Arianna's Quick Guide to Writers' Block

Hey, everyone! I had writers' block, so I wrote this. I might put it in TwigBook II, if Shad allows me. Enjoy!

The Quick Guide to Writers' Block
Everyone hates writers block. Everyone. I'll tell you that. If you don't belive me, it's because you've probably never had writers' block. You should consider yourself lucky for that.
Now, of course, if you're on Twig, I'm going to assume that you've had writers' block before, and that you hated it. Hey, you might even have writers' block right now!
So, there are a few things about writers' block that I know (or think). Firstly, it's not 'all phycological'. Sometimes, you just *can't* write, no matter how hard you try. This is usally because of one from three reasons. Firstly, your story could be going nowhere. This doesn't happen very often, but when it does, seventhsanctum (www.seventhsanctum.com) or a dare from someone on Twig or on the Nanowrimo forums can really help.
The second reason you might not be abel to write at all? Well, you could not have a story. If you don't have a story, don't fear. The generators will help you immensly. A good idea is to put yourself in a situtation you may have (almost) been in before. Locked in a store overnight? Fell into a river? Well, then write a story about it. You can also make stories out of your daydreams. For example, perhaps you dream of becoming famous. What if you became famous? What if there was a twist - maybe you were famous because you were infamous? What ifs are your friends if this is the writers' block that you have.
And the third - and most common - reason that you might have writers's block is that you might just not be in a writers' mood. The symptoms for this are easy to see - you don't want to write, at all, you hate your stories, you find yourself telling yourself that your characters are all Mary Sues, or you just flat out want to start the story from scratch. This is the kind that I suffer from way too often.
Let's go on to a cure for the third kind. This is both the most common kind and the hardest kind to solve, though, so beware. Sometimes you've just got to wait it out - even if you've got a ton of rabid fans for your stories, and you need to write for them. I can tell you, for sure, that they would rather have an amazing chapter a bit later than usual than a horrible one on time.
The first kind of cure for this is not to write. Yes, not writing at all can help. Go out. Get some fresh air. Meet with friends. Talk with your siblings. Play a card game. Even (*shudder*) do your homework. Just don't think of writing. Anything that gets your mind off your horrible writers' block is good. When you go back, you'll be fresh and rested and ready to write - hopefully.
If you can't use that method - well, then you're out of luck. Just kidding! Seriously, though, there are more things to do. I, when I have writers' block write. Though it seems to be the opposite of the other method, they are pretty much the same - they get your mind off the writers' block. It doesn't matter if you write a bunch of crap, a freewrite, or a non-fiction piece on the history of quill pens, all that matters is that you're putting pen to paper (or fingers to a keyboard). For example, me writing the piece on writers' block is a perfect example - I have horrible writers' block right now, and I'm writing. And judging by how much I've written in less than 10 minutes, it's working. And I'm giving myself good ideas.
So let me guess something. You still haven't gotten rid of your writers' block. Maybe you've half-gotten rid of it, or maybe you're still in full writers' block mode. Fear not - I have one more method to get rid of that pesky wall between your thoughts and your fingers.
This method requires two things - motivation and time. If you have a motivation, this way to get rid of writers' block is much easier. For example, my motivation is that I've *promised* myself that I'm going to write a chapter today. I'm breaking a promise if I don't do this, so I'll have more motivation. As for time, you'll see why we need this in the next paragraph.
What are we going to do? Well, it's quite simple, realy. Follow these steps. Don't read ahead, do them the second you read them. First, open the document of the story that you're working on, or make a new one if that's your plan. Second, think of a word count goal. I like to make this either 500 or 1000 words, but it doesn't matter, as long as it's challenging, but not too challenging. Last, write. On the story that you have writers' block on.
I'm going to predict that you're going to write a ton of junk. Even if you need to write 'I have writers block, I have writers block, I cannot write anymore, my characters are stupid Mary Sues' over and over again, keep going. Keep going, until you've reached your workcount goal. Don't edit - don't even change spellings of words. If you need **real** motivation, use something like Write or Die (an online service) or PunishPad (a program for windows) which keep you writing - or else.
You've written your chapter or however many words you wanted? Great. Now highlight all the words. And now click the 'delete' button. Now click File>Save. And then close the document. All of those words have now dissapeared into cyberspace. You're not going to find them, ever again. That's good.
Now open the document up again. And write. This time, you can edit. Keep the word count goal, though. I can almost promise you that you'll have an amazing chapter now. If you still haven't, repeat the steps that I showed you. Make those words dissapear into cyberspace - and write again.
I hope that you've gotten rid of your writers' block by now. Good luck!
Arianna

This is awesome, Arianna. Great job.

Thank you!

That's a great guide! I need to enforce the rules, though, so I'm afraid I can't let you put anything else in since the deadline is passed. xP If we make a third, though, I think it'd be great to have it in there!

Okay, it was just that you were letting others still put their stuff in. *shrugs*
I'd love to put in in #3, though.

Only the weird school rules stories, actually. The rest just may have looked like it, like if you were talking about my big post in the submissions thread. The people I replied to asked to submit the stuff yesterday, when we were still accepting, I made sure of that; I just hadn't replied until this morning.

Ah, okay. I'm sorry about that. xP

That's okay.