Two things make a post because I damn well say so

[megwrites]

1. DW/LJ-verse, let me pick your brains about long term writer's block and what it is and if anyone ever gets over it. Because right now, I'm in a bit of a panic that I will never write again. It's been weeks, maybe months, since I sat down and worked on a project. It's like the mere act of typing has gotten harder for me to do. The words don't flow from me anymore. Heck, they don't really even come when I try to grind them out word by word onto a page or a screen.

I'm blocked up. Well and truly and I don't know how to get out of it. Anyone else ever gone through this? How did you get out of it?

Because right now I really am afraid that I've lost the one ability that I've always valued in myself and that's scary.


2. Dog bless sara and the very first fontmas in which she explains how to use Google Web Fonts really easily in your DW layouts simply by pasting a url into a box. IT'S LIKE MAGIC, Y'ALL. Which solves my problem of finding a layout that I liked a lot but didn't care for Impact as a font. I really wish that they'd get a new default font for new layouts because the Summertime layouts are pretty. And the one I'm using actually has a nice color combo. But damn, Impact is one ugly damn font to use. It's like using popsicle sticks to frame the work of a great artist. It just sort of ruins the whole thing. But that's my opinion and I'm not a pro or even an amateur when it comes to designing things. I just play around on colourlovers a lot and pretend I know things.

Comments

[wisdomeagle]

1. LET ME KNOW IF YOU FIND THE ANSWER. :(

*comfort*

[megwrites]

Thank you so much for the comfort. And if I do find the answer, I'll shout it from the mountain tops.

[inkstone]

re: 1

Okay, so. I'm just climbing out of this. And I say long term, I mean LONG TERM. It was years for me. I haven't really talked about it because I just assumed writing had left me.

But about a year ago, I really, really really wanted to write again, I made a concentrated effort to try. It's a been pretty ugly year. A lot of fits and starts and falling flat on my face.

That said, I eventually found the key to breaking through the wall.

I had to stop listening all the outside noise. Everything. Publishing news. Writing advice. Trends. EVERYTHING. I had to stop. It was feeding into all my insecurities and building this wall I could never climb over. And it was in that cocoon, that I was able to start writing again. That was this past November.

I've since started listening to the outside world again but I've been really careful to put everything in boxes. When I write, it's only me. No outside noise or voices to crowd mine out. When I start paying attention to the outside world, it's at a time I think of a Not Writing Time. This is what works for me.

Beginning to write again after a long break is hard. I'm not going to lie or sugarcoat. It's hard. It takes effort to get into the habit again. But you have to be willing to try again and again no matter how many times you fail because that next time might be the one that sticks and changes your life.

I don't know if any of that was helpful but that was my experience.

[dragonjournal]

I mostly agree with inkstone. Stop with the outside noise, stop reading the writing books. Sit down and describe a rock. Sit and listen to music and then write down whatever comes to mind. Write random words on a piece of paper. Write... anything. Words are words.

Second: Read. Read something new. Try a new genre, a new author. Read fanfiction. Read fandom meta. Read children's books, read technical manuals. Just something/anything that isn't your "normal".

Try a new type of writing. I wrote a script for Script frenzy this year. It was an interesting experience and dragged me out of my funk.

Try changing your venue. Always write at the desk? Write on the couch, at the kitchen table.

TIMERS. Try the Pomodoro App. It fits right on your computer. Set it for 10 minutes. Just randomly hit buttons for those ten minutes. Don't worry about actual words, just buttons. Never know what might come out of it.

Good luck! *hugs*

[holyschist]

I have years of writers' block, pretty much all of grad school and a year or so after. For me, it was a shiny new fandom and being states away from my partner, lonely and depressed and writing to cope; I'm just starting to spill over a little into writing original fiction again. But this is probably not a helpful solution for anyone but me.

[st_aurafina]

Something that has worked for me was trying a different outlet for creativity, like art or sewing or anything that lets me express creativity without the pressure of getting words down.

The things that people have suggested above work for me when I can write but not much is coming, but if I'm really, really blocked, I end up frustrated. I think I need to redirect the stream, so to speak, and then I find the writing thoughts start coming back.

I hope it helps. I hope something helps. *hugs*

[green_knight]

One thing that helped me to get through the anxiety was to focus on why I *wanted* to do the thing I was blocked on: it's fun. I enjoy it. The pressure of why I *should* and what I should be doing and what I should have achieved already etc was pretty intense, and I needed a break from that... but underneath was a layer of 'I want to do this. This is fun.' Rediscovering it was a long process, but ultimately successful.

[madame_parker]

Yeah, I've got the same problem and I think I've reached a bit of a breaking point, maybe because I'm reading too much noise as Inkstone put it. It's awful, I've been blocked for years, these days I even have a hard time posting comments, which is really bad.

At the moment I'm looking into other creative outlets, I really like the sound of bookbinding, making my own notebooks would be lovely, also weaving and I hope to get my Mum to teach me knitting.