Are you unable to write? You go to your keyboard, or whatever your preferred writing medium is, but you just can't think of what to put down. The words escape your mind. Your brain isn't giving you any suggestions.

This isn't writer's block. This is just the state of not knowing what to do.

"What do you mean?" You might be saying. "I have tons of ideas! I just can't think of how to start."

No you don't. You have a scene. It's going to be something like, "What if Luna defeated Celestia and ruled Equestria?" or "What if Discord was actually smart?"

Quick rule of thumb: if you don't have a notebook (digital or otherwise) with at least two thousand words, your idea is not fit to be made into a multichaptered story. It's suitable for a one-shot.

"But you're an idiot! There are two types of writers: planners and not-planners, and I'm not a planner!"

Well guess what? I'm not a planner either. When I write a one-shot, I start out with a single-sentence idea like those shown above. I suck at planning, and do much better when I have as little details as on paper as possible.

And yet I still advocate putting at least two thousand words of plot down before starting your story. The purpose of this isn't to actually follow said plot. It's to get you to write. You know that feeling of not knowing what to write next because your brain just stopped feeding you ideas? And then you feel guilty for not writing, so you procrastinate some more, and then it becomes too shameful to show your face ever again because you just know everyone will be tearing into you for that massive unplanned hiatus you took?

A plan can help you avoid that. I start deviating from my plan a few chapters in, and the plot usually begins to look completely unrecognizable from what I'd originally thought out at about the middle of the story, yet they eventually tend to tie back together (though not perfectly) at the conclusion.

So you really want to plan a solid ending, because you're probably going to end up falling back on it after failing to think of anything else.

Of course, this doesn't apply if you're extremely character driven and don't need any planning to continue to write. Or if you actually do have writer's block. But you probably don't.

6073523
Good way of thoughts, I support the statment about the ending

6073523
lol I did planned a plot and end up changing a lot of things when I started writing the story. Still, the outline I wrote before helped a lot as I wrote story

Hey, I just wanted some clarification. Are you advising writing out a plan to flesh out the idea or 'scene' that starts you off creatively, or are you advising that unless your starting idea is complex enough to fill out 2k words it isn't worth pursuing? If it's the latter I'm pretty much fcked

Writer's block doesn't exist.

There, I said it. I know a lot of people will hate me for it, but it's true. Writer's block isn't real. It's an excuse, nothing more.

Writing is work. People hate work because work is hard and boring. You're not afflicted by some mysterious condition, you just don't want to work. Which is natural, especially considering that producing My Little Pony fanfiction doesn't generally rank as anything important in anyone's life (at least it shouldn't), but let's call it what it is. You'll just have to sit down and work if you want to get through it. No-one is "inspired" all the time. The words won't magically flow. You'll have to work to get that story done. It requires effort. Well, good stories do, anyway.

Writer's block is not real.

I don't care if this gets downvoted into oblivion. I am riding gloriously to Valhalla, having spoken the truth. Witness me.

6073523

Are you unable to write? You go to your keyboard, or whatever your preferred writing medium is, but you just can't think of what to put down. The words escape your mind. Your brain isn't giving you any suggestions.

This isn't writer's block. This is just the state of not knowing what to do.

Finally someone else who sees what I see. Although I'd elaborate that many people don't know what to do because they don't have anything to do - they aren't storytellers. They are cursed with the desire to write, but not the facilities, thus resulting in lifelong frustration which other people can't empathize with (and often condescendingly deny is even real).

6073529

Writer's block doesn't exist.

These words were practically orgasmic to read!
It's just the logical result of proverbially trying to do bicep curls with an amputated arm - an exercise in futility from the start due to a lack of capacity.

Some people just don't have a storyteller's mind. They weren't born with it.

6073529 6073523

Well, some of us don't have a good idea on how to make a scene, and are usually too busy to write Fan-Fiction all the time. Sure I could write everything that comes into my head, but then I would be making terrible stories that people would hate. And I would also be ignoring my real world responsibilities. Unless this is needed for my livelihood, I'm not going to make it a priority. If I did, people in real life might hate me, and send me to some sort of insane asylum.

So there, writers block doesn't exist. But stress, psychological issues, chores, jobs, loved ones, and personal health do exist. So if I have to write a detailed letter for every time my health, my wealth, were at stake, or my mind is simply filled with stupid and retarded ideas I would kill myself.

So there, "Writers Block" doesn't exist, but writers are mortal and are made form flesh and blood. So unless writing here stops being just for my personal enjoyment, and becomes a necessity for my survival. I'm going to place other pieces of my life as priority.

THANK YOU!

