History Main / WritersBlock

* Lego webcomic ''Webcomic/IrregularWebcomic'' presents [[http://www.irregularwebcomic.net/374.html another literal case]], but, as shown [[http://www.irregularwebcomic.net/376.html a few strips later]] this one is not so bad.

* In ''Webcomic/{{Sinfest}}'', [[http://www.sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=2529 Slick can't write anything.]]
** [[http://www.sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=2728 Satan offers a free sample of a cure.]]

* ''Film/JewelOfTheNile''. Having actually met, romanced and married the handsome hero in the [[Film/RomancingTheStone previous movie]], romance novelist Joan Wilder finds herself stuck as all her novels ended with the romantic couple riding off into the sunset to live happily ever after. Unfortunately that's exactly where she is now and she finds herself unable to go back to writing the same old clichés. The answer, of course, is to have yet another adventure!

* In ''Anime/GirlsBeyondTheWasteland'', Buntarou suffers this a few times. The first time he's told to just write, and eventually manages to write enough material for the others to work with. Later on, he goes through another bout, which then forces the others to lock him in his room and preventing him from escaping through the window, or distracting himself with internet. He gets through this after Yuuka talks to him a little bit while he's in the bath.

* ''The Great ComicBook/{{Fables}} Crossover'' centered around return of the leader of The Literals - race of [[AnthropomorphicPersonification Anthropomorphic Personifications]] of literary concepts - The Writer, who had the power to [[RealityWarper change reality according to what he wrote]]. Having decided that world ran out of control since his disappearance, he wanted to fix it...only to meet his brother, Writer's Block, whose existence made him unable to write. For most of the story, he consults Literals embodying different genres, trying to find a way to get rid of his writer's block without having to murder his brother.

* ''Film/SecretWindow'': Protagonist Mort Rainey (Creator/JohnnyDepp) has difficulty writing the ending to his novel. At first, it seems this is brought on simply because he's recently had a divorce, has alcoholic tendencies, and is generally neglecting himself. Then a creepy guy shows up and things turn a different way. Let's just say that at a re-watch, the WritersBlock can be viewed entirely differently.

* Joan Wilder, the romance novelist who is the heroine of ''Film/RomancingTheStone'', comes up against this problem in the sequel ''Jewel of the Nile''. Now that she's actually met, romanced and sailed off into the sunset with the hero, [[AndThenWhat what comes next?]] This naturally affects her writing, so the movie begins with Joan pitching her typewriter overboard after she's unable to resolve a CliffHanger in her latest novel.
* Satirical short film ''Film/FranzKafkasItsAWonderfulLife'' has Creator/FranzKafka utterly stuck on the very first line of what will become ''Literature/TheMetamorphosis'', unable to decide what Gregor Samsa should transform into. He keeps balling up and tossing away first pages, which litter the floor of his apartment.

** In ''The Maltese Kitten,''John D. O'Shaughnessy struggles to get started on the sequel to his bestselling crime novel, mainly due to being threatened with eviction by his landlord.

** Sam is told by Leo to write a birthday message for a minor official, a busywork task that would normally go to a junior staffer. When the President sends it back for ''a second draft'', Sam starts to obsess over it and winds up roping in Toby in to "nail it." The shot of him scrunching a paper in his fist and pounding it on the desk shows up in one of the 'previouslies' next season.

* In season 4 of ''WesternAnimation/{{Metalocalypse}}'', Nathan Explosion undergoes a bad case of songwriter's block. This is particularly bad for him because the economic health of the world is dependent on Dethklok, and [[spoiler: Nathan destroyed the master of their next album after a freak storm sank all of the ships transporting the copies]]. How he gets over his writer's block is perhaps worth mentioning. [[spoiler: He's forced into a situation where he either writers a new song on the spot or has to suck off a sultan looking for a new harem. Seems like pretty good motivation.]]

