# Writing is a chore, not fun.



## Akito (Mar 29, 2011)

Okay, for a while now I've noticed my creative spark has turned into an ember. I have snippets of ideas, but nothing I can actually use to write with; a character bit here, a place there, etc. When I look at the computer screen or at a blank sheet of paper my mind seizes up, my attention is drawn someplace else.

What can I do to change this? Watch a lot of movies, read a lot of books, listen to a lot of music, change up my times? I've done a few of these, but nothing seems to be helping. Should I step back from writing for a while, cut myself off, and then try later on in the year? 

For a long time I helped run a very successful game, I wrote every piece of the history and plot, then I quit. Now I still role play on and off, is this just soaking up all my creative juices? Should I quit it altogether, be a shut in, and hope that I regain some of my abilities at a later date? Or, am I just not cut out or writing anymore? 

Someone help!


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## faithful (Mar 29, 2011)

I almost cried when I read this post.  I have been going through the same exact dilemma.  I feel like my creativity comes around to visit  & tease me once in awhile.  I blame myself for not reaching my full potential as a writer after a week goes by without picking up a pen. 
     I have yet to learn to conquer this reoccuring problem but I can offer some advice that I ponder on to get my butt in gear.
1. When you change the way you look @ things, the things you look @ change.
2. The only difference between a rich man & a poor man is ambition.

I hope this helps. Be blessed!


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## riverdog (Mar 29, 2011)

Try something new:

A diary

Take a movie scene you know really well and try to write it out. 

Scrap the computer.  Grab a pen and a notebook and go down to the park.  Make up little stories about some of the people you see.  

Just do an outline for a story.  It can be anything with beginning, middle, and end.  Keep expanding it until you get all excited then try to write.


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## ARNorris (Mar 29, 2011)

I second Riverdog's advice.

After you've made certain you're just not proctrastinating a boring part of the writing process, try something nonsensical. When I'm feeling creatively drained I'll leave my writing area with a pen and paper. I'll go and sit somewhere else (even if it's just in my backyard) and pick an object, person(s), or a memory and then brainstorm it. I'll list all the 5 senses attributed to it, what it could be a simile for, what it could be the opposite of, what I like most and least, something unique about it, and how I feel about it.

Usually after several of these I'll do something complete non writing related and my energy will boost on its own. The important part is to get back to writing after a while, even if the first several pages are crapola. Your creativity is like a muscle, you have to work it to keep it in shape.


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## Bad Craziness (Mar 29, 2011)

Try just free-writing, don't put any pressure on yourself to write anything useful. Just write words, hell they don't even have to make sense.

Alternatively get really drunk on whisky, put on some music that works for you while you're in that headspace (Neil Young works for me) and then just write all the babble that you can manage. 

Remove the performance anxiety and you'll be fine.


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## riverdog (Mar 29, 2011)

> Alternatively get really drunk on whisky, put on some music that works for you while you're in that headspace (Neil Young works for me) and then just write all the babble that you can manage.



Amen!!  Nothing gets the creative juices flowing like Whiskey and classic Rock and Roll!!!


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## Lone_Wolfe (Mar 29, 2011)

Sounds like you need to put the wonder of discovery back into your writing. Take an ordinary object and make it the title for your next short story. For instance, if you grabbed your pad and pen and went down to the park like riverdog suggested, you might see an old faded park bench. So write the title:

The Old Faded Park Bench

Not very inspired maybe (we can fidget with it later), but you just did something every successful writer does. You wrote something! Now, make up the beginning of a story about that title. No, don't stew over whether it has all the good story elements, just give it a beginning. Anything fantastical, nonsensical, or even downright ordinary. Look at the thing through the eyes of a toddler or plop a little park gremlin on it. Try on a new narrative voice, be it gruff, dainty, or whatever. Whatever you do, write down the beginnings of that story. 

No, no, no... quit pondering it logically and just write whatever fancies itself into your story. Ok, got it? Write it down.

See? Still writing! Now write another paragraph to give the story a middle. What can you describe about the bench that we hadn't noticed before? Why is it important to your narrator or the gremlin or whoever got into your story? Maybe it's an obstacle or a house, or a religious artifact. Is there a big secret? Bonus points if you jot down another middle paragraph that turns the story in an unexpected direction or introduces a problem we didn't see coming.

Still writing? Good. No, don't stop to think about it too much. Just add another paragraph to wrap up the story. Give us a surprise ending that tells us what the Big Secret was all about or delivers the moral of the story or maybe just resolves our gruff narrator's irritating little gremlin troubles. Wrap it up with a nice little narrative bow, or leave a stray loose end for the reader to pick at. Whatever you want, it's your story. You wrote it.

