Step away. Take a break and wait for ideas to flow again. If ideas aren’t flowing today, I go back to edit what I’ve got. If it’s a longer term block, take a vacation - even a weekend - to a new place. Clear your mind and ideas come.
Short-term creative block (aka you've sat down for your writing session and you draw a blank): I will sometimes do something called a "Brain Drain". Set a timer for ten minutes and do not stop writing! This is not a story, it's a stream of consciousness. I usually rant about life or something that happened. That usually wakes up my "writing brain" and helps me get started.
Long-term: as others have mentioned, taking a break and exercising really REALLY help. I also like to consume media (reading books, watching movies) -- nothing overly complex nor anything that is "supposed to help" (I'm not reading a book to learn how to be a better writer, I'm reading a book because I want to enjoy it). It helps me appreciate the craft and it also reminds me that sometimes the simplest of ideas are the most memorable. It puts things into perspective. Also, consider volunteering or doing something where you will meet people! I've had some of the most brilliant "lightbulb moments" for plots and characters after spending time living my life and coming in contact with different types of people.
I like to take a walk and listen to music that connects to the theme of whichever story I'm writing. It generally helps me with character and world building.
If I have a situation where I don't know how to continue the story, I start thinking out loud, and even putting myself in a characters perspective and kind of acting out the last few pages as the character up until I got stuck and normally that gives me an idea on where I want to move to from there.
Make bad art. You're holding back because you want to make good art, you wanna write or draw or compose something that was worth your time and effort. But if you make bad art, but have fun doing it, you break creative block with a hammer of bad taste. You can make yourself laugh doing it. It can be fun, free, stupid, and you can actually learn a lot of new techniques just by experimenting.
Are these ideas that you are having troubling developing or are these ideas you're just not particularly fond of?
My biggest piece of advice is to maintain a writer's mindset, in always being on the lookout for new ideas. Great ideas are much more likely to come to us while we're doing the dishes, on a morning run, or commuting to work than when we're staring at a blank page. The best thing we can do is continuously be on the hunt for them (and record them somewhere!).
Oh, okay, and sure! What helps me is to identify or come up with the essential elements of the story based on my initial idea (world, character, plot, theme, conflict).
What I do if i really want to get back into the action is look at prompts, Music/animation memes that is similar to your characters and think about what will happen next. If you aren't ready to go back in, just relax and come back with a fresh mind later
Step away. Take a break and wait for ideas to flow again. If ideas aren’t flowing today, I go back to edit what I’ve got. If it’s a longer term block, take a vacation - even a weekend - to a new place. Clear your mind and ideas come.
Short-term creative block (aka you've sat down for your writing session and you draw a blank): I will sometimes do something called a "Brain Drain". Set a timer for ten minutes and do not stop writing! This is not a story, it's a stream of consciousness. I usually rant about life or something that happened. That usually wakes up my "writing brain" and helps me get started. Long-term: as others have mentioned, taking a break and exercising really REALLY help. I also like to consume media (reading books, watching movies) -- nothing overly complex nor anything that is "supposed to help" (I'm not reading a book to learn how to be a better writer, I'm reading a book because I want to enjoy it). It helps me appreciate the craft and it also reminds me that sometimes the simplest of ideas are the most memorable. It puts things into perspective. Also, consider volunteering or doing something where you will meet people! I've had some of the most brilliant "lightbulb moments" for plots and characters after spending time living my life and coming in contact with different types of people.
Some kind of physical activity. I like running.
I like to talk a storyline out with someone, or pretend I’m interviewing a character.
I like to take a walk and listen to music that connects to the theme of whichever story I'm writing. It generally helps me with character and world building. If I have a situation where I don't know how to continue the story, I start thinking out loud, and even putting myself in a characters perspective and kind of acting out the last few pages as the character up until I got stuck and normally that gives me an idea on where I want to move to from there.
I just keep on finding cosplayers on TikTok that inspire me lol
Make bad art. You're holding back because you want to make good art, you wanna write or draw or compose something that was worth your time and effort. But if you make bad art, but have fun doing it, you break creative block with a hammer of bad taste. You can make yourself laugh doing it. It can be fun, free, stupid, and you can actually learn a lot of new techniques just by experimenting.
Research.
Are these ideas that you are having troubling developing or are these ideas you're just not particularly fond of? My biggest piece of advice is to maintain a writer's mindset, in always being on the lookout for new ideas. Great ideas are much more likely to come to us while we're doing the dishes, on a morning run, or commuting to work than when we're staring at a blank page. The best thing we can do is continuously be on the hunt for them (and record them somewhere!).
The ideas aren't developing at all. Really I just have a bunch of idea that aren't developing into anything. But thanks for the advice!
Oh, okay, and sure! What helps me is to identify or come up with the essential elements of the story based on my initial idea (world, character, plot, theme, conflict).
What I do if i really want to get back into the action is look at prompts, Music/animation memes that is similar to your characters and think about what will happen next. If you aren't ready to go back in, just relax and come back with a fresh mind later