* ''Literature/SamTheCatDetective'': In ''The Maltese Kitten,''John D. O'Shaughnessy struggles to get started on the sequel to his bestselling crime novel, mainly due to being threatened with eviction by his landlord.

* In ''VisualNovel/ShoujotachiWaKouyaOMezasu'', Buntarou suffers this a few times. The first time he's told to just write, and eventually manages to write enough material for the others to work with. Later on, he goes through another bout, which then forces the others to lock him in his room and preventing him from escaping through the window, or distracting himself with internet. He gets through this after Yuuka talks to him a little bit while he's in the bath.

This tends to involve one of two things: either someone tackling a temporary writing assignment, or [[MostWritersAreWriters someone who writes for a living]]. Often, to get past it, the person in question has to overcome some kind of mental block in order to continue writing. A WorldOfCardboardSpeech may happen as the character breaks their restraints and moves forward.

* The episode "[[Recap/SpongebobSquarepantsS2E17ProcrastinationImWithStupid Procrastination]]" of ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' involved the title character's essay assignment for Mrs. Puff's driving school. He couldn't think of what to write so kept putting it off by doing chores around his house and, eventually, putting a giant illuminated T at the beginning of his essay. Finally, he realizes that [[EurekaMoment the stupid things he's been doing all fit the essay topic as well]] and gets them down. [[spoiler: Come the following morning, he learns that the assignment was cancelled.]]

[[quoteright:198:[[ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/calvin_writer_block.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:198:Hobbes isn't a fan of {{Visual Pun}}s.]]

->''"Writing about a writer's block is better than not writing at all."''
-->-- '''Creator/CharlesBukowski'''

* The episode "[[Recap/SpongebobSquarepantsS2E17ProcrastinationImWithStupid Procrastination]]" of ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' involved the title character's essay assignment for Mrs. Puff's driving school. He couldn't think of what to write so kept putting it off by doing chores around his house and, eventually, putting a giant illuminated T at the beginning of his essay. Finally, he realizes that [[EurekaMoment the stupid things he's been doing all fit the essay topic as well]] and gets them down.

* One interpretation of "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoT7MPS8WDM Best Friend]]" by Music/FosterThePeople (supported by WordOfGod) is that it's about the fleeting nature of creativity and artistic inspiration.

May result in a LastMinuteProject, and can lead to AnAesop. WritersBlockMontage is a subtrope. See FictionalDocument and MostWritersAreWriters. Do not confuse this with our [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/conversations.php?topic=000000000000000000000295 Writer's Block forum section]].

-->'''Thomas Jefferson:''' No sir. I mean to say that it is not yet begun.

* Happens to Nakuru in episode 13 of ''LightNovel/MayoChiki''. After a boy confesses his love to her, she gets very confused by it as she feels she's not the type to attract boys, since she's a MegaNekko and obsessed {{Doujinshi}} writer/artist of [[BoysLove BL manga]]. She then asks [[MistakenForGay Jiro]] out on a date to see if it's simply because of her [[BuxomIsBetter boobs]], and after he helps her by barely resisting her advances, she seems to snap out of her block. But then she also has a LoveEpiphany when she [[BishieSparkle looks at him afterwards]] as well, and hilariously runs away.

* In ''Anime/HeartcatchPrettyCure'', Tsubomi and Erika aid inspiring mangaka Ban, who is stuck on a portion of his ''doujinshi'' about the Cures. In his story, Blossom had fallen in love with a handsome young man (who looks like a fusion of Ban and Itsuki) and Marine decides to help her out. However, Marine ends up falling for him as well, setting up a LoveTriangle. Ban has absolutely no idea how to solve the problem. [[spoiler:Tsubomi and Erika end up acting out the logical solution - that Blossom and Marine decide that their friendship and duty is much more important that a guy.]]
* In ''VisualNovel/ShoujotachiWaKouyaOMezasu'', Buntarou suffers this a few times. The first time he's told to just write, and eventually manages to write enough material for the others to work with. Later on he goes through another bout, which then forces the others to lock him in his room and preventing him from escaping through the window, or distracting himself with internet. He gets through this after Yuuka talks to him a little bit while he's in the bath.
* In ''Anime/RODTheTV'': Nenene have been experiencing writer's block for 4 years after Yomiko sundenly disappeared from her life. The presence of the paper sisters in her house eventually help her overvcome it, which is what her editor intended by hiring them to stay at her place.

