Music for the Day

I’m sure that plenty of writers has hit this kind of wall before. You begin your story and write a few or even several chapters for it. But then, you stopped. Not because you don’t want to write anymore, but because you hit a block in the plot’s path and have no idea how to get around it. And after trying to think about getting around it, you just gave up.

I have seen writers here, plenty of them my friends, who slammed against it and decided to stop writing that story. Even deleted the work they had done, which I find to be a shame (which is part of the reason why, when writing book-length stories, I wait until I have the story completed before posting them). Hitting a wall when writing is frustrating.

While it is familiar with writers who are pantser, it can hit even those who plotted their stories out. One of my friends, who deleted a book they were writing, actually plotted out a fair chunk of their story to set up a twist (a twist that I foresee, but a twist nonetheless). And even Deviant Reunion/Battlefield, which I mentioned multiple times, I actually set up an outline, but I stopped writing it after doing a few chapters.

There can be multiple reasons for writer’s block. Perhaps it’s because you are feeling burnt out. Maybe you wanted to write something fresh but are unable either because you worked on this one story for a long story or audience/commissioners/publishers want you to keep working on this same story. Perhaps you rely on letting your fingers do the writing/typing so much that, as soon as you cannot let them flow out, you cannot think of anything. Or perhaps you wanted it to be precise, pausing the story just to iron out a flaw earlier on, even if it meant doing the same for several other stuff that has the same mistake until you gave up on it being perfect.

Just as there is no solid reason to hit writer’s block, there is no one solution to bypass it. The only thing that I can do is offer you suggestions. Any one of them can work, or none of them can work. The only thing that matters is if it works for you.

If you are feeling burnt out, rest for a bit. Stand up, do some stretches, walk around, and even catch up with some friends for fifteen minutes. If you can’t work on anything new for whatever reason, try to find an outlet. For example, if the new story won’t leave your mind, write it anyway and hope for the best. Instead of doing it perfectly the first time, try writing it down, flaws and all, before going back and rewriting it from the ground up, even if it means keeping some perceived flaws. After all, perfect is the enemy of good.

In short, don’t try to force it. Instead, take a break, walk around, do stuff that stimulates your imagination, work on other projects, and don’t make it right the first time around. But whatever your way of overcoming your writer’s block, don’t forget it.