I am not the most experienced writer nor the greatest, to say the least. I am though, a writer. I wrote a book called, 'How to Punch Soren Mckinin' and it blew up, and was published. Now, writing my second novel off of wattpad, but I still get ques...
I have two experiences with writers block and both were the complete opposite of each other.
——— 1. I simply could not think of absolutely ANYTHING and the story bored me...
2. I did not have writer's block for an entire book.
———
I think when I reflect on those two experiences I can really see what is going on. I have a creative editor I am working with now, and he tells me "you don't have writers block. You are just lazy."
At the start, when I first heard that, it would make mad.
How dare someone say that? They don't understand what it takes to write a novel! I am a creative genius... which is utterly untrue.
I don't think writer's block exist. I think it is you not enjoying your story because you're bored. And if you're bored, your audience is probably bored too.
I often forget that I have full control over what happens in my own book. I get to a scene and I go, "UGHHHHH... kill me" because I know what needs to happen to get me to a super interesting section. It is these slug chapters people have a hard time writing. I think you should remind yourself, you can do ANYTHING with your book. Again, if you're going to go wild and kill a character off, probably plant that idea at the very start of your book, but I will talk about that in another chapter.
————
You should break down what is really causing your own "writer's block". We are going to put speech quotations around that because I don't believe it is a real thing. Usually I can break it down to a few things (for myself):
1. Writing is hard. I don't feel like it
2. This scene is already planned out so it is not exciting/fun to write
3. I have already tied my story up a few chapters back and there is nothing left to write about
4. My characters or plot are not in-depth enough, therefore I don't have 'anything' to write about.
Here is my answers to those four situations. I am sure you have more yourself but if you can take some of what I am saying on board and apply it yourself, maybe it can still.
To answer number 1#, you should never feel like you have to write. You should feel like you NEED to write. There is a saying that I can't find the actual quote to but it goes something along the lines of, "You should feel like you need to write. The story needs to be told and you must get it out of you." Writing for fame or anything else beside's the creative desire to tell stories is something I cannot connect with and if you feel stressed because of demand or wanting fame, I genuinely think maybe you are writing for the wrong reasons. That or we are on two different waves.
Write because a story needs to be told. Writing is not romantic, you "sit at the type writer and bleed." But you push through it, because something in your soul tells you need to finish this story and someone needs to read it.
Number 2# is a little more tricky for me because it is my weakness. It is why I don't plan my stories. Teen fiction is a little easier not to plan but this HUGE sci fi book I am writing, you just got to plan, even a little. I hate planning. I want to read the book for the first time, just like everyone else. I don't want it to be spoiled for me either. The way I get around this is you need to remember even though you have to follow A and B to equal C, you can spice it up.
Example: Your character has to walk to school. You know that a fight is going to break out. Walking to school is somewhat boring to read and write. Right? So spice it up, it is your book.
Does she walk without shoes because she likes the nicks on her feet from the road, is it her way of hurting herself?
Does it start snowing and she watches a homeless slowly get buried in the blizzard as she walks under the bus stop, she wonders if he has died. She knows it would be the most peaceful of death. I part of her wanted to lay down next to him.
I am quite an emotional writer so all my stuff always has something sad or real about it, something that gives that story that bit of edge to it. Not EDGY... but still, something soulful about it. What is yours?
Good Old, Number 3#. I think you should do one of two things. Either drive a bus crammed With action into your story or simply let it come to its natural end. If the book is ending a lot sooner than you like, I would go with the action option. Something needs to be driving the plot. Not something small either. Don't have your character get into a fight or someone break-up with their boyfriend. I made this mistake in my own works, How to Drown Colin McKinin.
Whatever this driving force is needs to be like a timer, constantly ticking down to an event. Chuck Palahniuk, the writer of Fight Club talks about this idea of a clock. The clock is what drives your story, creates tension and then eventually, brings the story to its natural end. For How to Punch Soren Mckinin, the clock was Soren choosing whether he was going to commit suicide or not. The reader was constantly filled with tension because they knew, before the book had ended and the clock had run out, he either would have killed him self or not.
Chuck uses the example in his book, Consider This, if your book is about a plane being able unable to land and is slowly running out of fuel, the clock is the plane becoming empty of fuel. It creates tension and drives your story forward.
What is your clock?
Finally, Number 4#. I think this an error in your creative choices. You have not thought about what you actually wanted with the book or what it could become. Therefore, you just put a light dusting down of everything, hoping something would stick. This is ok if you're writing offline, heck! This is what I am doing with my Current book right now.
Though, on wattpad where it is really nice to update just after you finish writing, you need to have some sort of direction. If you have no direction and no reflection / editing process, you will stump yourself and I doubt finish the book.
I wrote How to Punch Soren Mckinin, not knowing anything about the plot and updated the moment I finished a chapter. Where I got lucky is I knew the whole thing was about, will this boy come out of this alive? That gave me structure and I could kinda fiddle my way through the book.
Note: if you do read my other works. They are first drafts and could be improved, especially if I took my own advice.
———
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
That is the end of this chapter. I hope this helped in some way! Hope you have a great day... see you in the next chapter! Comment here for any more questions to be answer in this book.
