[ SECRET POST #3073 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #3073 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01.


__________________________________________________



02.


__________________________________________________



03.
[Master Chef]


__________________________________________________



04.
[The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater]


__________________________________________________



05.
[Harry Potter]


__________________________________________________



06.


__________________________________________________



07.
[Star Wars]


__________________________________________________



08.
[Frank]


__________________________________________________



09.
[Discworld]


__________________________________________________



10.
[Baccano!]


__________________________________________________



11.
[Cher Lloyd/Kingsman: The Secret Service]


__________________________________________________



12.
[Eurovision]


__________________________________________________



13.
[Hannah Rutherford (Yogscast)]










Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 032 secrets from Secret Submission Post #439.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 1 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

Writer's block... it's been over a year

[(Anonymous)]

I'm at a happy place in my life, and I feel like that's why I can't write.

I can only write when I'm connected to my dark side (sadness, depression, anger, perversion, etc.). I feel like I cannot create anymore. It's really upsetting when I think about how I might have lost that ability.

Any tips? What do I do?

Re: Writer's block... it's been over a year

[philstar22]

I'm currently suffering writers block too. Mostly because I had this idea, and then one of my favorite authors else wrote something similar and yet made it horrifying (in a good way). And now I can't write it both because I can't unsee the horror and because I could never match the skill of my favorite writer.

Basically I need a new idea. Only none are coming.

Re: Writer's block... it's been over a year

[herpymcderp]

Stop trying to write a specific way and write what you goddamn well know.

Better yet, just write. Even if it's trash, just put words on paper until it starts coming out with something that's not trash. Might take a while, but you don't forget how to write, the only thing that gets forgotten is the ability to not think too much and just write something.

You can always edit later.

Re: Writer's block... it's been over a year

[philstar22]

My problem is coming up with ideas, though. I've been out of ideas lately, and the one idea I had I can't write now and I have no others.

How do you find inspiration when you don't seem to have any?

Re: Writer's block... it's been over a year

[herpymcderp]

You don't. You just write bullshit until you get an idea from the bullshit that you wrote and you go, "Wait a second... if I combine this with the concept of Russian nationalism and international religious conversion for psuedoreligious indoctrination I can really make this topical and interesting!"

Inspiration comes from allowing yourself to come up with something bad and make it better, drawing on what you're currently reading or researching or just having a passing interest in.

It pays to watch the news or pay attention to news blogs when you're looking for ideas.

Re: Writer's block... it's been over a year

[sarillia]

I search for ideas all the time. Coming up with new ones is practically a separate hobby from writing for me because I love it so much and I know that so many of my ideas will never get past the daydreaming stage.

I collect pictures that capture my imagination in some way. I look at stories I like and think about directions it could have gone in but didn't. I look at my own writing and see where I have to make a choice for the story to go one way instead of another and think about what I could do with the options I didn't choose in a different project. Sometimes I just take a single word like "sanctuary" or "bargain" and think about everything I could do with it.

My favorite thing is to make a game out of it. I use a random number generator to randomly pick from my collections of pictures, songs, quotes, tropes, etc and then the challenge is to find a way to combine them into a coherent storyline.

I also keep a list of little pieces of ideas that aren't enough to write on their own but still interest me. There are 1718 entries in this list at the moment. Occasionally I'll look through it and think about how I might be able to combine some of them in interesting ways. I highly recommend keeping this kind of collection of ideas that occur to you, even if you don't know how you'll be able to use them.

I hope you're able to come up with some ideas you love.

Re: Writer's block... it's been over a year

[(Anonymous)]

I read a lot of non-fiction as well as fiction and write down ideas that interest me. History is full of fantastic ideas for novels that can be reinterpreted to whatever genre you like.

Re: Writer's block... it's been over a year

[(Anonymous)]

prompt comms? fic_promptly is just one of many.

Or heck, even anon kinkmemes? Pick something you know but aren't deeply deeply emotinoal over, and just .. plunge in. It's anon, so if you write crap no one can trace it back to you ( and who know, there might be those who WON'T think it's crap.)

Re: Writer's block... it's been over a year

[(Anonymous)]

Recognize that having a "dark side" and a "light side" is nonsense. This is life, not the force, and we are whole people, not separate halves of people. Learn how to tap into feelings that help you write without going full-on "everything is horrible!!!"

You can start now, by focusing on how upset you feel about not being able to write and channel that into whatever you think you need for writing.

Re: Writer's block... it's been over a year

[(Anonymous)]

Try to write something different than what you usually write. A complete 180 if you can manage it, to take you out of the headspace you're used to and to retrain your brain. This idea that artists can only create if they're unhappy or depressed is a common idea, but all it does is romanticize things like mental illness, and rarely it is true. More importantly, you don't WANT it to be true for you, and you have the power to change it.

So write something. Anything, it doesn't matter. Think of something you would never picture yourself writing before this and then take a stab at it because why the hell not? It's okay if you fail at it, but you have to try.

Re: Writer's block... it's been over a year

[sarillia]

Examine your thoughts closely and think about what is actually keeping you from writing. Is it perfectionism? Lack of ideas? Do you not really like what you've been trying to write? Do you not know how to approach a particular problem with what you're trying to write?