6073528
It's not that ideas less than 2k in length aren't worth pursuing. He said that ideas without 2k in length probably don't have enough substance for a multi-chapter story. Hell, The Writeoff Association is a group dedicated to the practice of turning prompts into stories.

As an example of the "2k" rule, I have two stories I'm working on. One is a one-shot based on the idea that "Monsters Never Die". Before I felt comfortable beginning on the story I did about 300 words of brainstorming ideas and roughing out a beginning and end. At present I've got about 3k words written and I think I'm about 2/3 of the way thorough the story.

My other story has a working title of "Fire" and about 1.3k words of outline and notes. It's sitting at about 15k words-on-page for the rough draft with about 3/4 of it written. The thing that both of these stories have in common is that the work I did before starting has allowed me to avoid the question of "what happens next" (for the most part) and has given me a general idea of how long the story will end up being based on my stockpile of ideas.

So the "2k" rule is more of a measuring stick for how long the story can be, allowing for variation among authors. Longer stories need more leg work done beforehand to flesh out the idea while others that are limited to a single scene don't usually need to know how the existence/non-existence of Tom has effected the entire history of Equestria.

To be honest, I find this video to be the most helpful when it comes to helping myself to write when you do have a writer's block.

6073533
Well that's a self sabotaging philosophy. Even if you're not naturally gifted at something you can still do it if you put in enough focused time and effort. You might need help, and some good teachers, but I don't think the effort is wasted. Saying "you can't do it because you're not talented" sounds like a consolation prize to someone who's given up. Even genius is wasted without effort.

I got into writing because I was bad at it and because everything I did was dull and boring. If you tell me I can't do it because I haven't been able to do it yet then sir: I appreciate your concern but frankly I don't give a damn.

TL:DR - If you cut off my arm and I still want to lift that weight, I'll use my teeth.

6073523
What's that about Discord being dumb?

6073581

you can still do it if you put in enough focused time and effort.

People always say this as though I haven't tried.
Tried. Failed. Failed in many different ways for nearly 30 years, which is easily enough time to prove beyond any doubt that it's a lost cause.

And yes, genius is wasted without effort.
People aren't born skilled writers, but they are born with the capacity to learn to be writers and they have to actively work at it. Not everyone has this capacity.

(Also you need to have a natural imagination and storyteller's mind, which can't be learned. It's something that comes naturally to people who have it.)

6073591
You keep talking about having "the capacity to learn" to write, but as far as I've seen, that "capacity" basically means lacking certain serious mental disabilities. In every case I've seen, it's never been about some vague natural capacity; it's been about having an driving interest for the work (Bonus if it's actually fun) driving the person to write frequently, having a wide enough base of knowledge and experience to handle situations and characters well, and reading, studying, or writing an excessive amount of material to learn how they might improve.

I'm curious. Over those 30 years, how much have you written before deciding you couldn't write? How many stories have you finished, or better yet, how many words have you written? How many other ways of creating fiction have you tried? How many other ways of learning to write have you tried?

Because if your thirty years of "trying to write" consists of a handful of aborted stories, idle thinking of other unwritten story ideas, and maybe some decades-old high-school English classes, then concluding that you don't have the capacity to learn to write is about as reasonable as concluding you couldn't ever learn to be a pilot because you watched Top Gun this one time.

6073601

It isn't just writing, it's everything. Too stupid to finish any real qualifications (basic security course doesn't count - if I had a brain I would have finished my database design and accounting courses), overweight and exercise does nothing, zero skills or redeeming qualities, play a lot of video games but never develop any skill at any of them. Stuck on antidepressants that do nothing but make money for drug companies while treating a problem that doesn't exist.

I have a 54k word piece of shit on this site. It is impossible to sit down and write - I literally can't do it. Hence my epiphany of why. Some people just don't have lives worth living; I would happily re-roll if I had the chance, but alas, this one life is the only one I have.

Everyone else can succeed. I simply can't. And being surrounded by those people unknowingly slighting me by showing off how easy it is for them is rather annoying - especially when some of them have the nerve to condescendingly say "you could do it too!" as though it's that easy.

6073529

I am very much of your opinion.

I feel that one either wants to write or does not want to write.

If you're suffering from depression or other mental afflictions you will not want to write. If your basic needs aren't being met, you will not want to write.

Take a look at this:

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs puts it to us that humans require that their needs be fulfilled to a certain extent in order to be properly motivated. It's all right if you don't have all your needs fulfilled, but miss too many and you will no longer be capable of functioning properly.

