I'm having to write a short speech to give at a friend's memorial service next month, and I'm finding it difficult. It's not the words that I'm struggling with, it's more the entire concept of what I'm doing. So, as a distraction from that task I thought I'd write about having to write things you don't want to write.
Sometimes in a story there are scenes that crop up that are just hard to get down on paper. Perhaps it's a dialogue-heavy/action-light sequence? Or maybe a scene where a character has opinions that run very contrary to your own, but you need to make them believable and compelling? Or one that has characters and actions completely outside your realm of experience? Or an info dump you need to make interesting somehow? Or any number of other possibilities.
What do you do when encountering these roadblocks in your work?
Sometimes I will often try and power through, but more often than not I'll put off a tricky part of writing and hope that inspiration will strike. Mulling things over seems to work for me. I'll be doing the dishes, or cooking a meal, or tidying the house, and bang! an idea will pop into my head. I'll start filling in details. I may even start talking to myself, which can often get looks from my family. When the idea is more fully formed I can give myself an excuse to abandon (temporarily) whatever chore I'm doing. Got to get it down while it's fresh.
Waking up in the middle of the night is another great source of inspiration. There are plenty of things that wake me up these days. The rain on the roof, a bird in the gutters, my bladder, the cat checking to see if it's time for breakfast yet and then checking again half an hour later. As I'm falling back to sleep my brain will often focus on problems like writing problems. Often a solution will play out in my head as I doze.
However, there's always the danger that in the cold light of morning I'll have forgotten the specifics of my nocturnal musings, and only be left with a vague memory of what had seemed at the time to be the solution of my writing dilemma. I used to keep a notebook by my bed, but writing in it would wake up my wife if I turned on the light. I tried writing in the dark, but that did not work. Now I just try and repeat the idea over and over again before going back to sleep. It sometimes works.
In the end, however, if inspiration hasn't struck there's no choice but to knuckle down and power through. Focusing on the better bits that lie ahead always helps. Perhaps it's a fight scene, or a sex scene, or bit of writing you've already sketched out and are quite proud of. Whatever it is, it's the light at the end of the tunnel, and each word is a step toward it.
Writing what you don't want to write
Gunwallace at 12:00AM, Feb. 27, 2025
5 likes!
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Sketchydrawer at 9:43PM, Feb. 27, 2025
Relatable, I believe in the chugging thru it. Fug it we ball.
Ozoneocean at 7:46PM, Feb. 27, 2025
Hahaha, Romance in terms of love life in reality can be frustrating, fun, gradual, amazing, awkward, and full of misunderstandings. I love romantic comedies... most of them have a lot of the crapiness and awkwardness in them. I could definitely write one of those! Anything to do with grief though would be too hard for me to write, it would make me too sad. Also certain kinds of violence- sexual violence especially. If you can distance yourself and write it in a stylised, objectified porno kind of way then I miiiight be able to do it because that's an established fictional convention (thought that would be difficult), but I couldn't do a realistic, serious, or even comedy version because it's just too awful. Also comedy is really hard so I don't attempt it too often because you second guess yourself too much. Drama is much easier XD
PaulEberhardt at 2:14PM, Feb. 27, 2025
Romance... Oh deary me! I'm probably a Romance-illiterate of the worst kind, as I couldn't get the tone and atmosphere of such a story right if my love life depended on it. I've always wanted to write a parody that quickly degenerates into something very off-key which I feel much more at home with, but I found I can't manage even that. To get Romance style right, I'd probably have to read and/or watch so much of that stuff, which even most of the women I've ever known and loved can't stand... It's one of the things I'll happily leave in the capable hands of others.
bravo1102 at 11:50AM, Feb. 27, 2025
I also studiously avoid writing romance but not because I haven't lived it. It's precisely because a lot of the I romance I have experienced was so messed up I just don't want to write about it. Fine. This couple is married. They put up with each other fine. Anything else I'll show two people meeting and next scene is after their break up. On with the story.
