PROBLEM STATEMENT -How to get rid of writer's block for good? PROBLEM SOLVING (1) Identify Which Category You Are In So what is writer's block anyway? Writer's block is a condition where an author is experiencing a creativity slowdown, which causes the author to unable to think of what to write or how to proceed with the unfinished piece of writing. Now, just like any other problems that we face in our lives, in order to get rid of this nuisance writer's block, we have to identify what causes it in the first place. Through years of writing experience, I've noticed that there are 3 major factors that usually trigger this writer's block phenomenon. And those 3 factors are listed below:- ►FEAR What I mean by fear here is not fear of ghosts, spiders, or monsters. The fear that I'm going to talk about is the fear of making mistakes—a perfectionist right off the bat. Yes, it's perfectly normal for every writer to want to create a masterpiece that would wow their readers, but because of such ambition and high expectations, most authors tend to become so afraid of making mistakes in their writing. They're afraid of writing down their ideas if those ideas are not top-notch. Hence, this fear would eventually trigger a writer's block. ►EXHAUSTION Nowadays, multi-tasking is kind of a must. If you're not working as a full-time writer, then you're the type of people who have to juggle family and work life while keeping your passion for writing alive. Living this kind of life can be extremely tiring for this group of people since they will be mostly overworking themselves to the point of exhaustion. And once they have exhausted themselves both mentally and physically, do you think they would still have the energy to think of ideas and write? Nope, they won't. Even when the authors insist on writing in their worn out state, most of the time, their brain would retaliate and refuse to comply with the authors' wishes because they're just too tired to work overtime. ►LAZY As we all know, lazy people tend to make excuses to justify their act of slacking off. These people usually have thoughts like: "I'm not in the mood to write right now. Maybe I'll regain my mood after playing some games, watch some movies, hanging out with friends, and etc." But then they proceeded to waste the whole day with doing other things than writing. OR "I just don't feel like writing today. So I think it's better for me to take it easy today and simply not write. After all, it's not good to force ideas." But then they proceeded to take it easy for more than one day by using the same excuse over and over again just to make themselves feel better for slacking off. So, if your mind is plague by this type of thoughts, then you, my friend, are just being plain lazy. (2) Get Rid of Your Writer's Block Effectively Once you've figured out which category you belong to, let's move on to the solution on how to get rid of your writer's block. ►FEAR The first step to concurring your fear is to overwrite your strict perfectionist mentality by telling yourself that it's okay to make mistakes and it's okay to not achieve perfection. Now I'm not saying that it's wrong to be a perfectionist. All I'm trying to say is that you shouldn't be too hard on yourself because it's perfectly normal to not achieve perfection straight away. And that's why writers usually have 1st draft, 2nd draft and so on. Then, the next step after reassuring yourself is to allow yourself to write whatever you please. You can even write about something that is totally unrelated to your unfinished writing piece. All you have to do is to simply take out a new piece of paper or open up a new document file on your computer and just write whatever that comes to your mind. Let your imaginations run wild and have fun with your writing. Trust me when I say that once you're done with the rough writing or the free writing phase (it's what I prefer calling it), your brain will start generating great ideas again that would allow you to continue creating your masterpiece. The therapy concept that we're using here is pretty much like gold mining. You have to remove the unwanted rocks and minerals first before getting to the gold. Therefore, writer's block can easily be removed once you've managed to overcome your fear and insecurities of not being good enough as a writer. Have more faith in yourself and let your creative self be free. ►EXHAUSTION I think we can all agree here that the best remedy for exhaustion is getting a good, well rest to regenerate oneself. Thus, whenever you feel totally worn out both mentally and physically to the point that you're unable to think of anything to write about, then I implore you to just head straight to bed and sleep, or just take a day off or two to relax yourself. Once your mind and body are refresh again thanks to the sufficient recovery and relaxation period, you will find yourself writing again in no time. Although, you should be warned that excessive vacation time can trigger laziness. So try to avoid from over-relaxing and constantly keep yourself in check; just to make sure that your passion for writing would not wither away so easily. ►LAZY There are 3 methods that I found pretty effective in getting rid of writer's block that is caused by laziness. 1- Bribe yourself to help you stay motivated What to bribe yourself with is entirely depends on what your favourite pastime activities are. For example, if you like playing computer games, bribe yourself with that. Tell yourself that once you've finished writing at least 500 words or a whole page of your writing piece (a story, an article, etc.), you can call it a day and go play your game. The sooner you get it done, the faster you can go enjoy yourself. Repeat the process daily by gradually increases your word count until you've completely shook off your laziness. 2- Remind yourself why writing is important to you I'm pretty sure every writer has a solid reason for walking down the path of becoming an author. If not, then you wouldn't be making a big deal out of writer's block, now would you? However, the world is filled with distractions and we humans are prone to forget stuff thanks to those distractions. Thus, it's good to remind ourselves of what's important to keep ourselves in check. Anyway, for this method to work, you only need two things. The first one is a clear goal, which is obviously you already have one, am I right? So whenever you feel yourself slowly being succumbed to laziness, I want you to look at a mirror and chant out your goal to your reflection. For example, "I will become a great author like J.K. Rowling and make my stories become legends." And you will want to repeat that chant over and over again until you feel your blood pumping with motivation. Other than that, surround yourself with motivational quotes as this will also help to keep you in the right track. You can just write those motivational quotes on pieces of papers or maybe print them out and then stick them around the walls of your room where you would see them everyday without fail. This method seems quite easy enough to execute, right? But too bad without the second element, you won't be able to get rid of your writer's block that easily. And that second element is your level of determination. Just so you know, determination is the number one enemy for laziness. The stronger your determination is, the chance for you to become lazy will lessen. So, if you're serious about getting rid of your writer's block that is caused by laziness, then you need to reflect yourself because whether you'll be able to overcome this hurdle or not, that is totally up to you. 3- Listen to music This method may not work for everybody but it's still an effective way to get rid of writer's block for people like myself who can work better while listening to music. The reason for this is because some people including myself find it hard to think sometimes when the atmosphere of the room we're in is just too quite for comfort. Our brain ends up becoming inactive and lazy due to the heavy silence. Hence, listening to music help our brain to be active again. Regarding the type of songs that you want to listen to during your writing process is totally up to you. Some people prefer listening to music with lyrics while others prefer listening to orchestral/instrumental songs as the lyrics might clash with the ideas in their head and making them unable to write what they intended to write in the first place. Having said that, for me, I find that different music has different effect on how my creativity flows. If I want to write a sad scene, I would listen to emotional orchestral/instrumental songs. And if I want to write an action scene, I would listen to epic orchestral/instrumental songs. In general, the songs that I usually listen to while writing depends on what I want to write during that time. Let's Recap All of The Methods In conclusion, writer's block is one of the major hurdles that every author would have to face from time to time. But the good news is, it's not a problem without a solution. With great determination and the correct approach, you can easily get rid of your writer's block within a short span of time.
