“The 10 Common Types of Writers Block”
This is a pretty good list compiled by Nikki Woods in the respect that I’ve heard each one of these voiced by folks here on the blog, emails to me and writers I work with through Screenwriting Master Class. Here it is:
1. Your idea gauge is on empty.
2. You’ve got commitment issues.
3. You’re married to your outline (it’s just not that into you, though).
4. The middle is a lonely place to be.
5. You have a terrible feeling your story took a wrong turn a hundred pages back, and you only just hit a dead end.
6. You’re bored with all these characters, they won’t do anything.
7. You keep imagining all the reasons people are going to say your story sucks, and it paralyzes you.
8. You can’t think of the right words for what you’re trying to convey in this one paragraph.
9. You had this incredibly cool story in your head, and now you’re turning it into words on a screen and it’s suddenly dumb.
10. You’re revising your work, and you can’t see your way past all those blocks of text you already wrote.
Woods digs into each of these to some depth. Let’s take a look at a couple of them:
4. The middle is a lonely place to be
You don’t have an outline, you’ve breezed through much of your novel and now you’re stuck between a rock and a hard place, also known as the middle. If it’s true that you were on a roll, and now you’re stuck, then chances are you just need a break and you’ll be back on track in a day or two.
But if ….
“Put it aside for a few days, then sit down and read it (printouts are best I find, but that’s just me) as if you’ve never seen it before. Start at the beginning. Scribble on the manuscript as you go if you see anything you want to change. And often, when you get to the end you’ll be both enthusiastic about it and know what the next few words are. And you do it all one word at a time.” — Neil Gaiman
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7. You keep imagining all the reasons people are going to say your story sucks, and it paralyzes you.
Your Inner Critic is keeping your from making progress because of the possibility that someone will tear you apart for it later.
Chances are the ideas you’re putting down aren’t nearly as bad as your darkest fears tell you they might be. But remember, what you’re writing is a first draft that will be re-written and edited any way so relax.
Getting lost in the middle of writing a story is perhaps the single most common concern I hear from writers. They get started, head off into Act Two, get lost, lose steam, and yet one more story bites the dust. Wood indicates the main problem: “You don’t have an outline.” I’m not saying you absolutely need to work up an outline to complete a script. What I am saying is if you do break your story in prep and craft an outline, you are exponentially more likely not to get “lost in the middle.”
As for the issue of what Woods calls your “Inner Critic,” I call that V.O.N.: Voices Of Negativity. And precisely because a writer’s Inner Critic, their Voices Of Negativity can be so powerful, so debilitating, I am working up a series of posts on this very subject. Look for that soon.
This list speaks to a fundamental truth about writing: It’s damn hard. Sometimes we may feel frozen and unable to write. However there are ways to overcome writers block because there is also another fundamental truth about the craft and that is this:
To read the rest of Nikki Woods’ post, go here.
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