_Now write it._


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## Terry D (Mar 29, 2011)

Set aside time to write every day and put something on the page. Creativity isn't something that 'comes to you' in flashes and spurts (that's the flu). Creativity is something you dig for like a miner searching for gold. Somedays we hit a nice thick vein, and others we just end up with a deeper hole, but if we wait for the gold to jump up out of the ground . . .

The more routine you make the act of writing, the easier it will be for your subconscious to open its doors.  Creativity excercises can be great things to help you flex the imagination, but don't confuse them with the work of actually writing.   Just write baby!


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## Akito (Mar 29, 2011)

Faithful, I’m glad that someone is feeling the same way I am. Thank you for the advice, I hope you find some help in this thread!

Riverdog, I like that idea. I live near the mountains, so I’m going to go exploring, find myself a nice rock and just sit around to examine nature.

ARNorris, much obliged for the advice.

Bad Craziness, thanks for the advice. I believe anxiety is what keeps me from writing sometimes, the expectation that I *SHOULD* be writing, that something *SHOULD* come out when I touch pen to pad. I think I just need to learn how to relax when I write and not be so high-strung.

Lone_Wolfe, love the idea! I’m going to do it, maybe tomorrow if I get the chance. I’m going to wander through my neighborhood with a pen and pad and see what happens, everyone will probably say I’ve gone totally insane. Haha.

Terry D, I have to agree that working my brain and creativity is something I should do everyday. I should at least write something, even if it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.

I have an extremely difficult time with being a perfectionist, raking over every word and sentence in such detail that I get nowhere fast. I think that is a large part of why I have such a hard time, I can’t just write, I have to trace myself to make sure there are no mistakes. Everything has to be in order or I shut down.


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## Foxee (Mar 29, 2011)

Akito said:


> I have an extremely difficult time with being a perfectionist, raking over every word and sentence in such detail that I get nowhere fast. I think that is a large part of why I have such a hard time, I can’t just write, I have to trace myself to make sure there are no mistakes. Everything has to be in order or I shut down.


 You didn't mention this to start with but this is a significant problem that most writers face, it's called the inner editor. You need to be able to simply write without being hindered by the impulse to correct everything as you go. Set aside your more critical editing eyes and allow the mistakes to happen where they will, you can fix them later.

Timed writing is a really effective way to practice focusing on just getting the writing onto the page rather than fixing it. When you're completely focused on writing as much as you can before the timer goes off you can't distract yourself by looking over what you're writing for mistakes. It takes some practice to disengage the inner editor but it's worth it.

Then go back and fix things once your rough draft is done.

I use *Write or Die* when I want to push myself and focus. Check out the right sidebar for the free online version, it works well.

Additional thought: When I did NaNoWriMo this year there were several friends who also participated. Most of us managed to get writing done every day except for one. I kept waiting to see his word count jump and just tear past ours but it never did. When I finally asked him about it later he said that he kept editing the first paragraph over and over and over and couldn't move beyond that. He was so worried that the beginning of it be absolutely perfect, believing that it would set up the rest of the book to be perfect, that he never moved on at all. I didn't have the heart to tell him that when I edit my short stories and flash fiction the first paragraph of my rough draft is normally the first thing to go. Sometimes the first few paragraphs simply get cut completely.


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## AaronTP (Mar 29, 2011)

Foxee said:


> I use *Write or Die* when I want to push myself and focus. Check out the right sidebar for the free online version, it works well.



I love Write or Die.

When I'm having trouble writing, I focus on smaller aspects of the story that require less thought and are more enjoyable to write about (a character's back story, the economy of my fictional world, etc, etc) until the juices flow. If that doesn't work I just write. Crap, but it's still writing.


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## Jon M (Mar 30, 2011)

Akito said:


> I have an extremely difficult time with being a perfectionist, raking over every word and sentence in such detail that I get nowhere fast. I think that is a large part of why I have such a hard time, I can’t just write, I have to trace myself to make sure there are no mistakes. Everything has to be in order or I shut down.


I suggest you abandon this notion of "perfection." For the simple fact that as you mature so will your tastes, and you'll look back on what you thought was perfect and see that it has problems, or lacks subtlety, or has a weak story, or any number of other criticisms.

I think the biggest problem a writer faces is the tendency to quit before he starts. I started out this way. I remember sitting at the table with my sleeves rolled up and a stack of CDs nearby for "inspiration" and feeling ready to go, only to create a paragraph of the most overworked, and purplest of purple prose. Not surprisingly, I quit out of frustration after achieving little more than 100 words.

The culprit is, of course, that inner editor.

At some point you just have to let go and be the kid playing in his sandbox. There are no rules or mistakes. The only thing you must do is put the stuff in your head onto paper, or your preferred recording device.

My way of dealing with Inner Editor Syndrome is to write my stories by hand. There is no delete key.


