ATS Writers I need some help getting over writers block

As people may or may not know I earn some of my money from writing articles for magazines / short stories etc

I've been commissioned to write a short story (only 3000 words) but I just can't get in the right mood to start.
Do any posters have any tips on how to get in the right mood to write?

My deadline is the 2nd of December and I have already been paid an advance so I really need to do it, but it's like pulling teeth at the moment.I can't really discuss the nature of the story on here as it's for a fetish magazine

So how do you get in the mood for writing or get over writers block?

reply to post by davespanners


Do you have a particular theme you have to satisfy?

How much artistic freedom do you have with it?

reply to post by davespanners


Watch "The Shining".


Your writers block ain't so bad now eh?

Heres one senario...

Fill your bathtub with warm water

Light some candels in the bathroom

Turn off artificial lights and everything that make noise in your house

Submerge yourself in the tub ,and meditate to clear your mind completely...

Now your mind is clear and everything silent...

Now imagine the water in the tub is the sea

imagine the sides of the tub is two countries..

Imagine how it would be living in those contries

and so on....

Thinking like a child, makes my mind explode with new ideas...

reply to post by davespanners


That seems mind boggling that a magazine these days would give someone an advance for a short story, let alone commission one.. A lot of zines are closed to new submissions these days.

The best way to get over writer's block is just to start writing. What you start off with is usually pure crap, but the process usually starts loosening up the old brain juices.

reply to post by Killface


This is another problem the story is VERY specific and it's not something I really have an interest in so I have to put myself into another mind.

Thanks for the suggestions so far!

reply to post by Toromos


The one area that still does quite a lot of business in the UK at least is erotica.
I got an advance because I know the editor

Well, a deadline might mitigate the following, but here's some thoughts I have on the subject:

Many scholars contend that artists, and various assorted other visionaries, conjure their works in some half attempt at some kind of half-immortality.

The thinking is, that if their work lives on, then some part of them does as well. My guess, however, is that creative output more often has to do with an overflow of what I call the "bounding box."

The bounding box being our virtual selves. Our bodies. The smallest prison cell, if you will.

But, our experiential existence, or spirit, or life-force, or soul or whatever you want to call it, balks at those boundaries of the physical. Intellect and emotion create something that MUST overflow and be born as art or literature or...whatever the storm of a soul can conceive.

And, sometimes, a silence looms. Not, its my contention, for the lack of content (although you, the artist, may be seemingly and frustratingly bereft of ideas at the moment) But because a deeper contemplation is forming, down "there," below our conscious, where we commune with the mystery from whence we came.

Where whatever spark that gave us not only life, but cognition as well, collaborates to give us yet another 'something' to take back up and out of the bounding box into the world.

Block is a pregnancy. Relax and feed your spirit well. The baby is going to be absolutely beautiful.

Originally posted by davespanners
The one area that still does quite a lot of business in the UK at least is erotica.
I got an advance because I know the editor

...still blocked?... a dose of castor oil will fix that - jk...

...seriously, heres what you do...

...wear nothing but a chartreuse scarf while vacuuming... start in the living room... if not cured by the time its all spiffy, vaccum another room... if, after vacuuming the whole house, you're still blocked, get down on your hands and knees and scrub the kitchen floor... as before, if that doesnt unblock you, take your scrubbing to another room and continue until all floors are sparkling or you're unblocked, which ever comes first...

...sometimes all it takes is dancing to a boy george video while wearing only a pale blue scarf...

Thanks for all the answers. I wrote the first 700 words so the rest should be a lot easier.
I keep getting distracted by ATS / TV and my own imagination

reply to post by davespanners

Yeah, getting something on the page is the hardest part. I was paid, once, to do a little writing along the lines of what you're looking at.

Would love to trade stories...on u2u ha. Peace.

p.s. Turn that tv off now!

Sometimes it helps to bounce the idea around with someone else, then just go away and let your mind wander a bit.

Gradually a few thoughts on your previous conversation start to expand and you can follow them through.

Sometimes, if I have no idea what to write about I can see or hear a small thing and it will set off a train of thought.
The idea might fester for weeks, months, years or just a few hours before I write it down.

You're lucky you've got your subject, I wonder if there's anything we can throw around here without going too far off the rails?

I might have trouble staying on one subject. I have so many ideas going in different directions. As far as fetishes go, at one time I thought maybe they were hangovers or crossover effects from psychically visiting alternate realities. You know we may have Rock and Roll here but in one alternate Earth reality, it was never invented and jazzy classical music is about as hip as they got or some other strange thing. Someone who thought of a "strange" fetish called rock and roll beats might be inspirational in that reality. In this reality what some might think of as a strange fetish here, is considered very normal in a different reality.

I find daydreaming about strange things makes the ideas flow into my head. Hope this helps in some way.

I cook. While my hands are busy preping the ingredients I let my mind wander and just kind of float. I have come up with my best ideas while cooking.

reply to post by davespanners


Sitting on the Toilet is a good place for thinking.
Toilets are called "Heads" on Navy ships for the above reason.

A good idea should always give you a dodgy stomach

What I really need is for my internet connection to be forcibly taken away from me, I'm just so distracted lately.
I think I need to go to a cafe and write long hand, I always get more done with a pad and paper then on the PC

reply to post by davespanners




What's the fetish mate ?

Just get yourself in the mood (Yes... I know that sounds wrong) and think in terms of a fetish or "act" that you like and whatever... and just apply it to the midget porn or whatever it is you're writing.

I know you're obviously having this issue... but I did make me laugh, so thanks.

reply to post by blupblup


It's a very very strange one, thats all I can say really Not strange more strange
I'm not sure I could post more about it without compromising my position with the person who is paying me

reply to post by davespanners




Hmmm well It's tricky for sure.
If you can't transfer your own feelings thoughts on a fetish that you enjoy.... then I dunno man.

You've got until the 4th or 5th was it?

Go use some of the advance and experience said fetish.... at least you'd have first hand knowledge

Good luck dude

Write a story about a guy who has writers block and decides to post a thread about it, which leads to a series of events that result in a multitude of posts that lead sto an accidental rift in time/space that ends within a paradoxical dilemma in which he goes back in time just prior to receiving that 3000 dollar check and now has the opportunity to ask for more money knowing he will eventually acquire writers block and therefore will require more money.