Are you suffering from writer’s-block?
Anyone that writes for any period of time goes through moments of ‘writer’s-block’. A time when you just can not seem to find the motivation or inspiration to come up with anything worth while. That creative spark can be fleeting at times, but here’s an idea on how to jump-start it.
For now, forget everything you know about how to structure a story. Forget that a plot needs a beginning, middle and end. Forget that description should be interwoven with narrative. Forget that dialogue should be realistic, not real. Here’s a way to set the creative storyteller in you free.
This, according to Jennifer Jensen of suite101.com is the first step to a Freewriting exercise that will help your character almost develop itself, which can help provide that motivation needed to get back in there and work on your latest storyline, or maybe even help you develop whole new characters.
Jennifer goes on to describe some basic freewriting exercises you can do, and even suggests getting away from the computer to do so.
Freewriting consists of writing without stopping: no editing, no re-reading, nothing. You may set some guidelines, but only within the above definition. Freewriting in longhand makes it easier to resist editing, and most writers will admit that they write differently in longhand versus on the computer.
One of the goals in freewriting is to let your characters evolve through their ‘voices’, letting them decide the directions things take as you write. As you continue to freewrite, a story will come out on it’s own. These stories that develop may never be seen by anyone but yourself, but they can be great material in the backstory of your characters, or provide material for ideas that can be refined at a later time. The main point to remember at the time is to just keep writing, and never edit.
Let Characters Reveal Themselves [suite101.com]