6073591
I refuse to believe that someone doesn't have a storyteller's mind when we are all living stories. The story of how you picked up groceries may not seem interesting at first but if you shift your focus to the character's pain then suddenly a world of possibilities opens up. Are they running low on money, are they distracted by the idea of their SO cheating on them, is there a literal nail working its way into their heart and they wanna eat tacos one more time before they die? (that sounds like a fun/sad scene actually..)

Natural imagination is also something I think everyone has because without imagination and fantasy we would have no goals or aspirations. Do you want a car, or to be good at soccer, or to be a giant robot with tentacle arms and pom-poms cheering on the Guardians of the Galaxy? Each of those evokes a story in the reader's mind because we have experienced emotions or feelings like them in the past, and what are stories but a vehicle that makes us feel things?

And writing rules can be learned. Punctuation can be learned. That's just study and practice.

Now I can see you've made a choice, and you probably don't agree with my views, but I don't think it's a hopeless quest for some. It might not be worth the cost, but that's another thing entirely and respectable in its own right. And hey, if you still want to try, Fake It 'Till You Make It! Try copying out good books and trying to understand why they were written the way they were.

6073612

The story of how you picked up groceries may not seem interesting at first but if you shift your focus to the character's pain then suddenly a world of possibilities opens up. Are they running low on money, are they distracted by the idea of their SO cheating on them, is there a literal nail working its way into their heart and they wanna eat tacos one more time before they die? (that sounds like a fun/sad scene actually..)

See how you came up with all of that just from a little premise you improvised on the fly?
I can't do that. There is a void in my mind where that facility should be. Half the time I think I may actually be exhibiting super early-onset dementia symptoms.

When people leave comments on music or stories talking about the feelings that were invoked in their minds, I find myself sitting there realizing I felt nothing. That is the deeper issue here.

Try copying out good books and trying to understand why they were written the way they were.

Actually one of my most noticable weaknesses is that I am incapable of analysis or empathy (which may actually be pseudo-sociopathy). When people read stories written a certain way, things like emotive language have the effect they do on people because they subconsciously pick things up.

I don't. When someone tells me to look closely and analyze why certain words were chosen, I literally can't. It means nothing to me, and to be honest it is fucking infuriating.

6073612

And yes, writing rules can be learned. Punctuation, grammar, etc.
I know those things. Amazingly even a brain as underdeveloped as mine can grasp them (which speaks volumes about the bottom-tier idiots on Youtube comments who can't tell "your" from "you're.")

But these are useless on their own when there's no story to tell with them.
So knowing those language basics isn't an asset - they are default, and lacking them is just a liability.

6073529
Agreed. I have taken up writing as my lot in life. When it's time to write, I write. There is no 'writer's block.'

6073614
Fine. Then what did you do today? or yesterday, or the day before? What happend before that? and before that? And what about between them? Writing is nothing more than a recounting of events, thought, or feelings with a focus placed or one part or another. You're "infuriated" by your lack? Good. WHY? That is your story. It's a story only you know and only you can tell. Grab that anger and poor it onto the page as whatever slime encrusted dribble it is. If it's filthy - good. If it's revolting - good. Scream at it with all the rage and pain you have accumulated throughout the years because fuck life and it's shitty hands and Fuck all that other bullshit because anger is energy and everything else can go die in a hole because THIS. IS. YOUR FUCKING LIFE. And you choose what you do with it. Nobody else.

And if that's not me telling you who I am and what I've been through, then nothing else will matter. Because nothing else will compare.

6073606
Given how you constantly describe yourself, it sure sounds like the antidepressants may be for a legitimate problem. I've had some family members with similar problems to what you describe. The issue wasn't that they couldn't do something, it was that their depression kept them from having the motivation to actually commit to doing it. Once their depression was properly treated, they rapidly became (or returned to being) quite good at what they were wanting to do.

But in a more general sense, if that 54k word story is the only example you could give when asked what your thirty years of trying has produced, then I'd like to refer back to my comparison with Top Gun. Nobody is good at something without putting some effort in, even if that effort might vary some.

6073643
I'd like to point out that that's what he has on this site. So, you know, you've only written more in one piece than I've done with all of my stories combined. I'm jealous.

6073621

Well some of us aren't professionals, or have the luxury to do so as much as we wish. You and the opening post guy are accusing all of us of laziness and poor ethic and generally being terrible people. I'm not going to to take being called worthless by someone that means nothing to me.

I will hold my ground!

6073661
I've been writing for a while, since I was working retail. There was no writing block then either. Make your decision.

6073661

I am genuinely a trash person, though. Plus, I'm too beset by real life circumstances to properly dedicate myself to the task of writing. I lack motivation, work ethic, and have depression.

