Like the title says. I've been sitting at my computer since early this morning, with the goal of making some serious progress on my feature.

And yet, here I am. After about seven hours and I've barely got two pages written. :( This sucks so bad. I keep getting hung up on the stupidest things.

I've got to be the most bi-polar writer ever. When I'm at work, all I can think about is writing... then when I'm home, blank pages. Fuck.

Any tips or advice? I'll take any help I can get.

Zack

I try to write my scene ideas out first, in pencil, in a notebook. Then I go for the laptop and write the scene down. Maybe not for everyone but it’s been working for me. If I don’t have a clue beforehand there’s nothing worse than staring at a blank page.

Write whenever you get inspired. If it’s at work, have a paper and pen with you to jot down anything a line of dialogue, scene, a character, etc.

Gabe

I try not to force it - If I sit down to write and nothing is coming to me, I just stop and do something else.

Sometimes the creativity is there, sometimes it's not. If I try and force myself to write something because I have the time, it shows in the writing. Sometimes you can sit down and words just spill out faster than you can write them.

I used to have a notepad app on my phone, anytime I had ideas I quickly jotted them down. Later when I had time to write I already had notes to work with. Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night to quickly jot stuff down.

Research is an important part of the things I write, so if the script isn't coming to me, there's usually some rabbit hole I can go down researching the script's background. Not the most productive use of time, but for me better than staring at a blank page.

One thing I'll do when otherwise unoccupied (i.e., commuting) is put a crapload of songs into a playlist (that don't have any lyrics, at least not in English). When a title comes up, I try to match it to a character, story, fictional country, etc. in one of my writing projects, then try to make that music somehow fit a situation for that named person or thing.

Some of these get obvious (Audiomachine's Uprising fits so well with the hacked AIs in Timmy), so they rotate out of the playlist. Others I still can't make fit (Two Steps From Hell's Ocean Princess doesn't seem anything like the "blue" princess in Who Wants to Be a Princess?) and I might drop them out of frustration.

The exact game doesn't really matter, just something to keep your mind engaged with your fictional worlds.

Thanks for the advice and encouragement, guys. :)

Gonna start bringing a notepad to work with me.

And Frank, I'm gonna add some classical music to my playlist, see if it doesn't get some creative juices flowing.

;D;D;D

Zack

Quoted from Zack Thanks for the advice and encouragement, guys. :) Gonna start bringing a notepad to work with me. And Frank, I'm gonna add some classical music to my playlist, see if it doesn't get some creative juices flowing. ;D;D;D Zack

No need for it to be classical (the two pieces I mentioned are in a genre called Epica), but may be easier if there aren’t any lyrics you understand. One of the things I get from being an American is that there any many, many languages I don’t understand :)

Note book to work = YES  

I too sometimes hit a blank in front of the laptop.

You writing a story right - something you thought-up that has a start and ending. You know the START and you know the ENDING, the in between is the STORY that leads to the ending.

Try working (writing) backwards from the ending ~ to where you hit the blank - and then forward again.

It works for me ?

Interested to know do other writers out there also do / try this?

Barry John