Do you ever have no ideas?

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readertim109
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Do you ever have no ideas?

Post by readertim109 »

Do you ever want to write but can't think of anything to write about? What do you do when that happens?
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kaytie
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Post by kaytie »

Sure, that happens. When it does, I start writing anything. Just the act of typing out something, even if it's my grocery list, will bring some idea to mind. Another trick is to take a story someone else wrote, and that you love, and then systematically change every aspect of it. If the main character is a man, start with a woman. If the setting is in the south, bring it north. If the character has a family, kill them off. You get the idea...

Usually I've got several ideas floating around my head and it's just a matter of picking one. :)
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awelker
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Post by awelker »

sometime i will have to many ideas and i always tell myself that i will write it down but most of the time i forget. other times i will just put the idea on a piece of scrap paper and then just forget where i put until monthis later when i had been looking for it all along.
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Linda
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Post by Linda »

sometimes i just feel like i have no good ideas so i dont even bother writing them down. i should start though because i could always build on them later. idk
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Anna
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Post by Anna »

A lot of the time I don't know what to write about but if someone gives me a topic or a couple of sentences as a starting point, I can't stop writing until I'm finished. Any ideas?....anyone? lol
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Yukiora 24
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Post by Yukiora 24 »

Yep their are times I have no Ideas and there are times I have too many ideas! It comes and goes.
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chromegrrrl
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Post by chromegrrrl »

Yeah, I usually find that when I say I have no ideas that I do have ideas but for some reason they are not things I want to write about. The trick to get around it is to switch modes; if the problem is fiction then I'll write something non-fiction (usually a tutorial), if it's a serious essay then switching to comedy does the trick, if it's a research report I'll start deconstructing pop-culture. This way I'm still doing what I want to do (writing) but giving my brain permission to back off and ease around things that might just be too much for me to process in one sitting.
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Post by kelsmercer »

I always have new ideas for plots, character, setting, etc. However, they might not be applicable to what I'm writing. Usually, I don't have an idea on how to start or continue something. That's usually what happens when I want to write, but cannot.
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Post by shinjiblue »

Everyone gets writer's block at one time or another. When this happens, what works for me is to start writing anything...lyrics of a song I just heard, favorites quotes that come to mind. Sometimes just the act of writing or seeing the words on the page will spark ideas or trigger a flow of your own words.
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Post by scriptbunny »

Usually I'll have some idea of what I'd like to write beforehand, but if I'm struggling every once and a while I'll pull out my Storymatic (http://thestorymatic.com/) to just break myself out of a head-against-a-brick-wall thinking pattern.
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Post by R_H_Ali »

Sometimes I think I have no ideas, but when I look at the blank document and just begin typing, all sorts of incredible things spew out of my fingers. To that end, I think it's more of giving yourself the opportunity to write by physically being ready to write, even though mentally, you're blocked.

Another good method of getting out of writer's block is to have an idea bank, where you place all the things you think about during your day when you can't actually write about them, so that you save them for a rainy day when your mind goes blank. You can store it on your phone, in a diary, or in a word document. It all depends on what works for you as an individual.
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Post by SharisseEM »

For sure. Worst time ever. It feels like when I'm down, I'm down for the count. This usually happens when I have no time to write with a busy schedule and my mind just burns out from not being allowed a creative outlet. I feel like a zombie during those times. I even have no motivation to wake up.
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Post by moderntimes »

Never. My fevered brain is always buzzing with ideas. The trouble I have is to discipline myself so that I'm thinking clearly about one particular writing job.

For example, right now I'm starting my 4th novel, writing 2 book reviews for a website, writing an essay for my Diocesan newsletter, starting an article on handgun selection for the non-expert, writing a new short story, and re-writing one of my short horror stories as a "script" for the artist to create a graphic comic from. And I've got a new screenplay I'm putting together, and a horror novel too.

So my laptop's "desktop" is chock full of shortcuts to all sorts of MS Word files, each different. Lots to balls to keep juggling but it tends to keep me sharp and mentally active.

So, no, I never run out of ideas.
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Post by Sweet_Lullaby »

Of course! Sometimes I think that I know what to write but then, I stare at the screen for a long time, erasing every word I write and try to come up with something better.
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Post by pygmy_ghost1982 »

Usually I have ideas, but I get stuck in a scene that kinda fizzles out and I have to stare at the work until I figure out how to bring the energy back into it. Typically this happens when I know what is going to happen next and I want to be working on what happens next and not the fizzling scene I'm wrestling with.
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