I ain't gonna run away from being called worthless; it's what I am.

6073665
I am not worthless! I do write! I am not worthless! I do write! I am not worthless! I do write!

...................

Why do I feel like less of a person next to you....

Sorry, I'm just jealous and depressive. I'll leave you alone now.

6073651

Not when it's 54k meaningless words that tell an empty story that would barely take 3k if told properly.
(It's more like an essay, a sequence of events, than a story. They aren't the same - a story has feeling, with things like emotive language and showing rather than telling. A simple summary of events that have no justification being connected to one another is not a story.)

6073643

As far as I'm concerned depression itself is a logical fallacy.
Someone says they are stupid, there are exactly two ways to react-

1. Accept that they may very well be stupid, exactly as they say.
2. Invent a whole bunch of unprovable variables like brain chemistry and "self-esteem" and all other such stuff that basically adds up to assuming the person's statement is wrong because their perception is warped and they need to be sold drugs to fix it.

Which one do you think would survive Occam's Razor?

My descriptions of myself are all based on tangible and provable problems. There is no "warped self-perception" that I need pills to fix. I am simply every word of my claim, and no pill can fix that.

TL;DR - Fuck depression. If someone tells you they have a problem, the correct conclusion is that they have that problem unless you have tangible evidence to the contrary.

Someone with body dysmorphia can tell you they're overweight while they weigh 40kg; that is a case of their perception actually being warped.

6073669
Don't give up on writing. The words that I say are meant to inspire you to move forward, not to stop. Never let anything stop you, even yourself.

6073529

Ah, yes that is also very true. Now that I have read it.

I need to calm down.... My self loathing makes me terrible.

6073667

We can be worthless together!

6073683

Come, let us be toilet people together.

6073523
I have come up with detailed stories in my head; action-by-action scenes with descriptions and details… and then when I sit down to write, it all goes away, and I end up staring at a blank page. What would you call that, if not writer's block? It seems like a perfectly accurate term to me. Writer's block is, from what I can tell, connected to mental issues like depression; but just because it's caused by something doesn't make it not a thing itself.

It appears to me that this is just an attempt to define writer's block out of existence because it makes you look ‘clever’ for figuring something out that goes against the established knowledge. Maybe with a bit of honest failure to empathize thrown in if you've never experienced the condition yourself. (David Silver's response, in particular, comes off as this. He hasn't had it, therefore it doesn't exist. Sure, that's how the world works.)

-Sincerely, a person struggling with anxiety and chronic depression who doesn't appreciate when their problems are dismissed as simple laziness by the people fortunate enough not to have them.

6073737

Ah, but you managed to put your thoughts in words in order to make this post.

6073739
Funny how that works, isn't it? It's almost like expressing opinions and writing stories are different things.

6073742

On the other hand, you just wrote a short story describing your circumstance.

[sticks ALTERNATE UNIVERSE/HUMAN/SAD tags on it]

6073758
I see you also like sounding clever without actually saying anything of use.

I usually suffer from a heavy case of writers laziness.

6073760

Nah, I'm worthless trash. I am literally a person who lives in a garbage can. Are you kidding? I don't even have a story with 100+ likes.

6073766
If you're not trying to sound clever, and you don't think you have anything of actual use to add, then that leaves no discernible motive for why you would comment in the first place.

And I'm not sure actual homeless people would be happy with your implication that they all have a computer and access to the Internet.

6073774

Every word is like an unnecessary stain on silence and nothingness.

6073779
See, even that doesn't make sense: “Unnecessary” implies that you don't think it's worth doing. If you don't think your own comments are worth making, then how do you even work up the impetus to write them? Or is it some form of complex involuntary tick?

6073783

You'd have to ask Samuel Beckett what he meant when he said it.

6073793
Now you're implying that you quoted a phrase without having a meaning you intended to convey with it, which leads to the question of why you even bothered quoting a writer, since Sun Tzu would have been equally poignant.

6073805 the fact that you, in your furious pursuit to roast the other guy are completely derailing this thread has never occurred to you, has it? Why can't you do that in a PM? (Hypocritical move on my side, but still.)

6073805

Couldn't think of a Sun Tzu line that fit the mood, sorry.

6073805 6073813 6073815 I think at this point everyone should take this to PMs. I know Alsvid and BDT in particular have a habit of replying until (presumably) one from them collapses of sheer exhaustion. Feel free to quote me on that. I'm no Sun Tzu but I'm at least a close third.

Since I'm about to head to sleep, I'd rather it ends now than in the morning before I have to interview for things that will (hopefully) earn me money.

Looks like I'm off the hook!