Gunwallace at 11:38AM, Feb. 27, 2025
@plymayer: So work is actually useful for more than just paying the bills? Excellent. @marcorossi: good luck with that tricky bit lying in wait for you. @bravo1102: The bladder and writing have a long an honourable history. There was a novelist who would always type a page before allowing himself to urinate in the morning. That way, if he did nothing else, he would have written a 365 page novel by the end of the year. @dragonsong12: Thanks. It's not actually a difficult task, and the event will be a happy (if tinged with obvious sadness) one, but I'm just struggling with the 'need' to write it more than anything else. A lack of understanding romance doesn't seem to stop most Romance writers, in my opinion.
dragonsong12 at 6:19AM, Feb. 27, 2025
((Continued)) I usually approach this block by just avoiding romance entirely, reasoning that it's already in almost every other story written, so why would anyone want my half-assed attempt when they could go pretty much anywhere else for a better time? But like...romance IS a part of life...even if it isn't for me, it's something that should matter to my characters. So from time to time I find I need to approach it. And I don't really have an answer for how. For the most part my response is just to panic about it for weeks leading up to the page posting and then hoping no one comments how awkward it is once it does. Haha! Honestly, I know I should just ask for help - basically anyone is better at it than I am - but it's hard to find a good moment, you know? Anyway, that's my dumb talk about romance. I really hope things get better, Gunwallace!
dragonsong12 at 6:13AM, Feb. 27, 2025
Oh, I'm so sorry for your loss! Man, the stuff I don't want to write pales in comparison to a heavy subject like that. I guess you could look at my silly "problems" as a distraction, though. For the most part, I look at things I know I'm weaker at as a fun challenge. Things like action scenes are never gonna turn out well when I draw them, but I genuinely enjoy trying to find new ways to depict them better. The thing that stymies me the most is any scenes related to romance. Which is a little odd because character relationships are basically my favorite thing, but the specific trappings of romance I just have no interest in. I'm very aware though that I'm in the minority in this position, so the idea of approaching romance at all is very daunting to me. Everyone else is more knowledgeable on the subject after all, so my clumsy attempts would stick out like a sore thumb.
bravo1102 at 4:46AM, Feb. 27, 2025
And then there's me pacing back amd forth gesticulating wildly. Talk to myself? I'm giving full Oscar worthy oration. 🤣 XD
bravo1102 at 4:42AM, Feb. 27, 2025
I'll power through and when it comes to the page somehow there's magic seeing the images and text and it meshes. I have at least three stages where I can totally change up. Fortunately having been in the Army I can write in near total darkness and my wife will sleep through anything. But I usually have to go running for my notes in the living room. Which is convenient as the bathroom is on the way and my bladder will never miss a chance to be emptied.
PaulEberhardt at 4:05AM, Feb. 27, 2025
I read the title of this newspost and just thought: "story of my life" 😉 Writing a lot of things I don't want to write, with very deadlines rapidly closing in, is a big part of my day job as it happens. Sometimes it's really best to go into berserk mode and trudge through it, no matter what, pretending not to care too much about the result. With creative writing I do for fun, I just take my time. If I'm really stuck, I found it helps a lot to tell the story so far to a friend or some other person who can be kept from escaping. Very often, they don't even need to ask anything like "Why don't you just...?" because it suddenly clicks all by itself.
marcorossi at 1:51AM, Feb. 27, 2025
(continues) I expect one of these problematic situations to happen something like 10 pages from now or so, in what will probably be the most important part of the plot of my comic, where there will be 3 very big plot twists all very close together, and I don't know how to make them work without making them feel forced (but if I can do this well it will be super good, so there is also hope).
marcorossi at 1:49AM, Feb. 27, 2025
Generally, when I have a block, it's because the story is not going in the direction I expected it to go. For example, if a character should have a change of heart, but I can't write it down in a way that works, it's probably because I didn't introduce that character well enough in the parts before (because in my mind the change of heart is logical, so it means that the character I wrote doesn't fully represent the character I have in my mind). If I'm lucky, I can just add a few pages that make the passage more logical (though in some cases this might result in a bit of a forced narration, but in this case flashbacks are your friend). However at times I get lost into thinking too abstractly about the story I'm writing, at a level that is useless to go forward, so at times I too just have to power through. (continues)
plymayer at 12:14AM, Feb. 27, 2025
I can usually see these things clearly when I can not do anything about them. Like at work.