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PROBLEM STATEMENT -How to write a good story outline with a nice flow and zero nonsense? PROBLEM SOLVING -Design Your Plot The most important key to writing a good story outline is by creating the draft of your story first instead of diving straight into the writing part. That way, you can avoid inputting loads of gibberish into your story. Now then, when you have a story in mind, try to list it out according to the plot diagram below. This step will help you see the flow of your story more clearly. However, do not feel depressed if you have trouble with filling up all 5 elements of the plot diagram because I personally think that the more important elements are the exposition, climax, and resolution. Therefore, if you are able to fill up those 3 important parts of the plot diagram, then that's already good enough to help you get started. What? Don't believe me? Then allow me to explain to you the reason why I think that these 3 elements are more important compared to the other 2 elements of the plot diagram. ►Exposition / Introduction Exposition is important in a story because this is where the background information about the characters and settings are being established, and where the conflict and/or problem are being introduced to the readers. It is also very crucial for you to write a good introduction that would hook the audience to your story because the exposition is kind of act as the first impression. So if your exposition is great, then the readers would automatically think that the rest of your story would be top-notch too, and vice-versa. ►Climax Climax is the highest point of tension or drama in a story, and without it, your story would be bland and boring. Thus, climax is considered an absolute necessary element of a plot. ►Resolution / Conclusion Resolution is the part of the story's plot where the main problem is resolved or worked out and is typically the end of the story. The resolution is what I would like to consider as the finish line or an aim. So I would advise you to always have an image or idea on how you want your story to end because without a clear vision of it, you would begin to write nonsense since you don't have an aim of where you are heading to and are practically lost. So now you understand why I think these 3 elements are extremely important to a story's plot. Hence, you just have to make sure that you have an idea for these parts, and then the rest of the plot will come to you naturally. Useful TIPS ►Jotting Down All Of The Plot Scenes The moment you have an idea for a new story, I'm pretty sure you have lots of plot scenes playing inside your mind. So do yourself a favor and jot down every one of those scenes on a piece of paper, a notebook, or even a tree bark (anything that you can find to write on its surface). There's no need for you to worry about the order of the plot scenes and just focus on writing everything down on the paper. I would suggest for you to list them down in bullet-point form so that you can execute the next step easily. ►Rearrange The Scenes To Make It Flow Better So once you have all of your ideas written down on a piece of paper(s), take a good look at the list and begin rearranging the plot scenes in such an order that will make your story flows smoothly and of course, make sense. Example: List of plot Scenes:-
Rearrange them in the right order:-
►Questions For The Re-evaluation Process Now that you have your list of plot scenes in the right order, your next step should be re-evaluating your ideas. This step will help you avoid inputting unnecessary plot scenes into your story. In other words, it will prevent you from writing nonsense. The following 3 questions will help you re-evaluate your ideas: (1) What is the significance of the plot scene to the story? You have to ask yourself why do you want to add that particular idea into your story. Will it help your story move forward and maybe develop your characters? Or will it only be a mere needless filler just so you can increase your word count? If it's just a filler, then I advise you to just omit it. (2) How will it make the readers feel? As much as I always tell people to write for themselves, but still, there are times when you have to think about your readers' reactions too, especially if your main intention is to make other people enjoy your story. You have to consider how the readers would feel about the idea. Will they love it, or will they hate it to the point that they would lose interest in your story altogether. Although, keep in mind that it's practically impossible for you to satisfy everyone's preference. So, you should just focus on the majority. If the majority of your readers like the idea, then go for it. If they don't, then it's better for you to not add it in. (3) Can the story go on without it? This question is probably the most important question for you to ask when you are evaluating your ideas. You ought to think very carefully whether it's really worth it or not for you to add the idea into your story. If your story will be perfectly fine without it, then you shouldn't add that segment in. It's better for you to avoid adding unnecessary things and just focus on what the story needs because an unnecessary addition can overwhelm and ruin the entire story. Let's Recap The Steps So there you have it, folks. I hope you find this article to be rather useful in your journey to become a remarkable writer. As you are all well aware, there's no short-cut to success. Thus, keep on practicing and you'll get there eventually.
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