Every now and then we get chased by a blobous, oozing, green monster called Writer's Block. *everyone gasps at the mere mention of the phrase* *the tender-stomached faint* Hereafter referred to as "IT" so as to not offend the tender-stomached.

When IT has entangled you, trapped you in a snare, crawl and drag yourself to this thread. It may not be your only hope, but it's pretty close. Explain your dire situation and implore the good inhabitants of Holy Worlds to come to your aid.

When IT has been defeated, announce your escape and run for cover. I am not responsible for ensuing glitter bombs, unicorns, or multi-colored cupcake wars. Tilly, my partner in creating the idea for this thread (she just got over writer's block, you see), is.

Having suffered from a years worth of IT I finally stumbled upon the thing that started the creativity flowing again, discovering the muse I never knew I had.

Playing D&D

Playing fantasy RPG's

And listening to these bands. (Note, they may not be for you, use caution as first sight of them may scare you away. Plus first notes of the songs may drive you away with their epical loudness)

Power metal.

Dragonforce: Having that more epic and um... Destinyish I suppose, feel to it.
Through fire and flames.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jgrCKhxE1s

Heroes of our time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvquWIULIFA

Soldiers of the wasteland
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yg8VFMZ6_g8

Sonata Arctica (Makes me think of snow)

Paid in full
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1zkXdqcajk

Flag in the ground
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kObI4XuTR2o

Nightwish.

Amaranth
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSs4xfvATjc

End of all hope
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84aIX8UPklI

Basically what I'll do is listen to the music, close my eyes and imagine the scenes from my book playing out as if they were a music video. If I like it then I'll write and describe what I saw. This is very handy for fight scenes, epic landscapes, and escapes.

Just what I do anyway.

Ohhh, the "IT" factor. *shudder* Well, my victories over IT are usually by skipping what you're currently stuck on, and continue writing, coming back to the IT spot later. By then, you've usually conjured up an idea, and IT is successfully defeated. Character conversations really help. I often get IT over something as simple as a character name. Cue baby name books and websites!

That's a little bit of randomness that may help some of you conquer the foul beast IT.

I do the music one! Where you pretend your characters are in a music video. That never fails to get me out of IT.

And for those of you who don't know...I would be the infamous Tilly. Responsible for all things party and/or party-ish. Though, I don't recall agreeing to that.

I find large quantity's of tea or coffee help me quite a bit.

I'm not the only one who does that? Good!

Well, besides that, I also do what Bush does. Skip to a later scene. Or I'll just sit down and /force/ myself to write something.

Movies. Watching Fantasy movies like Narnia or Lord of the Rings get my muse going.

I find motion very helpful as well.

eruheran

Great ideas, all around!

But, I'm going to make it worse. See, some say that IT doesn't really exist. There is no such thing as IT. He's like the Abominable Snowman (who doesn't exist), or Elvis (who really is dead) - people believe they've seen him, but they haven't. He's not real.

But the trouble comes that so many people talk about IT... that other people begin to believe IT exists just because people told them IT did... and then, when people experience symptoms like those associated with IT, they believe even more in his existence... until some people will suffer at the hands of a nonexistent being for years if no one helps them. It's a conspiracy and a terror!

So the trouble is really training yourself to believe that IT doesn't really exist, which sometimes means slogging on with your writing even if IT-like terror is mangling your mind.

That is, of course, if you subscribe to the theory that IT is a mirage. There are other theories regarding IT. He's like the Loch Ness monster or the lost city of Atlantis, too, see.

Or it could be that you're just unmotivated at the moment and are at a boring part of the story and are just dreading getting back to it.

I think it's really more of a laziness thing than a "block" thing.

IT for me, is usually a result of my erratic, fly by night style of writing. I simply don't know what comes next. (should this be in Village Lore?) I was dealing with the morning after the grand ball, and finally realized that I was having my MC encounter people in the wrong order. I needed to start with Richard, and then move on to Myra, and now we're quite happily zooming along.

Lighting Ranger isn't quite so cooperative. It's part three... I'm not sure how many years it spans (preferably as many as ten) I introduce two or three new characters, have him captured, bring in my legends of a third religion, teach him to read, and finally, for inexplicable reasons, send him home to start part four. This is the years he spends wandering around after his wife dies.

Me: What did you do when you left Malan???
Lighting: It hasn't been written yet.
Me:

City of Lies is having a case of indigestion over an annoying feminist captain I can't get to characterize properly.

Silence of the Stones involves... allegory problems.

The Last Wizard... The Last Wizard is all hung up because I'm taking out the war that makes up over half of Part One. I'm also trying to manage serious time jumps. That one I think will come together if I just work on something else for a while...

Like Prince of Yen.
This an awesome thread, I'll come back to rant periodically.

IT usually hits me hard and often. I'm good at story fragments, but not writing out the whole story. Hence the reason I have never finished a novel. (And I've been writing since I was 11!)

I am haunted by The Three F's: First chapters, filler scenes, and finishing. Worst writing enemies EVER.

How do I get re-inspired? Shelf it. Music or movement don't work for me. I have a rather rigid personality, so I only like to focus on writing one thing at a time.

~Calen

Sometimes the best way to beat writer's... I mean, IT, is to write even though you don't want to. Slog through it. Make a mess and edit it later.

"I write when I'm inspired. And I make sure I'm inspired at nine 'o clock every morning."

I don't remember who said that, and I don't know if I got it exactly right. But that's fairly true for me. If I don't force myself to write at some point, I don't write at all. But I think IT really does exist, but it can be overcome if you try hard enough.

I just go to a different writing project or Google related topics. Then I get back to it a few months later and go for 4-5k words and start over. It doesn't get a lot done quickly, but I won't have a horrible first novel.

I do that, Varon.

Has anyone ever found researching to be an effective way of outsmarting IT? I often find that research inspires me because of all the possibilities and ideas I discover in the technical stuff. I guess that should motivate me to research more often, but it doesn't.

I often find research a good companion when I'm beginning a story, but not sure of where to begin. Some extra research really helps there

eru

Here is my advice. (And it must be good advice, because it worked for me. )

Just put something down. A few sentences. A random piece of dialogue. A boring bit of summary. Then skip ahead to a better part.

Why?

Because you can always change it later. And it is easier to change if it is there in the first place.

But here's the thing: Second drafts are almost as full of inspiration and discovery as the first draft. Why waste all the good stuff on the first round? Save it 'till later.

Very sound advice.

eru

I've done that before, in the very recent past in fact, and it does work. It sort of acts as a place holder for you in your book.