How the fuck do you get over a bad case of writer's block? I've got it so bad right now it's like fucking paralysis...

How the fuck do you get over a bad case of writer's block? I've got it so bad right now it's like fucking paralysis. I sit there in front of my computer and I can't even get a sentence out. I have been doing this for days now.

It didn't use to be so bad for me. I have two 100K+ word-manuscripts (don't ask, they suck) and I have had a previous job writing children's stories for a teaching company. I wrote dozens of those things. I have written for newspapers. I had a column in my local paper when I was seventeen. It was hideous garbage but that's not the point. This all used to come very naturally to me.

But I am so epically fucking stuck now trying to write one small novella that I want to bash my head against a wall. I can't figure this out. I think it's gotten too personal, but I'm so frustrated trying to make some another anonymous person have a good time with a ten-cent pulp story that I'm losing my shit right now. And I'm having a hard time walking away from it because I'm obsessed with the idea now. I don't know if that means the idea is good or not.

Does any good come of this? Has anyone here had a similar experience? When you feel really super-unable to fucking relax and let things go? I know this sounds stupid as fuck but I'm basically looking for a good piece of advice or something to crowbar me out of my own anus here.

cheers anons

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For me, it's like looking at a puzzle or a problem for so long that I need to step back for a while and return to it later with a refreshed mind.
I always take a break and get myself obsessed with something else. When I'm not writing, I'm drawing and vice versa.

>tfw you finally realize you don't have writer's block and you're just a shitty writer

Consider examining 'paradoxical intention', specifically a case where a man faced a crippling writer's block.

Try a different setting and lower your expectations on what will be accomplished.

Swap the villains and the heroes. Pick a side character and make them the focus. Roll the setting forwards or backwards in history. Make it cyberpunk as fuck for no reason.

"it was all a dream," and ur character wakes up and fights polar bears that have powerful lasers and nefarious fish-related schemes.

Holy...I want more

pewpew. wash out for the lasers! pewpew. it seem that the bears have hired the villainous automaton, Optimal Crime. explosions happen! heh... it practicality rights itself.

One only must needs do this after one has first studied the Canon.

Stop thinking.

Stop trying to write.

Then, write.

If this didn't work, you didn't stop trying hard enough. Go back,think even less, and proceed.

>Not OP but could use some related advice

>I'm 19 years old and I've always been a good reader. I started reading a KJV when I was like 8 years old and it gave me like super reading powers or something. I feel like I've become a much better reader than I am a writer so I set super hard standards for myself.

>I've been stuck writing an essay about myself for about a month now. There's a short story contest at my college and I stare at my computer for hours unable to write a single sentence

>mfw I outread my ability to write

sorry I put this much green

I'm high, bros

Pop some Norcos
Works better than weed.

you are a genius

Post a synopsis of what you're working on.

I'll show you how the fuck to write, boy.

Your problem is that you're a hack. Your resume confirms it: you're used to churning out trash to order, and have no real inspiration.

I suggest you try selling insurance instead. The literary world will thank you.

stop being cruel RIGHT NOW

Well writer's block really only occurs when you realize that you suck, i.e. you are not skilled enough (at the moment) to complete whatever you want to accomplish. I have always been at terms with myself in relation to my writing skill, so I know my exact level of incompetence at any given attempt when writing. Recently I tried to write a short story all from the perspective of someone driving down the road in the middle of the night to meet some random guy named Mr. Long. Unfortunatley it quickly devolved into a philosophical commentary and every addition since has just been adding to it. At this point I don't know if I'll be able to finish it (in terms of its original intention), but I'll think of something.
I would like to be candid OP; I don't want to sound like an asshole but I recieve so much praise for my writing that it is almost impossible for me to think of myself as a bad writer, or ever believe I lack the skill to write well. For most who don't have a paticular talent which they have honed for most of their life, they don't understand that being good, well, not to sound too cliche, it just isn't good enough. You see that your a good writer and that people like your work, but then you of course, to facilitate and grow your skill, you also read many great writers. And from here you are presented an issue. You see the great writers which everyone loves, whom are reffered to as geniuses by most in your field, and realize that not only are you not nearly as skilled, you may never be as skilled in your craft. And so you may spend your entire life toiling to be great, knowing it may be a completley futile endeavor.

If you aren't feeling this right now OP, all I would say is that you probably lack the nessacary introspection to overcome the block. Once you are honest with yourself, once you understand what is truly the only reason why you can't even begin to put pen to paper (in a metophorical sense), you'll have no problems with your pieces in the future, regardless of if you ever finish this one.

There is no such thing as writer's block. Don't fall for the meme. It's an excuse to prevent yourself from finishing whatever you're trying to do because you're worried about cocking it up.

