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Anonymous Aranara · 9mo

any recommendations for writer's block? trying to write scaralumi and brain is being dumb 🥲

hugs! writer's block is the worst, especially when you genuinely want to write and you just...can't. LMAO. I stand in solidarity with you anon, it's been a rough year for me in that regard. 😭
some comedy options:
1. cry
2. go stand in your kitchen, forget why you're there, go back to your computer. Rinse repeat.
3. scroll through writing subreddits for tips/commiseration, get sucked into discourse threads instead. Look up at the clock to find 4 hours have passed.

All jokes aside, though! Sometimes you're just gonna be blocked and the only way out is through, but here are my personal go-tos:
1. Figure out a song/playlist for the exact vibe you're wanting. Put that on repeat. this is my most important one tbh, it's like a pavlovian response to certain songs at this point
2. identify the source of the block. idea needs more development? not sure on the exact vibes/dynamic? Have the entire fic in your head in movie form but can't string together a sentence? different sources will require different methods: more outlining if that's a thing you like to do, more daydreaming while you're supposed to be working, bullet-pointing out what happens and then unfolding it into something 'prettier' etc.
3. plunder your wip folder! reread all those old snippets that are gathering dust. sometimes they spark associations you wouldn't expect, you never know when that one line of dialogue will come to you that makes all the pieces fall into place.
4. something i've been trying to do lately is write a little bit every day instead of white-knuckle my way through in one go (don't get me wrong I actually do like pounding it out all at once but haven't been able to do that the last couple months). So I just give myself an arbitrary goal (a sentence, 500 words, whatever you feel is low-pressure for you, the idea is to just build the habit and not rely purely on inspiration's whims lmao) and most of the time once that condition is met it's easy to just keep going. and if not then that's ok, tomorrow's another day 😭
5. sprints! (personally i have to be in the right headspace for these, but when they're great they're great)

okay WHEW sorry for the wall of text, i have a lot to say on this topic and honestly could keep going but it's long enough as it is. you are not alone though! we can cry over our incomplete wips together 😭
I hope that perhaps even one of my coping strategies helps in some way though, it really can be frustrating when we have a story to tell and our brains are just like 'nah' 😪💓

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