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## Vertigo (Mar 30, 2011)

I've done a lot of stuff, but one thing that helps me to beat writer's block is fanfiction. Yep- even if it sucks, it still counts as writing and getting some random playtime in a world you don't have to create can really help you get back into the flow of things.

If even that fails me, then I take a day or two off and come back to my writing with a clear head. Obsessing never did anyone any good.


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## The Backward OX (Mar 30, 2011)

> Most of us managed to get writing done every day except for one.


 
Which day was that? :cyclops:


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## C J Thorne (Mar 30, 2011)

I can totally relate to this as I'm one of those undisciplined writers who tend to work in short manic bursts of inspiration (followed by depression!)

When I'm stuck, I find it helps to write something that's deliberately 'just for fun', something completely non-useful that you might not show to anyone else, but is purely for your own amusement.

Think about what you love, what you're passionate about - for example, with me, it's music.  Following a recent fit of ennui, I wrote a short fictional account of how the musicians from my favourite band met, which has absolutely no literary value, but which I enjoyed so much it's inspired me to start writing 'seriously' again.


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## TheFuhrer02 (Mar 30, 2011)

Your muse is just sleeping. I can totally relate to this because I myself experienced it. I can't write any story for three months, and this frustrated me truly. But these times can be used as some hiatus, enable yourself to think about your approach to writing and what things inspire you to write. During those three months, I learned to interpret classical music pieces and transform them into a story. (Vivaldi's _Autumn_ and Zimmer's _Chevaliers de Sangreal_ provided me with some interesting stories.) XD

Hope you find your inspiration!


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## Akito (Apr 3, 2011)

I just want to thank everyone for their comments, suggestions, support, etc. I've been really sick with the flu for the past couple of days, which is why I haven't been around, I'm still sick even now. But, through this I believe I finally have a decent idea and even though I think it to be cliché and used I'm going to run with it for a while; appease my dreaded sleeping muse to wake up. Wish me luck!


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## WCB (Apr 4, 2011)

Sounds to me like your just in a little lull or you might not be fulfilling something else and your subconscious is pulling you away for a reason...Maybe all the things you are use to is not even part of it.  I couldn't feel the spark for a while now I finally have found a comfort at home.  My home has finally become a calm place. Now all the time it took to get here has given me more to work with, a different way of seeing; especially older stuff from the high school era.  You might just need some time.  Haven't looked at much of your stuff yet just this question and you seem worried about not 'feeling' it.  And that's exactly what it is a feeling. A flow occurs for me, I zone in and fly.  Sometimes really intense, other times just quick and right.  'tis life in action my friend. Flow with it.


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## WCB (Apr 4, 2011)

Well, yes I agree with you Fuhrer, I have recently been using dreams of my own for plot movers and to help with dead ends and such. Things to help in the flow of the story. Ok, you all have a good night I officially am within a sanctuary here been hanging out on this site for the last 48 straight (with a little 8 hour break for work) so ya time to find some of those dream.  Later...


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## khobar (Apr 5, 2011)

Lots of good advice. I'll add my 2 cents.

You're here asking for help and that's excellent. Now, what do you want to do with your writing? Where do you want to go? Where do you want to be 5 years down-range? Perhaps instead of trying to tackle the writing issue head on you try a glancing blow instead. For example, if you want to get a book published, what do you need to do to achieve that goal? For now, don't worry about what the book is about. Instead, start researching the publishing business, make notes, read other people's work you might be interested in and figure out what you like about this one and don't like about that one. Seek out other writers via social networking and exchange ideas. What about a blog? Anything that keeps you putting thoughts out there in one form or another is likely to help you.


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## namesake (Apr 5, 2011)

Couldn't it also be were are missing key pieces of advice for writing stories? I tried to see if I could get a hold of a book that talks about plot twists. Anyways, sometimes I do feel inspired when I read a lot. For instance I was reading a reference book on grammar and two to three ideas came out all of a sudden. So I don't know. I think it's some advice that we are missing and the muse process.


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## powerskris (Apr 7, 2011)

I've looked around the posts here and didn't find what motivated me to write two novels and twelve short stories. Over twelve years, I think I wrote about sixty pages. Yes, that means about five pages a year on average!

What did it for me? A deadline with a living, breathing person. My writing colleague has to give me a minimum numbers of pages from his novel every week, and I have to have a few pages as well.

Once I started doing that, my average went from five pages a year to three hundred and fifty a year and that doesn't include the time spent on editing and rewriting.

My advice would be to find someone in your community or even on the internet who's interested in correspondence and has the same issues that you do. All I can say is: It worked for me!


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## garza (Apr 7, 2011)

I don't understand the question.


