My recent periods of writing have been slow, and short. It is not a brick wall, but more so just not being able to write enough or write anything good for that matter. My question is what have some of you guys here dealt with similar issues?

For me at this point I usually stop and do something else, like draw, but sometime I can't help but try and write, which usually ends up being forced writing, and not good at all..

I have a couple of different methods and I'm not sure which is better or if any of them really work. One is that I just keep writing, even if it is forced, knowing that I can edit later. But I don't do that a whole lot. I also try to refresh my inspiration for writing by reading a favorite book (LOTR, for example) or looking at writer inspiration boards on pinterest. If they don't give me ideas, I'm at least guilt tripped into doing something. Sometimes I'll just write something else, whether it be a nonsense poem or a what I call story snippets- little scenes or even sentences that are inspired by or can inspire stories.

So there ya go! Maybe one of them will work for you. Good luck and keep at it!

The Story Snippet one I do a lot, and it usually does help. I sometimes do the forced thing also, but it usually does not work out to well for me.

Thank Eliana!,

Sometimes I find inspiration through pictures, and such or old folklore stories.

I've found that it helps me to read a book I don't like, or reviews of a book that isn't very good. Then I think, "Well, even if my writing is pretty horrible, at least it isn't as bad as THAT book!" and I feel more encouraged to keep working. However, most of the time when I have trouble writing it's because I'm feeling depressed about my level of skill, not because I for instance don't have enough ideas. So for you it may be different.

I'm also not so sure about how healthy it is to encourage myself to keep going by feeling better than others...

I have had that, yeah.

Usually the reason I don't feel like writing is because I get sick of whatever book I'm writing, and can't feel like I like it anymore; and it's not fun to write about something I don't like.

Usually the way to get myself to work again is to find something, any kind of thing, that I really like, and write about that: maybe a color, or an animal, or a strange fairy-tale. It ends up making me not feel bad anymore, and then I can go back to working on the book I was working on. Or I might put the color or the animal or the fairy-tale into the book, and that works too.

Or, I might do research, and that is fun.. or I read another book that is a little bit similar to the book that I'm writing, and that makes it fun again because I start liking it.. or I might look at pictures, or dance, or whatever. I do something fun, and it cheers me up, and then I write again.

You might not have the same problem as I usually have, so that might not be helpful for you. But it could be helpful maybe.

That works too, when I really have to.

I don't think I have ever tried that as far as reading a book I don't like. I may have to consider that one. I have found for me personally I can't compare myself to other forms of writing, it makes me not want to write so I absolutely cannot do that. I think for me being physically tired or fatigued causes me not want to write, I usually have to relax, watch my favorite movie or show or something, even play a video game I like, and it usually helps.

I usually try to encourage myself by asking God to help me continue to write...or prayer or reading the Word.

Wow mistress I recently went through that trying to write the first book in my trilogy. At one point I got so tired of my book I had to leave it alone for a few weeks. Still even now sometimes I need to step away from writing in general. I do agree I have to step away and do something fun, and it usually works.

Mhm, I've had to leave a book alone for a couple weeks before too. It's kindof funny, to like a book enough that you want to write it, but feel so tired of it that you can't do anything with it.