I hear that. Seems like this year has been rough for a lot of writers I know. I wonder why?

peeks in for the first time

Hello friends!

I just began my journey to a creative writing degree, so I thought this would be appropriate :P

I'm a graphic designer/photographer by trade but said, "Fuck visual art, I'm getting a degree in something else I love!"

The world has been a rough place this year... may not have anything to do with it but who knows. Me I just hit walls harder and the blocks keep me pinned down for weeks. But I'm getting better at pushing them away. I'm reading more which has always been a big boost to my creative process. [edit] Welcome to the dark side.... Ha ha! Good luck with your journey and if all else fails you can always do a combination of both~

I hear ya... that's awesome that reading helps you! Maybe I should give that a try. What is time, though??

Good luck!

I've actually just now been getting back into reading regularly. I used to be a mega bookworm but stopped a couple years ago, my depression took over and ruined my ability to focus. But I just recently finished my first book in years, I was proud of myself :P

Shit, though, it's taking me a little bit to get back to my old level of writing. I read my old stuff and it just seems AMAZING compared to my recent stuff. I feel like that's the total opposite of how it usually goes for people lol.

Do you guys have any favourite prompt sources/ particular methods of prompting yourself?

Also I know you mentioned this a while ago but I'm actually the DM for my D&D/Pathfinder group. If you don't want to purchase any modules, I have several Pathfinder PDFs you can look at for inspiration. Right now I'm using one and basically just fleshing it out a bit more for my players as we go along and so far it's worked out beautifully.

I listen to a lot of music. Sometimes a lyric will grab me, or a particular note/chord progression that just... maybe it's weird to say of instrumental music in particular, but it just sounds like a scene or a character and it sets me off.

Alternatively, I bounce ideas off my fiancee pretty constantly. She's amazing at pointing out things I haven't thought of yet, and her enthusiasm and interest are like catnip for making me want to write more for her.

Reading a very good first book in a series and it's kind of inspiring me... though not as much as I'd hope. I've hit a writing block over the past month and it's really making me sad. I've got ideas jotted but no spark, no drive... and anything I do write is just trash....

As a beloved mentor suggested, I'm writing a book.

It's been several months of on and off working and I've gotten my rough draft to the grand total of seven pages at the moment. If I had made an outline for the whole thing earlier, I'd probably have a lot more done by now.

As a person who typically writes short stories, this takes a lot more preparation than I'm used to.

If anyone has any advice on how to write a novel or whatever, feel free to tell me!

Ooo, somehow I missed subscribing to this thread for like... 10 months lol. Nano is coming up, I don't think I'll work on a novel this year though, probably will just work on a bunch of character shorts that have been stuck in my head too long.

Yeah, I'm not going to do NaNo this year... I think it's just not a good method for me? It burns me out on writing and my wife says I'm generally pretty unpleasant to be around for the majority of the month.

Good luck with your efforts this coming month! I hope the words come easy.

- The problem for me is I get too caught up in making more words, and forget that there needs to be plot. (as evidence by multiple attempts to shorten my previous 400k word ongoing nano project that didn't even make it through half the plot I wanted to tell)

Ouch, that does get difficult. You want words, yeah, but words you can use... :/

- Yeah, so tomorrow I'm going to try and compile a list of story ideas I have, and if I can get to all of them, I'll call that a win.

I'm actually really pumped about NaNoWriMo. It's been like ten years since I've tried it but I actually have a great story this time!

- That's great! Having a story in mind is key. Have you done any planning at all, or just gonna wing it?

I've been doing some planning. But I dunno how helpful it's gonna turn out being. Bleghhhhhhhh!

- Planning has never really panned out for me, but neither has winging it. I think I just need a more concrete planning template.

I've been so caught up with reading the past 2-3 months that I've done like zero writing... and it makes me sad because I had such a good run too.... Perhaps after I finish this series of books, it should be enough inspiration to boot my rear back into gear. I hope so...

- Reading is good for you too though! I don't read enough anymore.

Well crud... The other day I was hit so hard by inspiration... I fell in love with a new character I needed for my story. I worked on who they were and I was happy with what I came up with.... and then the next day ... my muse just seemed to tell me off and hitched a ride on the wind....