Writer's Cramp

[Caveat Lector]

No, not writer's block, writer's cramp. It's hard to describe, but while it's similar to writer's block, it's not quite the same. It still brings with it that feeling where you stare at a blank screen and want to scream in frustration, but with writer's block, there's just little to nothing coming at all. Here, there are ideas flowing, but you just can't put them to paper or screen and you're not sure where to begin. And then you curse the futility of it all and question your own reasons for doing this, like a kind of frustration. How do you deal with that? Either writer's cramp or writer's block?

[trooper6]

Tips from a person who had to write a 300pg forum spam and is currently working on a book that I need to get finished for tenure as well as having to regularly write very long academic articles:

1) Free write. Just write down what is going on in your head. It doesn't have to be good. It doesn't have to make sense. Just get it down on the page. Also, don't edit and don't censor. Don't try to make it pretty. You can edit later. Right now you just need to get words on the page.

2) Change your environment. If you normally write at your desk in your room and that is not working for you, try writing in a cafe or the library.

3) Change your tools. If you normally write on a computer/laptop, try writing on a pad of paper instead, or vice-versa.

4) Change your time of day. If you normally write in the evening, try writing first thing in the morning, or vice-versa.

5) Have a writing buddy. Find someone else who needs to do writing and agree to meet with them at a cafe and write together.

6) Time yourself. I write in a 50 minute write/20 minute rest cycle and I set a timer. If 50 minutes is too much, then do the classic Pomodoro schedule of 25 min work/5 min rest/25 min work/5 min rest/25 min work/5 min rest/25 min work/25min rest.

7) Create an accountability group. A group of 4 people who all need to write works best. You all agree to have a conference call once a week (or a Google Chat or whatever). During this conference call, each person gets 15 minutes. In these 15 minutes you say: 1) What were your writing goals for the last week, 2) Which of your goals you achieved, 3) If you didn't achieve your goals, what was the issue? (were your goals unrealistic? were you procrastinating? were you sick? etc). If you achieved your goals, what helped you do that? 4) What are your goals for the coming month.

[xavimat]

1) Free write. Just write down what is going on in your head. It doesn't have to be good. It doesn't have to make sense. Just get it down on the page. Also, don't edit and don't censor. Don't try to make it pretty. You can edit later. Right now you just need to get words on the page.

This.

When we write, we apply a censor-filter to our words to polish them. That can be useful most of the times, but can be blocking, specially with perfectionist people (are there non-perfectionist writers/artists?). A good exercise when this happens is to write down everything that is coming from your mind (of the topic/story) not paying attention to correct/polish that. Maybe you'll use that material (rewriting it) or maybe you'll just throw it away, but it's useful to "warm up" your mind and deal with the block/cramp.
Look at the explanation in http://750words.com/ about this exercise.

[truefaiterman]

2) Change your environment. If you normally write at your desk in your room and that is not working for you, try writing in a cafe or the library.

^This "saved" me. I had a lot of ideas, but couldn't write them at home, at any home, and I was frustrated to the point of rage. Then I tried writing on a train. Now I've written 90k words and still going on, always on trains.

[trooper6]

2) Change your environment. If you normally write at your desk in your room and that is not working for you, try writing in a cafe or the library.

^This "saved" me. I had a lot of ideas, but couldn't write them at home, at any home, and I was frustrated to the point of rage. Then I tried writing on a train. Now I've written 90k words and still going on, always on trains.

Ah the train! I took a four day train trip from the US West Coast to the East Coast for my first academic job: a one-year visiting professorship. My forum spam was not finished yet...I was a bit blocked. But on that train? I wrote so much it was crazy! To this day I love the train for writing! Or Airplanes, but trains are more comfortable.

[RotGtIE]

You know what they say: you can't edit a blank space. I find it's vastly easier to revise and refine something that's already there, so most of the struggle is in putting something - anything, really - down in the first place. The fear that you'll put out something shitty and never go back to fix it is a strong one, but it's always wrong. Just by having something on the document, you can better know what should be there just by seeing what shouldn't, and then fixing it. Just force yourself to vomit something out and build from there.

After all, there's a reason this behavior makes the list of tropes.

[Caveat Lector]

2) Change your environment. If you normally write at your desk in your room and that is not working for you, try writing in a cafe or the library.

^This "saved" me. I had a lot of ideas, but couldn't write them at home, at any home, and I was frustrated to the point of rage. Then I tried writing on a train. Now I've written 90k words and still going on, always on trains.

Ah the train! I took a four day train trip from the US West Coast to the East Coast for my first academic job: a one-year visiting professorship. My forum spam was not finished yet...I was a bit blocked. But on that train? I wrote so much it was crazy! To this day I love the train for writing! Or Airplanes, but trains are more comfortable.

I can't afford the train. But I do remember getting unstuck on a particular story when I went to Ireland.

[trooper6]

I can't afford the train. But I do remember getting unstuck on a particular story when I went to Ireland.

So don't go on a train, go to a library or a cafe instead. They both also work. The key is--you are away from your home with all its distractions, you have nothing else to do, and probably no internet to distract you.

[Mad Harlequin]

Thanks for posting. I've been in this situation for the past few months now and I can't seem to shake it off. I'm about to go on a short vacation, so maybe the change in scenery will help.

[fullmontis]

The advice by trooper6 is sound.

I would say that changing environement and writing gibberish are the two most important things. Sometimes words just get stuck somewhere and you need to get them flowing, like when a pen stops working.

The most valuable skill I learned is to get in the habit of switching off your critical mind and just write, even if it's crap or even unintelligible stuff. If you write only when the perfect word comes out you may be a good poet but not a good writer, as Neil Gaiman says. That's hardly viable when you have to crank out thousands of words a day. It's fundamental to be able to write fast and efficiently without caring too much about quality.

The biggest resistance against this behaviour for me was the belief that stuff won't work as well if you don't think it out beforehand. I found out to be only partially true. In fact, the stuff that I crank out the fastest is usually the best stuff I write. May sound absurd but it's the reality. I'm sure others can confirm this.

[truefaiterman]

In fact, the stuff that I crank out the fastest is usually the best stuff I write.

This is what happens to 90% of my writing.

There's another thing that may help: Even within the same story, you can write whatever you feel like, may it be another scene, another dialogue, or perhaps just defining some "lore". I found myself stuck a few times in my current game, and I fixed it just by writing another scene, or defining an especific character, then coming back later and feeling more refreshed (and, depending on what you made in-between, with a clearer idea of how to continue or end what you started).

If you use music to get inspiration, change the song, too, or think about a music that may suit the scene and listen to it. That specially helped me with certain action sequences.

[Seiza]

Oh my god i thought i was the only one.
There are just times where i have so much ideas of what to write about- I have the entire story outline in front of me, know which scenes go where, etc. But as soon as i try to type it down, i always have this one issue: How do i start it? How do i begin writing it? Do i let him wake up from a dream? Late for a trip? missed a train? AGH it just gets on my nerves sometimes.
One thing i did learn to prevent this (doesn't work for me sometimes because i'm a very organized person) is writing down whatever you want. It doesn't have to make sense, it doesn't even have to mean anything. Just write down one sentence, then expand it into two, then turn it into a paragraph, then turn that paragraph into more paragraphs, and do that until you've finally got a chapter done. This is known as the Tree method in writing, and it helps if you're stuck (and if you don't mind cluttering your manuscript up a bit). I have yet to master doing this though, but it works on most people, and i hope it can work for you.