Top Four Techniques for Dealing with Writer's Block - Part One

[@caiborg1184]

Oh, Mr. DeMarco, your videos come just in time for me. I’m in a writers block at the moment and your advice is really helpful Thank you!

[@TheWriteStuffPro-DamonDiMarco]

Always pleased to hear that that my videos help a fellow creative. Wishing you all my best, Caiborg 118. Thanks, as always, for watching!

[@essequamvideri17]

What a perfect way to describe things! Thanks!

[@TheWriteStuffPro-DamonDiMarco]

Much obliged, Sterling. Thank you for watching!

[@douglasjackson9058]

So well done and always enjoyable 💯

[@TheWriteStuffPro-DamonDiMarco]

Thank you, Doug!

[@captwins1]

Thank you Damon. Great idea for a series. Cliffhanger for the rest (?), going to be waiting to learn about the rest!.

[@TheWriteStuffPro-DamonDiMarco]

Coming soon, Kirk. Flooded with work here but coming soon. Thanks for watching!

[@Tonyontheroad_777]

Great points thank you for the inspiration

[@TheWriteStuffPro-DamonDiMarco]

You're very welcome, Anthony. Thanks for watching!

[@Tonyontheroad_777]

@@TheWriteStuffPro-DamonDiMarco i got a smith corona thats how i found your channel i like the how to use a typewriter. I'm writing a book now the old fashion way. I got frustrated with technology with these writing apps.

[@TheWriteStuffPro-DamonDiMarco]

​@@Tonyontheroad_777 I hear you. They keep coming out with apps that are supposed to make writing easier. They don't. They just make all writing sound the same, and none of them address the essential bones of telling a damn good story. To learn that takes many years. Once you know them, you don't need an app to write well, you could use a pencil, a pen, the back of an envelope. Hell, you could write it in your own blood, which is fitting since a good story should come about that way anyway (metaphorically speaking). Bottom line: don't chase false gods. Stop downloading and relying on crap that has nothing to do with craft. Invest in the proper way to do something or hire somebody who knows how to do it and work closely with that person so you realize your dreams. I'm wishing you all good things, Anthony. Make that typewriter sing!

[@anthonyt1t5]

I had the most recent case of it last night. I was writing or working hard on my 3rd draft. I realized i had to do alot of rewritimg for my story to be more structured and sensible. But i got blocked... i was confused on how did i want my characters to grow internally, which scenes would be their developmental moments so to speak. I was like should their roles be swapped for this scene? The more i sat there trying to think about it. The more i got frustrated. So i gave up and promised to work on it today. It probably didnt help that i ate 2 thc cbd gummies, and most likely got writers block cuz i got high when the gummies finally kicked in. I read that thc n cbd can make you lose focus and have short term memory issues which explains alot on what was happening to me.😂

[@TheWriteStuffPro-DamonDiMarco]

That could be true, ihrp. Bottom line, as I’ve mentioned before: get the work done. Keep anything that helps you do it. Throw out anything that doesn’t. Simple, right? Thanks for watching!

[@dadtype2339]

If I don't write I actually feel sick, unless I did a large amount of work the previous day, and I'm ahead of the game, or I'm not feeling it, otherwise I write everyday 6-10+ meaning 10 single spaced pages is my goal, anything more is welcomed, but I can't stop for the day unless I at least hit 6 pages. If things have come up or gotten in the way I will actually feel bad if didn't write to the point of actually getting sick and yet on that same coin I don't force myself to write, I usually always write but if I don't feel it, I don't force myself unless I start to feel sick or sad. Writer's Block, I don't believe in it, if you plan and outline and do the work or mapping, you will never have writer's Block, I do not work on a story from beginning middle to end, I work Beginning, End, and then Middle. We don't read this way we don't watch a movie this way, you would start watching Thelma and Louise at the beginning then skip to the end and then go back to the middle, No, but I'm not watching a movie, nor reading a book, I'm writing it, and have that authority to build the world that way and so does any author, that's where we get the word from Author/Authority. See. Now once I've mapped and outlined the story and it's mechanics work, I'll draft it from beginning middle and end, but when developing it, Beginning End and then middle which will always write itself if you know A and Z really well. I have never had writer's Block doing this and I'll never have Writer's Block doing it. ❤love this channel.

[@TheWriteStuffPro-DamonDiMarco]

Hear, hear. Well put. And here I’ll interject a quote from W. Somerset Maugham which went something like this. I only write when inspired. Fortunately, inspiration strikes at about 9 am every morning when I settle my ass in my writing chair.

[@dadtype2339]

I like it, his opportunity came everyday, and he opened the door when it knocked, at 9AM. One of my favorite quotes is: "No one knows whether, or not he is a writer, unless he has tried writing at night." -------- H. P. Lovecraft And my own personal quote is: "I know as a writer I was meant to suffer, so that others would be entertained." It's a double meaning, it means I was entertainment for people who enjoyed tormenting others and as a writer, I can pull from my experiences and write them down so that the torture I had feeds my imagination and characters, building awesome stories so that my readers can be entertained. And believe me I met some pretty bad people, pretty much every teacher I had, abused me, from locking my in a closet, pouring gasoline in my hair, making me rub my teachers smelly feet, to being a mat so kids wiped their shoes on me, to one teacher drowning my hamster I brought to show at tell, he then threw his wet corpse at me as I balled my head off. Rebreaks my heart looking back through parent eyes, I was just a little guy in 3rd grade for that last one. I could go on, and a lot of it had do to with the fact the time I went to school no teacher had training for Dislexia as there was no training to be had. And it just brought out the evil in teachers. I plan to write about them all some day. Might have to change names theirs and my own....maybe not my own... Anyway, here's to Never Giving Up! Cheers 🥂

[@sourgrapes7482]

I have a question: how the hell does one manage to make enough money to survive by writing? Cause you cant just write novels. So what do you do? And how quickly can one hope to make enough money to move to manhattan

[@TheWriteStuffPro-DamonDiMarco]

Hi Sour Grapes. Short answer, freelance life isn't for the faint of heart. Longer answer, I write for a variety of clients, most of whom can afford to pay my rates, which works out for both of us. How quickly can you move to Manhattan? Give it a try and find out! You sound pretty resourceful. I bet you can do anything you set your mind to. Thanks for watching and wishing you all good things.

[@jamesaritchie1]

Of course you can just write novels. There's a LOT of money in writing novels, if you know how to write ones that sell well. And, no, this isn't luck. Mega bestsellers have some luck involved, but not ordinary novels that still sell very well.

[@sourgrapes7482]

@@jamesaritchie1 How do you know which ones will sell well?

[@jamesaritchie1]

Writer's block is a name it and claim it disease. As near as we can tell, it didn't even exist until the early twentieth century, and only a handful of cases came along unto literary magazine took u the cause and named it as a real condition based on one case where a writer suffered from clinical writer's block. What we call writer's block is nearly always lack of confidence, or complete lack of interest in actually writing. Many want to be writers, but very, very few want to sit down day after day and do the work. And if you can sit down and write about your writer's block, you don't have writer's block.

[@TheWriteStuffPro-DamonDiMarco]

James, more great points and agreed on all of them. Very interesting. Thank you!