By Kenzie, with help. And the all-important permission to mention the sacred brownies.
It plagues us all, I don't think I've ever heard of a writer who hasn't had writer's block at one time in their life. And if your anything like me it will be a regular occurrence! Now, conquering writer's block (or WB as I shall call it, because I'm lazy) is one of the most important things you can do, whether you're a published author or a fanfiction writer. So I'm going to give you some handy tips on how to banish it. Well, for a while! They might not work for you, but give 'em a chance -what do you have to lose? I'll also include ideas from other people, so if you have any, the weirder the better, contact me and I'll get it up here!
Listen to music: I don't know about you lot, but listening to music always inspires me. In fact that's quite often how I come up with fanfic ideas in the first place. But, when you're stuck for ideas it's always good to distract yourself, however hard that may be, so try listening to something. I recommend anything with really good lyrics, as you'll often find a line that makes you think "oh, what if he thought that about her". However, you may prefer to listen just to the music to get completely away from the WB situation. Try a mix -hey you could even make a mix tape! I mean cd... whatever.
Organise something: It doesn't matter what. Whether it be an outing to the cinema with your friends, or a five course dinner party, this will definitely take your mind off the task at hand.
Cook: I would go for something of the pudding variety, like cake... or Belle's delicious brownies, but whatever it is it'll distract you. And you may even be able to use your products as bargaining chips; "I'll let you have a cookie if you let me have your turn on the computer." Of course whatever you cook will be good, and if you get WB a lot, you should probably vary it. And I recommend keeping a pad of paper in the kitchen in case you suddenly get an idea. I mean, that's great, but you don't want the jacket potato exploding or something while you're off typing up your newest novel.
Watch your favourite film/movie: This is pretty obvious, it works for any kind of cheering up.
Read your favourite book: Although this might make you feel worse, because that person already has a book. Each to their own though, it helps me.
For both the above options it could be a good thing or a bad thing to watch/read the canon that you are basing your fanfiction on. Sometimes it may help you see another thing you've never seen before, other times it might just depress you. That's the thing with WB, and fanfic in general, it's just so bloody personal!
Do some exercise: I know, the dreaded E word! But seriously, you could do something boring like jogging, but by exercise I mean dance, hop, skip, run like Phoebe does in "Friends". Do something weird and fun, go crazy!
Garden: Get yourself a little bit of garden (like in "The Secret Garden") or an allotment or something and go planting when you get WB. That way you're out in the sunshine (or rain depending on where you live) doing something good for the environment -because plants rock- and doing something you can reap the rewards of later!
Write something else: I know I always have at least two fanfictions on the go (my maximum was about six or seven) so if you're like me - not always a good thing - try writing your other story instead. Then you might get some nice reviews, which will encourage you to write the other story because people might review that too! And you know we're all suckers for reviews!
Force yourself to write something: This is one for desperate measures, and I think it's extremely possible it only works for me. But what I'm saying is, write a paragraph or a page, save it and come back to it the next day then do some editing. Then you've either got a good chapter, or you've beaten your WB and thought of something else.
Talk to your
muse/D.R/Beta: For most people, these will also be fans of the
canon your fic is on (otherwise it tends to get confusing) so they might
have some good ideas, or encouragement.
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Claimer: All content (articles etc) of MeBe is copyright 2006 Belle and Kenzie, unless otherwise stated. You can reproduce articles on this site WITH PERMISSION FROM THE WRITERS, but we'd probably prefer you just to link to it.