* ''The Great ComicBook/{{Fables}} Crossover'' centered around return of the leader of The Literals - race of [[AnthropomorphicPersonification Anthropomorphic Personifications]] of literary concepts - The Writer, who had power to [[RealityWarper change reality according to what he wrote]]. Having decided that world ran out of control since his dissaperance, he wanted to fix it...only to meet his brother, Writer's Block, whose existence made him unable to write. For most of the story he consults Literals embodying different genres, trying to find a way to get rid of his writer's block without having to murder his brother.

* This is the story behind the film ''Film/{{Adaptation}}''. The screenwriter got writer's block trying to adapt a book without a story into a film, and ended up [[NestedStory writing a story about a screenwriter with writer's block who is trying to adapt a book without a story into a film]].

* ''Film/SecretWindow'': Protagonist Mort Rainey (Creator/JohnnyDepp) has difficulty writing the ending to his novel. At first it seems this is brought on simply because he's recently had a divorce, has alcoholic tendencies, and is generally neglecting himself. Then a creepy guy shows up and things turn a different way. Let's just say that at a re-watch, the WritersBlock can be viewed entirely different.

* ''Film/BartonFink'': The movie is about a writer suffering from writer's block, written by Creator/TheCoenBrothers as way of getting around a bout of writer's block on [[Film/MillersCrossing another project]].

* In ''Literature/ThePlague'', Joseph Grand starts writing a story about a woman on horseback, but never gets past the first line, which he keeps rewriting by changing around the adjectives.

* In series 1 of ''Series/{{Spaced}}'' Daisy has aspirations of being a writer, but struggles with writers block / lack of motivation and comes up with distractions for herself. This is highlighted in the last episode of season 1, where during an argument, Tim references several of the plots of previous episodes (to the backdrop of Tekken 2):

* In season 4 of ''WesternAnimation/{{Metalocalypse}}'', Nathan Explosion undergoes a bad case of songwriter's block. This is particularly bad for him because the economic health of the world is dependent on Dethklok, and [[spoiler: Nathan destroyed the master of their next album after a freak storm sank all of the ships transporting the copies]]. How he gets over his writer's block is perhaps worth mentioning. [[spoiler: He's forced into a situation where he either writers a new song on the spot, or has to suck off a sultan looking for a new harem. Seems like pretty good motivation.]]

[[quoteright:198:ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/calvin_writer_block.png]]

[[quoteright:198:ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/calvin_writer_block.png]]]]

[[quoteright:198:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/calvin_writer_block.png]]

[[folder: Anime & Manga ]]

[[folder: Comic Books ]]

[[folder: Film ]]

[[folder: Literature ]]

[[folder: Music ]]

-->''Yeah, here we go for the hundredth time''
-->''Hand grenade pins in every line''
-->''Throw 'em up and let something shine''
-->''Going out of my [[PrecisionFStrike fucking mind]]''

[[folder: Newspaper Comics]]
* ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'' [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] this by having [[LiteralMinded Calvin]] make a ''physical'' writer's block...one that prevents anyone from using his desk.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

[[folder: Theatre ]]

[[folder: Webcomics ]]

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* The episode "[[Recap/SpongebobSquarepantsS2E17ProcrastinationImWithStupid Procrastination]]" of ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants'' involved the title character's essay assignment for Mrs. Puff's driving school. He couldn't think of what to write so kept putting it off by doing chores around his house and, eventually, putting a giant illuminated T at the beginning of his essay. Finally, he realizes that [[EurekaMoment the stupid things he's been doing all fit the essay topic as well]] and gets them down.