OOC Reference ~ Welcome to the Break Room ~ Emotion Wheels & Other Tools

You are, you just don’t know it yet.

 

Now I’ll have to at least look it up.

 

I stumbled on these suggestions today:

Write it badly. Don’t worry about perfection, just write your piece. Once you’re done you’ll have a starting draft.

Start in the middle. This sounds like it could be kind of fun, so I plan on trying it.

Don’t give your hang up a name, once you’re convinced it’s writer’s block it will be more difficult to shake that from your mindset.

 

I attempted the 'start in the middle' one before, and to be honest, that actually made it a lot harder for me. It was like writing three different ideas (middle, beginning, and end) and then trying to piece them all together. The end product had no natural flow. It was very stilted.

But hey, you won't know until you give it a try!

 

No you aren’t. We all tend to be our harshest critics.

 

You sound like me but with space battles. Make a note and we can address how to get us out of our comfort zones.

 

That’s pretty much the start in the middle method! Talking this through is already helping.

 

I just stumbled on the best advice, or for me it is. Practice guided visualization, devoting just 10 minutes to it can be incredibly relaxing, I use it for sleep fairly often. It’s also my go to for dental visits, they always think I’m asleep because I really dig into it there.
But, this author recommends it for overthinking, he said it can be used to clear your mind and to activate the imagination.

I enjoyed this guy that I was reading about, but I didn’t like how negative he skewed things at times.
I recommend looking up guided visualization and finding a person with a voice that works for you.

 

This sort of goes with being “blocked” or just stuck with trying to use different words and phrases, let’s talk about what inspires you.

I know it sounds strange but I’m inspired by scents. Anything from baking bread to lime, basil, and mandarin. Once or twice recently I spritzed on my favorite fragrance, while in pajamas writing. A scented candle would be awesome, but I have a very big, wild puppy and I don’t want to risk an accident.

Fragrance was an unexpected source of inspiration for me, what inspires you?

 

I’m a big fan of historical fiction, so that’s always sending me down rabbit holes to learn more about things.

Great suggestion @Sarge

Do you use the internet for research or do you have books? I’ve got over 100 SW books not including more e-books for reference than I will admit to.

 

Ooh, scent is a fascinating source of inspiration to bring up! I don't often directly think of myself as being inspired by scent, but there have been times when I have written while I've had scented candles lit, and my fingers do seem to write faster. I also think that scents can sometimes encourage me to include more of those rich details of smell that can enhance the setting of a story. Smell is often said to be the most evocative scent for us humans, so it makes a lot of sense that it could be a magnificent source of inspiration for our writing!

I am with Sarge in that I am often inspired by history. I can be inspired by anything from the ancient Romans and Egyptians to medieval Europe to World War II and the Holocaust. I devour historical fiction and non-fiction history books so that gives me a fairly strong basis on which to draw inspiration.

I also draw a lot of inspiration from real world cultures and geography/terrain. I've written stories inspired by Chinese, Russian, Japanese, and Arabian cultures, and Ive drawn inspiration for settings from everywhere from the Russian steppes to the Florida tropics.

For those wanting to draw inspiration from other cultures, I often recommend the Culture Shock and Culture Smart book series which gives quick and informative overviews of many different cultures. I'll supplement that with information gleaned from Google searches.

 

Ooo... scent is an interesting one!

I know I mentioned this above in response to the writer's block question, but I feel that it applies here as well. I tend to watch a TV show or a movie that reminds me of a character or a particular scene that I'm working on in a story. It puts me in the right mindset for my character and goes a long way in establishing the mood. I can usually pump out a post fairly quickly after that.

 

Happy Thanksgiving to US folks, and happy Thursday to everyone else. I’m thankful for all of you sharing experiences to help us grow in this crazy hobby of ours.

 

Music, or sound, is a good one. I love the sound of rain, that always inspires me.

Does location make a difference? I tend to write in car pool line when I’m stuck there waiting.

 

How do you edit?

I tend to dig in for a few paragraphs before I go back and edit mistakes or reword anything. It’s how I can look for instances of using the same word over and over. Once I’m done with the post I can give a final read through to catch anything I missed the first or second time.

 

lol @Sarge It never fails that I see a mistake after I hit post reply.