There are a lot of things that keep people from writing and they often have very different solutions.

Or to approach it from the opposite side, what exactly was different during the times you were "connected to your dark side" that might have made it easier for you to write? What good parts of that situation can you take while still avoiding the bad parts?

One of the most productive times in my life was also one of the worst so I can relate to this a bit. What I think I realized is that writing just became really important to me as escapism at that point. So now I try to make sure that I'm as excited about all my ideas and stories for their own sake as I used to be about simply forgetting everything for a while. I'm not desperate to escape from my life anymore so there are higher standards for how good my ideas need to be for me to spend time on them. Now I'm always trying to keep the stuff I'm fascinated by in my ideas at the forefront of my mind so I don't forget why I want to write it.

Re: Writer's block... it's been over a year

[raspberryrain]

Enjoy being happy, and don't worry about writing. You were probably only bringing your readers down, anyway.

Re: Writer's block... it's been over a year

[philstar22]

What? Some people enjoy reading depressing things. This just sounds kind of rude.

Re: Writer's block... it's been over a year

[raspberryrain]

My point was that happiness is probably more important than creativity.

Maybe I'm wrong. In that case, I'm sure OP can find something to be gloomy about: Climate change? Rising utility bills? Political corruption? All the things that can go wrong with their childrens' future? The fear that they may actually have to be sad to write?

Re: Writer's block... it's been over a year

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, nobody ever reads sad, depressing or dark stories. Everyone only wants happy stories!

Seriously, if you don't have anything helpful to add, why say this at all? Would you want feedback this unkind and pointless on your webcomic?

Re: Writer's block... it's been over a year

[solticisekf]

ia, being happy trumps writing by a mile. Even for profies, never mind fic writers.

Re: Writer's block... it's been over a year

[(Anonymous)]

"You were probably only bringing your readers down, anyway."

Wow.

...all right, I'm sorry

[raspberryrain]

More seriously, my writer's block works differently from yours, but I know what it's like to just not have any feeling of creativity.

If I were happy anyway, I'd probably just roll with it, until all the stuff I've never written started to make me feel bad. And even then, I've pretty much decided I was never really much of a writer, despite wanting to be one for most of my life. :/

I don't know what to tell you. Maybe try writing from a different kind of emotion. Probably, after a while, writing itself can make you stressed and miserable anyway, if you're really worried about being too happy. ;)

Re: Writer's block... it's been over a year

[(Anonymous)]

"You were probably only bringing your readers down, anyway."

Wow. That wasn't a very nice thing to say, especially to someone who's struggling with writer's block.

Re: Writer's block... it's been over a year

[(Anonymous)]

not all depressed people write depressing things. Some of us mask it with cheerful WAFFY fluff.

(Hugs, I'm sorry you are also feeling writer's block.)

Re: Writer's block... it's been over a year

[(Anonymous)]

There's a thing called "freewriting" where you basically just write anything - but you WRITE nonstop for 15 or 20 or 30 minutes. Stream of consicousness. Babble, bitch, list fruits and vegetables, ANYTHING.

(The online Wrtie or Die is good for this, as it honks at you if you stop writing.)

Re: Writer's block... it's been over a year

[(Anonymous)]

Try free writing! Just sit down with pen and paper* for five-ten minutes and just write down whatever falls into your mind. Just don't stop. Even if you just write "God I feel stupid doing this, how much time is left, I wonder what I'll have for dinner" for the entire period of time you'll have written something and it's a start.

Maybe you're lucky and a brilliant idea comes to you, or a plot twist, or how to fix a plot hole, or maybe you've just figured out that today is a sushi day. But you will have written something and that's great!

*Or computer of course, but I find it easier to do it the old-fashioned way.

Re: Writer's block... it's been over a year

[(Anonymous)]

Anything that begins "I can only write when I'm in XYZ kind of mood" is bullshit.

You may only feel like writing when you're in one of those mindsets, but even that is a stretch. It's the same crap as "waiting for inspiration" or "the muse hasn't struck." The desire to create transcends your ability and circumstances; the one thing it doesn't transcend is your lack of motivation.

If you want to write, then write. If you don't, then that's fine too, but own that and don't make excuses for it. Whatever you're not getting out of your writing right now, it's got very little to do with your 'connection to your dark side'.

Re: Writer's block... it's been over a year

[(Anonymous)]

This. Look at your favorite professional writers. I don't know a single one who only writes when they're inspired or when they feel like it, they write, period. This is not to say it's not a major challenge to sit down and write even when you don't feel inspired or whatever, it's absolutely a challenge, and it defeats a lot of would-be writers.

But there's no such thing as only being able to write when you're in a certain mood or mindset. It might be easier, yes. You're more accustomed to it, yes. But your creativity does not depend on being depressed and sad unless you choose to make it so.

Re: Writer's block... it's been over a year

[(Anonymous)]

My question is, what is your motivation for writing?

To me you sound like an emotional catharsis writer. (Writing to release pent up emotions and often escapism.)

If you really want to write, you need to find another motivation if you were previously using your emotions to get the need to knuckle down and write. Since you didn't tell us what you wrote or what your style was, I don't know if you using your happy emotions will help.

Do you have any silly anecdotes from your life you could convert into stories?