Getting out of writers block!

[lemureyes]

I used to do a fair amount of creative writing, nothing huge, mainly for myself with some published online story sites.

All of a sudden I got writers block and haven't been back to it for a few years. Anybody got any tips for getting back to writing again?

I am soon to become a mum so just want a little project that I can pop back to when I have a bit of time.

Hi Lemur, have you tried looking for some writing exercises online? I did a short creative writing class and they always started with an exercise to get us writing out of our comfort zone - all kinds of different ones, some worked for some and some for others. Good luck with it, hope you find your writing mojo again soon

I'd get into the habit of doing daily pages - have you read Dorothea Brande or The Artist's Way? You write a few pages by hand every morning about whatever comes into your head. No censoring! I find it gets me back into the swing of writing and often some good ideas come out for me to develop further.

Thank you for the suggestions 😊

I became a mum recently too and I'm trying to make time for my writing project where possible. It's so hard at the beginning when you're exhausted but it gets easier (now we are in more of a routine - LO is 6 months old). I've found the best thing is just to sit down for an hour or however long you have and just start writing and see what happens. And when you're up in the night feeding, you can think about what you want to write next time you get a chance to sit and do it. Good luck with your writing and your new baby!

When you say online stories do you mean fanfiction? I haven't written for donkeys years but recently started writing fanfiction. Ok it may be a bit sneered at by some people but I've found it really liberating and easy to write! There is some amazingly good fanfiction out there (and some awful) but has been a great reintroduction for me to creative writing. I've even written a bit of smut!! .

Earless - I used to do fanfiction as a teenager but I moved onto fantasy stuff as I found it much easier to write and make it flow 😊
Vincentaroony - I will take the advise and just make myself write before baby comes then see how I manage after he/she has arrived. Being a mum might inspire me 😀

Oh dear, maybe I am having a second adolescence then to be fair, When I was a teenager (probs much longer ago than you) there was no fanfiction sites because the internet was all shiny and new and I just wrote terrible, terrible poetry in grubby notebooks instead.

I've just gone back to fanfiction because it's fun to write and I haven't foind a story that I want to read

I don't know what sort of stuff you write but an exercise in creativity that I loved was one I did at an animation writing workshop some years ago. It was called 'What if ... ' and basically you would come up with a 'what if' (say, what if there was a piano on every street corner?) and (this was as a group, but you could do it on your own) then come up with all the possible consequences of that (so - you would get sick to death of hearing Chopsticks/there would be a boom in the piano teaching industry/there would be piano fights, eg). Just something to get the creativity going. Exercises like telling a story in 200 words, haiku, things that are short. Maybe worth investing in a book of writing exercises?

I also used to write but just have no time now (work, three kids). I want to get back to it and have so many big ideas but no physical, or mental, space for them.

I love the 'what if' exercise idea! There are a couple of books I flick through in Waterstones, they're filled with random things to write about e.g. if your cat had a super power what would it be? Would it use it for good? 😂

I write children's books. All sorts of things to remember when writing them about the structure and the way the pages work, word limits etc. When I get writers block I think "fuck it" and just write something without all the restrictions, with no particular aims, and with little thought apart from the next verse. Gets me into the habit of writing again.

Oh, and feeling OK physically helps me. A nice walk to wake me up and sort my head out.

I have a couple of techniques I use (with varying success!) but the one that works best is only good if I'm not trying to write anything specific - I imagine someone I'm not keen on and make up a story where awful things happen to them.
It's amazing how prolific you can be when you're being hypothetically mean!
I also try and match the music I'm listening to, to the type of writing I am doing - so, dreamy romantic ballads for romance or a heart-thumping Chase and Status track for more upbeat stuff.

Ooh, and the pomodoro technique is quite good too. You give yourself a limited amount of time, say 15 minutes, to write and only write. You're supposed to ignore all other distractions and shut yourself away but somehow because it's not for long, it works quite well. Well, for me anyway - hope that's helpful!?

I find reading helps clear my writer's block. There's something soothing about reading other people's writing, how they've crafted a sentence etc - it almost teaches me to get back into it myself!

Have you been writing? Check out my suggestion under the "creative writing journey" post.