Tips How do you deal with ”writer’s block”?

[Tonberry]

(This doesn’t have to explicitly be about your RGT writings!)

Say you have an excellent idea for a text. Be it review, article, opinion, anything—but no matter how hard you try you just can’t get the proverbial ball rolling.
Do you have any good strategies for dealing with the dreaded writer’s block Do you just power through until something sticks or do you have any creative solutions?

For me personally (speaking as a creative person), since writing is a very, like, tertiary creative endeavor compared to my more prevalent muses, I usually have to just sit and wait until a thunderbolt of inspiration strikes, and then take full advantage of that high to just blast the subject matter out of my mind and onto the paper/document.

Not always, of course, but I suppose it feels easier that way since I’m maybe not as experienced a writer as I’d like to be, and getting in the swing of things can likely only come from powering through more often!

 

[Yousef Yousef]

I got mental whiplash super hard cuz I thought my thread from GH teleported over here.

But on a genuine note, it’s tragically not as easy as just taking breaks. I tried, didn’t work. I think there’s an X factor to it. Find motivation and stick with it.

I suppose I’ll focus my biggest weakness and it’s being extremely self conscious about literally everything. Yeah sounds crazy coming from me but it’s true. I always think in the moment but writing requires you to think in the past and future which can be scary.

But each weakness is personal to our own experiences.

Maybe you need to find your own minor setbacks and overcome them.

Here’s my superpowered solution, get comfortable talking about your ideas. I know there’s this imminent fear that you’ll spend more time discussing your work and not actually working on it, but I do think creativity demands a healthy growing environment. Having writing friends was the best thing that happened to my writing hobby, I’m serious.

Godspeed, Wizardman.

 

[kuroninneko]

Im very interested in this topic. As a solo game developer I deal with lots or procrastination and days when I feel like its hopeless. The most important thing is to do some sort of daily work and have like micro goals. Even a warmup ritual type thing can help. The book War of Art is very interesting and helped a lot

 

[Jayonnaise6105 Jayonnaise6105]

I hesitate to call myself a "writer", because I've only really written a small amount of stuff and it has all been for this website but I have struggled with almost any "review" I've written here on RGT, be it in the articles section or on a random thread I started.

I think the "x factor" that @Yousef mentioned is definitely important. Something to keep you motivated to keep going, or to come back if you do take a break. It might be simple, but I think I can only write about things I really enjoyed and can share some personal anecdote about.

Like, I couldn't force myself to write or talk about something I thought was bad, or boring. Taking breaks for a day or two has worked for me personally, but I needed to really be interested to come back and not forget about the projects.

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

I go on extremely long walks with music on and just try to make it all fit to the beat of my favorite songs, rotating concepts and ideas in my head like some sort of 3D Rubik's Cube until they click together.

It's not an exact science (hell, it's not even guaranteed to work), but it does the trick... For me, at least.

 

[LiberoVulpesLiberoVulpes's icon]

I don't overthink anything I write, I am a massive narcissist, and I only write what I would like to read.

Connect the bullet points in my mind with stream of consciousness writing, with structure only to keep myself focused.

Everything concise, casual, to the point, no fat, and efficient.

Works for everything I do, from articles and reviews, to novels and research papers.

Writer's block has never been a problem.

 

[Lena CE]

Sometimes I need a little break, sometimes I need to wait for the random rush of inspiration/motivation, often though I need to just stream of consciousness write.

I am an incrsdibly self-concious and anxious person. Trying my best to get back the self-esteem I used to have in creative endeavors cause I think it always requires at a bit of ego to see through. The best way I've found to get over that anxiety is for me to just sort of write through it, as simple as it sounds. If I wait for the perfect sentence to jot down it will take me ages and that entire process is spent with me agonizing over what others will think. Recently though I've just allowed myself to "braindump" everything onto a page while acknowledging it is nowhere near the final draft.

By just allowing myself to throw everythijg at the wall I'm allowed to see what sticks and at least get myself to write instead of sitting there paralyzed to some degree. Then I can slowly go through and tune it up, throw out random stuff that didn't work or was only written down to keep my momentum. I will write paragraphs that I know in the moment don't really belong in the final cut but the goal isn't quality, its quantity and repetition to slowly get myself comfortable with "putting myself out there" even though no one will ever read these drafts, of course.

Its been a godsend, I've written more in the past couple months than in the past couple years!

