: Re: Help! I've got Writer's Block I really want to write, but as soon as I sit down and set pen to paper, my mind goes blank. I can't think of anything to write. Sometimes I stare at my screen

@YK4692630

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Turn off that censor. Have a drink or two. You have to come to terms with the fact that you will "write shitty first drafts", as Anne Lamott says in the writing/life guide I would highly, highly recommend: Bird by Bird. It helped me and many others get over fears like you're having right now.
If you are stuck in the middle of a novel, take a look at where you are at and where you're going. Deduce any of the pivotal scenes that need to happen between now and then, and work your way quickly toward one of those.
If you're coming up with a total blank at the very beginning of a short story or novel, then you need a catalyst in the first place. Look at some newspaper headings, read a few books, thoroughly examine pivotal, dramatic moments in your life. Start writing with a striking line of dialogue and go from there. Find a moment in time where something dramatic is happening between two characters. You don't have to know exactly what you're writing when you sit down. Just explore. Start writing something. Even if what you end up writing is going straight to the garbage, most often you'll find a glimmer of something buried in that garbage. So then you start over again, this time with the glimmer in mind.
Just as a rule, you can't rely on other people to tell you what to write.

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