
9. Deus ex machina never constitutes a good ending, unless you are Euripides.
10. Random scene changes just confuse everybody.
11. Have somebody walk into the room, looking like they just got kicked up and down the block a few times, covered in a red substance they SWEAR is not blood. Have them act like everything is normal ("Well, that was tedious.").
12. Something explodes.
13. Pizza delivery guy!
14. Security is in and out in a nanosecond. Everybody wonders what happened.
15. Somebody falls out of a tree!
There are a lot more... but hey, 4000 behind.
--L
(November 7, 2012 - 7:52 pm)
But what if you're writing in a setting where everyone is cut off from normal culture? Like, a couple hundred feet under ground? Incidentally, I have another tip:
DO NOT try to write on anything other than Microsoft Word or Pages. Because I was writing on Figment and on my email, and it was the reason I had minor outage of ideas. It seriously helps. And the sky just turned pink.
(November 8, 2012 - 4:43 pm)
Then... then you have a team of miners bust through. Or a cave-in. Or something.
(November 9, 2012 - 3:15 pm)
An exploding generator actually introduced a new character. The NaNoWriMo dare machine on the YWP is also good. It has helped a lot with Nano this year.
(November 10, 2012 - 7:59 am)
TOP!
(November 7, 2012 - 7:57 pm)
Me and Writer's Block are old, ollllllld pals... in fact, I'm in a perpetual state of Writer's Block. If you can believe it, I've never written a single story of any length in my life. And I post on this website! *sobs*
(November 8, 2012 - 7:15 pm)
The only stories i've finished are short ones, and the reason i stop writing my longer ones is because after i've been writing for awhile, the pc freezes and I lose it all! I've had great stories going and then that has happen and well...... it's so discouraging.
But one thing you guys might be able to help me with, do you know any names for boys from Africa?
I couldn't find any on the internet I liked.
(November 8, 2012 - 9:43 pm)
There was a kid in my kindergarten class named Oussaynou. Hope that helps.
(November 9, 2012 - 8:39 am)
@ Gollum, How do you pronounce that?
(November 10, 2012 - 6:26 pm)
Oh-SAY-noo. I don't know whether my spelling is the correct spelling. *checks yearbook* Ousseynou. That was his name. There was another kid named Moctar. That's pronounced like it sounds.
(November 11, 2012 - 7:29 am)
Thank you Gollum!
(November 12, 2012 - 6:50 pm)
@ Coral:
Ah, that's fine. Not all of us are writers. We've got some brilliant actors, lovely singers, pro horseback riders, amazing artists, a few wonderful cooks--we're plenty diverse. Just because writers tend to post more doesn't mean you're the only one who hasn't turned out a full-fledged story.
Writer's Block Tips:
The main way that I avoid a meeting with our old pal is to have five or six (or seven or eight...) projects of widely different types and styles. I currently have...hold on... *counts* eight projects in my files. No two are even nearly alike. That way if I don't feel like writing sci-fi I can work on my fantasy, and if I'm stuck in a rut with my schizophrenic character I can turn to my NaNo. Generally as I'm going along with one of the other ones, I come up with a brilliant idea as to how to continue the story that I was originally stuck on. I realize that this advice won't work amazingly for everyone, but I suggest you give it a try.
*gets off soap box*
Also if you're a WriMo you should friend me. My username's JessacaRose.
(November 12, 2012 - 8:19 pm)
I had a major case of writer's block, but Cricket itself actually got me out of it. I saw a thread where people posted what they thought fellow Chatterboxers looked like. I got character personalities and appearances out of that thread.
(November 13, 2012 - 7:14 pm)
Open a book to a random page, put your finger on a word, and build a sentence around that word. If it's utterly mundane, like 'the', pick again.
Take a well-known story, add your character names, switch the time period, change every repeated word, do whatever it takes until you get a completely new story and write that story. For example, Bella at Midnight by Diane Stanley is an almost unrecognizable Cinderella.
Kill your darlings.
Go look in your cabinet. Nickname a character after the first thing you see and explain how they got that unfortunate nickname.
People-watch and make up stories based on the strangers.
Look up writing prompts on the internet.
What does Spammy say? Add that in!
Add the first random object you see into your plot. I don't care if the first thing you see is a cell phone and you're writing about Victorian England. Just explain to me why it's there.
Throw a wrench into the machine of the plot.
Worse comes to worse, drink tea, muse over the meaning of life, and set out plot bunny traps.
(November 15, 2012 - 7:31 pm)
Awesome.
(November 16, 2012 - 7:40 pm)