 

[PhaseJump]

Live. Pound liquor and hit a beach, have a camp fire, visit people, hit a city and run around finding mundane bullshit to drop in on and do.

I was 6 hours away from home yesterday and hit up a random deli for something to eat. The e-bike riding mental midgets that gathered nearby in horrible wannabe leather vest biker gear were something to witness.

 

[kuroninneko]

Heres some excerpts from War of Art:


“This is the other secret that real artists know and wannabe writers don’t. When we sit down each day and do our work, power concentrates around us. The Muse takes note of our dedication. She approves. We have earned favor in her sight. When we sit down and work, we become like a magnetized rod that attracts iron filings. Ideas come. Insights accrete.”
― Steven Pressfield, The War of Art



“Are you a born writer? Were you put on earth to be a painter, a scientist, an apostle of peace? In the end the question can only be answered by action.

Do it or don't do it.

It may help to think of it this way. If you were meant to cure cancer or write a symphony or crack cold fusion and you don't do it, you not only hurt yourself, even destroy yourself,. You hurt your children. You hurt me. You hurt the planet.

You shame the angels who watch over you and you spite the Almighty, who created you and only you with your unique gifts, for the sole purpose of nudging the human race one millimeter farther along its path back to God.

Creative work is not a selfish act or a bid for attention on the part of the actor. It's a gift to the world and every being in it. Don't cheat us of your contribution. Give us what you've got.”
― Steven Pressfield, The War of Art



“The amateur believes he must first overcome his fear; then he can do his work. The professional knows that fear can never be overcome.”
― Steven Pressfield, The War of Art

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I been thinking about joining the writers guild myself. I would be interested in research papers on specific game designers.

 

[Jayonnaise6105 Jayonnaise6105]

I been thinking about joining the writers guild myself. I would be interested in research papers on specific game designers.

You should give it a try! Applications are always welcome

 

[kuroninneko]

You should give it a try! Applications are always welcome

I have a problem of needing to tell everyone about the greatness of my favorite game designers like Satoru Iwata, even people that dont care about video games, and gotta channel this energy into something more productive

 

[Crashbandi]

My big comfort is listening to music when confronted with Writer's block. And then I'll write a short story, character arc, description a description of a place anything I can think of based around the song. Something unrelated to what I'm trying to write and that usually gets the creative juices flowing.

For me music is a much better muse than other entertainment mediums because you can just focus on the music or the vocals and get lost in thought while your own creativity flows.

 

[Jayonnaise6105 Jayonnaise6105]

I have a problem of needing to tell everyone about the greatness of my favorite game designers like Satoru Iwata, even people that dont care about video games, and gotta channel this energy into something more productive

My application was about channelling a similar need I have to talk about My Little Pony and its related games

 

[dropsmegamega]

ask chatgpt to write instead and get pissed at how bad and soulless is whatever it wrote and proceed to completely rewrite it

 

[Naltic]

(This doesn’t have to explicitly be about your RGT writings!)

Say you have an excellent idea for a text. Be it review, article, opinion, anything—but no matter how hard you try you just can’t get the proverbial ball rolling.
Do you have any good strategies for dealing with the dreaded writer’s block Do you just power through until something sticks or do you have any creative solutions?

For me personally (speaking as a creative person), since writing is a very, like, tertiary creative endeavor compared to my more prevalent muses, I usually have to just sit and wait until a thunderbolt of inspiration strikes, and then take full advantage of that high to just blast the subject matter out of my mind and onto the paper/document.

Not always, of course, but I suppose it feels easier that way since I’m maybe not as experienced a writer as I’d like to be, and getting in the swing of things can likely only come from powering through more often!

This is a really interesting topic that I have been faced with, and based on what I have tried, I think going back to what really ignited the fire back when you first started writing should start fueling the fire you once had for writing. As in, you have to ask yourself what made you write in the beginning, what was that feeling deep inside yourself, and how did you turn that feeling into something that you are now proud of? I think asking oneself these questions and then later taking a few steps back and maybe recreating the environment that caused you to write in the beginning may aid you in, as I said before, reigniting the fire. But it's not 100% a sure-fire way to solve the issue, but what I do think it is, is that it brings you a sort of acceptance to what you are dealing with right now, if that makes any sense. You sort of start to understand yourself more, and from this understanding, you start to become a better thinker, and from that, you start to breathe more life into the work you create, which will have by then fueled that desire you had from the beginning of your writing journey. Hope what I said makes sense.