Just shut the fuck up and do it. You can always rewrite it or fix it later.

Best writing block advice I ever got was to write a really shitty version of what you want to write. Let it be shitty, allow yourself to be cliché and boring, then after you get that out of your system you can mine that work for any good bits and rewrite the fuck out of it.

Alternatively you can write it, then do a 100% complete rewrite (making sure to do it better, of course), and continue that process ad infinitum until you are satisfied.

Writer's block is for idiots. You're being a faggot perfectionist. Write anyway and it might be shit, might be good, but at least you're practicing. You're not good enough to write a great novel so stop trying. Just practice. If you don't accept this advice you're in denial and will always be a shitty writer.

This is kind of a meme answer but read Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut. It's a stupid book and he wrote it because he had a bunch of dumb, half-fleshed out ideas. He wanted a clear break from them.

I hated the book but it really taught me something important: just write something fucking retarded. Stop trying to write "high" literature and focus on some stupid shit. I wrote a story about a goblins and monsters. Write for fun -- write your own Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath. Do this and read canon or whatever you read.

>I receive so much praise for my writing that it is almost impossible for me to think of myself as a bad writer
>You see that your a good writer

ok

You are probably suffering with performance anxiety. I used to feel even worse than you: whenever I sat down to write I started feeling a numbing and formicating sensation on my jaw, my forehead and my hands, a great difficulty in breathing, a sense that my heart was going to stop, dizziness, chest-pain, brain-fog and confusion. What I was facing were anxiety attacks that were triggered by the thought of writing, the pressure of needing to create.

The thing that helped me the most was the reading of this book: Freedom from Fear, by Howard Liebgold, so I am going to recommend this first:

1) Read this book (the same goes to anyone here who suffers with some form of anxiety)
amazon.com/Freedom-Fear-Overcoming-Anxiety-Phobias/dp/0806525916

2) Stop writing on your computer. Write by hand, using pen and paper. Buy cheap notebooks and get used to crossing lines, rearrange sentences, scribble random phrases, annotate words that you plan to use, etc. Using analog methods of writing turn the creative process more plastic and moldable, more personal and faster.

3) Learn to say "No."

4) Sleep at least 8-9 hours

5) Don't be a night Owl. Work in between 5am-10pm not from 10pm-5am

6) Stop multitasking.

7) Take more breaks: respect your natural attention spans

8) Spend time in nature

9) Move around and work in blocks

10) Limit your to-do list

11) Measure your results, not your time

12) Build “getting ready to work” routines

13) Track what you’re wasting time on

14) Exercise daily even if you think you have no time

15) Believe that you can do it

You might want to try freewriting to get yourself back into the flow.
Other than that, change your environment every now and then, or try writing some passages by hand.

Wow, this picture is a complete misrepresentation of both Kierkegaard's and Sartre's positions. On the one hand it's trivialising the leap of faith as somehow responsible for finite human becoming and not the grasping of the paradox beyond infinite resignation through faith. On the other hand it's trivialising Sartre's problem of bad faith by suggesting that by mere belief we can overcome our facticity to become pure transcendence. A notion neither possible nor desirable.

Write about your writer's block.
Avoid decision fatigue.
Get in front of your keyboard and make your daily wordcount.
Leave notes to yourself, as manager of you, requesting meetings in front of your keyboard from a time to another time.

Otherwise you're just lazy.
You want me to tell you that it's some sort of poor plight? Bullshit. You could write for six hours straight if you wanted to. The wellspring of creativity doesn't even come close to running out but you just sit by the side of the well like every other no-hoper on this stupid board, talking about feeling thirsty and hoping someone's going to do your own work for you.

You are a miserable wreck of a human, posting on an Italian tagliatelle forum, incapable of anything but whinging inexplicably instead of demanding greatness from yourself.

no fucking leaps

Wow

You're a fucking idiot.

I'm dead serious, copious amounts of masturbation.

It's a simple encouraging picture not a philosophical challenge. Don't read into it too much user.

>I sit there in front of my computer and I can't even get a sentence out.

That's the problem. Start writing any retarded shit that comes to your head and edit it later. Or if you're really fatigued then maybe take a break and go do something fun. Don't write too much in a single day.

Put it down.
Wait a year; don't touch it. In the meantime, work on other things.
365 days later, pick it back up again.
You'll either realize it was doomed or see what was missing. Life experience is the only cure for moments like these.

Tackle a short story for a while instead, it'll rejuvenate you from the bernout

Write down notes of stuff you find interesting, be it related or not. Write a plan for the whole book, however basic. Write words down that seem related to your book. Reread what you've already written. What's the intention? Overdose on drugs and eventually commit suicide

this is helpful, user, ty