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## The Backward OX (Apr 7, 2011)

fleamailman said:


> and then the goblin showed, had a look over the posts and just said "...funny how so often it feels like *to post is to win* here, so keep on posting, and then store those posts too, the trick is to build up a readership as a known persona now, where, between that _sense of audience_ and your need to reply back at times, you'll know that you are writing because your hitcount will show you your resulting readership here, a good thread soon goes into tens of thousands of hits, not that that actually matters in itself, no, only that when you know that each post is going to get many hits to it, it kind of spurs you on to write more...", in fact, the goblin anticipated setbacks, for he knew well the fickle nature of forumland now, but that never stopped him, especially when he tried to imagine the total number of readers forumland held, saying "...probably my imagination doesn't even come close here, maybe many millions of readers worlwide then, and more joining daily, where my best thread is only about 30,000 hits to it, so now Akito, now that I have explained it, I look forward to seeing your posts..."


Perhaps there are many forum posters with extremely fragile egos, or perhaps I'm a bit of an idiot.

It has never once, in nearly four years, ever occurred to this little black duck, me, to study the statistics relating to my posts.

And now it's been explained, I'm not about to start, either.


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## garza (Apr 7, 2011)

Somebody's collecting statistics? It's a conspiracy.


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## namesake (Apr 7, 2011)

TheFuhrer02 said:


> Your muse is just sleeping. I can totally relate to this because I myself experienced it. I can't write any story for three months, and this frustrated me truly. But these times can be used as some hiatus, enable yourself to think about your approach to writing and what things inspire you to write. During those three months, I learned to interpret classical music pieces and transform them into a story. (Vivaldi's _Autumn_ and Zimmer's _Chevaliers de Sangreal_ provided me with some interesting stories.) XD
> 
> Hope you find your inspiration!


 
I think there are two issues. In this case the muse is sleeping and writing novels, and "very deep" character centered short stories is tedious. You can save time or lose time by doing character sheets for short stories or novels. It's a long process, and then you'll eventually get some inspiration. But you also need a writer's drive/motivation.

The muse can be corrected by learning writing techniques like the character sheet. The question is do you have the time to write?


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## mockingbird (Apr 9, 2011)

Hi Akito, I know exactly where you are and where you're going -  I had a great train of thought to compltete my book and BANG - I was forced to write 3 15 page documents for my barrister on the oppositions devious tactics and come up with a winning piece of evidenciary masterpiece. Now I've forgotten what to do on my book. Bummer! I can only say find the time aN STICK TO IT.


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## The Backward OX (Apr 9, 2011)

Me and my big mouth. Confusion more confounded I think is the saying.


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## Grapefight (Apr 10, 2011)

Has anyone mentioned drugs and alcohol yet? It doesn't look like it.


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## Dark (Apr 15, 2011)

I can identify with you. When I was writing my first book, I couldn't type fast enough. The book was writing itself! Then about a month into it, everything stopped. I sat at the computer for days, nothing happened. I got so frustrated. 

I pulled back for awhile. I didn't write. Didn't even think about the book. Then one day I realized the problem. My character was no longer telling her story but mine. I was scripting the book so much with preconceived ideas, mine of course, and forcefully leading the story that my character just got fed up and left!

When I decided to delete everything I had written trying to make the story go the way I  wanted it to, my problems went away. Was hard to delete all that work but in doing so, I got my character and my original story back.


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## KarlR (Apr 16, 2011)

I like your take, Dark.  When it becomes the author's story, and no longer the characters', everyone loses!


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## starseed (Apr 16, 2011)

Grapefight said:


> Has anyone mentioned drugs and alcohol yet? It doesn't look like it.


 
Haha... I was gonna say, drink some yerba mate tea. You can get it at Whole Foods. Man, that stuff is beyond powerful. It's a stimulant but it's nothing like coffee. Coffee always gives me that weird feeling in my stomach, it stimulates me and sometimes helps me feel more awake, but it doesn't seem to stimulate me creatively. When I drink the mate tea, wow! I literally stay up all night with writing flowing out of me. I drank some yesterday and wrote almost 20 pages last night. It makes me feel relaxed AND focused at the same time. Like I could just sit there forever writing and focusing on the story. Where as coffee gives me that jittery, distracted sort of "energy" where I end up doing a million things at once, like reading stuff on forums vs working on my novel. 

I don't know, maybe it's just me but this stuff has saved me from writers block multiple times. It really is magic for me. I drink it and I suddenly know what to do with the story. The high is similar to a cocaine high, for me... but obviously much healthier... and please don't ask how I know that. lol 

Another thing I do is just go on these "Sprees" of ridiculously bad first draft writing. I'll write out a scene and it will be THE dumbest, cheesiest scene ever. But it's SOMETHING. A frame to start with. Sometimes I even make it bad on purpose a little, so I can go back and be triggered to think "this could be made better by..." That process has helped me a lot, as I find it easier to improve upon a bad piece, vs trying to write a good piece from scratch.


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