Writer's Block Daily

I can't believe that a movement from The Rite of Spring has been the background music for the climax of my story; it'd probably be really hard to get clearance for that movement to actually play if it were made a movie, or if it would just be temp music.

This question hurts me on a personal level.

I'm serializing an alternate history webnovel involving a US Navy officer who eventually ends up becoming not only the Chief of Naval Operation AND the Commander of the United States Fleet during the World War 2, ultimately becoming the SIX star admiral.

Unfortunately for me, I am almost into 220 chapters and STILL covering World War I. I post a chapter per day and at this rate I will probably hit WW 2 arc around...hmm, chapter 325.

By the time I end this story, I fear it will clock around 450 chapters, which might take (looks at calendar) 8 more months.

I have been serializing for six months and already on the verge of mental breakdown. I'm in so much trouble (chuckles).

Though it was for a scene that I ended up scrapping, I recently got to thinking what a retraux aesthetic based on the IRL present day would look like from the perch of 20 Minutes into the Future, with a hearty helping of Nostalgia Goggles. Part of the reason I scrapped it was because I have no bloody idea, but I'm sure it will be blisteringly obvious in ten or so years.

Until then, fuck it, Synthwave has made a comeback in the 2040s and made in about as "mainstream" as anything can in such an online age. It fits how shit's gotten in my work's timeline.

Well, I just today started writing a story that I've had in my mind for... something like a decade, I'd guess? o_o

That's always exciting!

I've recently split my time even further by also starting my own Warrior Cats fanfic. It's actually going pretty quickly compared to the other fic because making my own characters and plot from scratch means there's less stress about "how" to write them and I can just dive in and see what happens.

That does sound like fun! ^_^

I'll confess that I have a bit of a weird relationship with fan-works: I not-uncommonly have inspirations towards them, and even find said ideas quite enthusing. And yet, I very seldom seem to maintain my interest in them—they seem to often end up languishing, either part-done or little-started.

(See, for example—well, you can't, rather to the point—the short She-Ra fan-fic that I really like the concept of, but have yet to actually write.)

& I sympathize; I've always felt far more comfortable using my own characters then someone else's. Most the fanfic ideas I've had star my OCs. Canon characters will appear if need be, but if I can exclude them, then I will. The one fic I started writing that mostly used canon characters was a Vocaloid fic, and if you know anything about that medium (genre? work? I dunno what to call it), then you know that it's primarily fanon in the first place.

Oh, I love my other fanfic too, but I have to spend a lot more time coming up with ideas for that one and for the battle cats I can just be like "yeah they went hunting and there was a fox".

You now, of course, what they'll instruct of you in your deposition concerning that story? "No embelishment: Just the fox, ma'am." >;P

Edited by ArsThaumaturgis on Jan 16th 2022 at 10:36:11 PM

How does one actually overcome writer's block. I think I have a particularly bad case of it right now.

We usually get around writers' block by just taking a break from that draft; writing something else or reading content instead.

We've got no deadlines or schedule, though; that's obviously less workable if you're trying to get a certain amount out per day or something.

My boyfriend is reading one of my stories as I go, so if I get stuck I can always ask him for ideas.

Trying to write something else or just consuming different media instead of focusing on making any usually does the trick for me.

Does anyone else write settings for their own sake, rather than for a story? Because I do.

And I've been finding out that research for a setting can be a well-spring of interesting things...

Oh, sure, I've been doing that for years.

I have become a professional writer for a little less than half a year and I already long for the day I too can just write settings for the sake of it.

I am 240 chapters in and still got over at least 250 more chapters to write.

-sobs-

I made this on a whim.

So, I never thought I was going to write a romance scene, like ever, and yet I am doing just that.

Hah, I would likely not have expected myself to write supernatural romance, and yet I ended up doing just that!

It's... kinda fun to find oneself writing in areas that one might not have expected, I think. (Well, depending on how one feels about those things, of course.)

As for matters on my end...

So, just earlier today I received the latest rejection from a publication to which I had submitted a particular story. (The supernatural romance mentioned above, actually.)

Now, I do have more entries on my list of publications to which to potentially submit this story—but all of them have some issue or another: Most are simply closed to submissions at the moment, but one is running an incompatible issue-theme, another only posts contracts and payment via snail-mail (and I'm not willing to rely on the local postal service), and two others have guidelines that seem likely to exclude this story.

So, for the moment, it's not submitted anywhere.

And... I'm wondering, as the list of potential publications dwindles and with the story sitting idle right now, whether I might not just "self-publish" it—i.e. post it as an e-book on my itch.io page.

I've done so before with another story—one that had previously been posted publicly online, and which was thus likely ineligible for being submitted to most publications, I believe.

Still... This is a story that I very much believe in, and I'm hesitant to give up on seeing it "properly" published...

For now, then... I'm still thinking about it...

Well, I am definitively not writing any supernatural romance ... there is "overused" and then there is - that.

Ouch! XD;

I like to think that my particular such story is not all that cliche. :P;

I can't believe I've already planned stories for four games in my game franchise, and I haven't even started developing any of them yet. It doesn't help that the fourth game's story is the one I've fleshed out the most (since it's the one I'm having the most fun with writing), and the third game is the least fleshed out one. But due to the Continuity Porn (which isn't too prominent and is mostly optional stuff related to the Bonus Bosses, but still) and plot reveals in 4 I can't just make it the first game in the series without completely rewriting the ending.

I want to flesh out the other games' plots, but 4's is just so fun to write.

Do any of you have this kind of problem, where you plan out multiple entries in a series at once but have more fun fleshing out one entry at the expense of thee others?

Edited by BirdsArentReal on Feb 9th 2022 at 11:27:56 AM

I used to, back when I was planning my book to be a series. Since the elements setting up the future installments were actively bogging down the story at hand, I decided to cut all the material relating to the longer arc and make the book more self-contained.

Quick introduction, been on this site for years, and decided to finally sit down and write my pilot for a YA animated dramedy-leaning-towards-comedy series about a popular jock forced to join an anime club.

Greetings, and good luck with your writing! ^_^