Previously, I shared some ideas in another article to get out of Writer’s Block, but what about when you are ready to start writing and you do not know what to write? Writer’s block is an ironic situation where you want to write, but do not have any ideas come to your mind. So for this situation, here are some tips that can be useful to get out of this.
- Imagine being in a movie or a book
Have you ever walked into a mall, hallway, or classroom and feel that you are the protagonist of a movie or a book? Take advantage of this feeling and start writing your own protagonist storyline. Writing about autobiographical situations is hard because you want to keep them real, and that is okay. If you imagine fictional situations for yourself, you can add them to your writing piece. You are the protagonist of your story, you can be anything you want.
- Write about your fears
Writing about what you fear is one of the most challenging things to write about. There is a phrase that says: “If you are scared, then you are on the right track”, and being scared of writing about something can be an excellent source of inspiration. You can create an amazing story with all the things and situations that you might be afraid of. Imagine a horror or thriller story with all your fears in it, spooky! Or maybe it can be an inspirational story, beating all of the obstacles until the protagonist gets to the top. Get creative with your fears!
- Define a character’s personality
Make a list with brief paragraphs describing different personalities of the characters you want to create. That way, you can imagine different characters for your stories. Also, you can choose different adjectives to mix and match until you are convinced that is the personality you want to give to that character. Try to look for pictures of people on the internet for inspiration and imagine how that person would be described. Another creative way to define your character’s personality is to present an obstacle and think about how this character would overcome the situation. There are a lot of things that you can try to create a character for your writing pieces.
Note: If you pay attention to your surroundings you will find characters within the people around you. Be imaginative!
- Listen to your first thoughts
Most of the time a writer has a lot of different ideas on their mind at the same time. These ideas are mixed together in your mind and can make it difficult to write, because wanting to write them all at once could lead to getting stuck in your writing. A recommendation is to listen carefully to the first thought that comes to mind and start writing about it. That way you can focus on one idea at a time. Working with one thought at a time will help you to clear your mind and give you space for inspiration. Your first sentence does not have to make sense, just write as you think. Then you can organize all the ideas and expand your thoughts into something more. Who knows, you might end up with a great story!
- Writing Prompts
Writing prompts are a useful tool for you to start writing. These prompts can be a phrase, a single word, dialogue, sentence, theme, or even a picture! Ask your friends to tell you something random and start writing about it; read something in the newspaper and write a plot twist, search the internet for prompts, or images that inspire you. The challenge with these prompts is to tell a creative story, create a character, or a situation with nothing more than the prompt.
If you are the type of writer who likes to go to a writing workshop or group, you can try to choose a single prompt. That way everyone has to write something related to it within a specific amount of time and at the end of the activity, everyone reads their piece out loud. You will be impressed by the diversity of stories that you will hear and y have fun with it!
Remember, the most important thing is to start writing no matter what is going to be about. Just write!