 

[Amag0k1]

Move the writer out of the way right??..... Wait! :/

 

[Aziamuth]

Frankly, I only get writer's block when the idea I'm writing ends up being stupid, so I discard that idea and move on to a better one. It's also important to write only when you really want to.

 

[Retro Doomer]

If you have a writer block maybe try to loosen it up a bit

But on a Serious note it can help to go outside breath in some fresh air and relax.
Music also can be helpful or watching Movies or doing Activities in General it can help to get new Inspiration or Ideas if you need once as the world is full with Ideas to be discovered.

So I hope you are gonna find a way to get rid of the writer block and I hope my little piece of advice was helpful so take care.

 

[Stingy Perry Stingy Perry]

Whenever I tried writing something but nothing seems to fall into place I kinda stepped away from it. I tend to occupy myself with other things be it work or play some games. The thing is the less I think about it, ideas seems to just randomly popped in my head.

 

[Zerpina]

Myself, I take a break....

I took quite a little hiatus there for a couple of months, anyhow.
What I typically do is not worry about writing something, if I get a glint of an idea, I jot it down.
I keep a little notepad with me, and if other things come to mind that would work well with it, I jot those down as well.

And finally, when I'm not even thinking about it, the proverbial floodgate will open.
Then I type up a rough draft.... ungodly and rough, and chip away at sections until it ebbs and flows the way I want.

But I have a fairly Swiss cheese brain, take my advice with a pinch of salt.

 

[Jayonnaise6105 Jayonnaise6105]

Myself, I take a break....

I took quite a little hiatus there for a couple of months, anyhow.
What I typically do is not worry about writing something, if I get a glint of an idea, I jot it down.
I keep a little notepad with me, and if other things come to mind that would work well with it, I jot those down as well.

And finally, when I'm not even thinking about it, the proverbial floodgate will open.
Then I type up a rough draft.... ungodly and rough, and chip away at sections until it ebbs and flows the way I want.

But I have a fairly Swiss cheese brain, take my advice with a pinch of salt.
View attachment 123304

(looks around room and notices 4 different notepads filled with varying levels of notes, none filled completely and not much consistency between the kinds of notes written in them)

The "swiss cheese brain" thing is kind of relatable

 

[skramz]

alcohol and tobacco

 

[diet_orange]

I don't overthink anything I write, I am a massive narcissist, and I only write what I would like to read.

I'm kind of that way to an extent. More and more of my writing has been about what I want to read myself, if someone else enjoys it, that's pure happenstance. I used to have little to no confidence in myself as an artist and only really partook in it when the stars aligned, and tbh, I'm still kind of that way. Caffeine helps a lot in that department

 

[Octopus]

I go through bursts of writing a lot followed by bursts of not having any desire to write or even being unable too despite trying. When it happens, I try not to push anything. Just forcing yourself to try and write when you can't just makes it worse in my experience, both in terms of writing quality and I think mental state on top of that. I'll start doing basic jot form for the time being if I can manage that, even if I'm in the middle of writing a draft of something; fuck it, you know? I'll go back to it and fluff everything up once I'm back in the mindset. Working on multiple projects at once is also both a good thing and a bad thing, at least for me. If I really get stuck on something, it's sometimes helpful to be able to switch gears to something I'm feeling more at that given moment to get out of the rut.

I've also learned the golden rule; sometimes, you just have to respect the block. It just be like that sometimes. Often I've done this nuclear option of just walking away from writing entirely for a week or something and resetting, and I find it helps.

 

[diet_orange]

I go through bursts of writing a lot followed by bursts of not having any desire to write or even being unable too despite trying. When it happens, I try not to push anything. Just forcing yourself to try and write when you can't just makes it worse in my experience, both in terms of writing quality and I think mental state on top of that. I'll start doing basic jot form for the time being if I can manage that, even if I'm in the middle of writing a draft of something; fuck it, you know? I'll go back to it and fluff everything up once I'm back in the mindset. Working on multiple projects at once is also both a good thing and a bad thing, at least for me. If I really get stuck on something, it's sometimes helpful to be able to switch gears to something I'm feeling more at that given moment to get out of the rut.

This is why I say I write "as a hobby" and not professionally. I don't think I could do it constantly, it's not like a constantly running faucet. When I first started writing my story, The Black Bayou, I tried to write a chapter at least every month mainly because I wrote short and punchy stories then. But then I started falling in love with that world and wanted to give myself more time to weave the stories and the uploads became more and more erratic