Writer's block has been a constant problem for me nearly these last four months. I do well with academic work, but with creative writing I tend to flounder about, not having much 'formal' discipline or practice. I really do enjoy Lusternia, but my character is coming upon critical points where it is important that he have some sort of background and consistent character concept. If I put it off any longer, I fear Vhaas will become of those very nebulous characters with no real personality or history to speak of.

Each time I sit down and attempt to work something out I feel strained, rushed, and that my work and imagination are generally inadequate for the gameworld and what I want to achieve. If I try to go about it casually I become distracted and my mind wanders on to other things. In these cases I devise what I think are some genuinely good ideas, though they are sometimes out of proportions, but I fail to pen- the words don't come in written format. I tried taking breaks, a couple of times. They left me fairly refreshed and somewhat inspired, but it was not enough and towards the end became apparent that if I did not start focusing on the game again I would just lose interest and disengage for a very long time (my last game hiatus was 3 years. )

I love Lusternia, and I want to continue playing, but it drains me more and more each day I find myself a walking artless, undefined drone in a labyrinth of mechanical text.

So I have created this thread in hopes to receive constructive criticism, suggestions, magick tricks/spells/rituals, and be called bad names. If you feel like contributing, or would like to share your own aesthetic plight, please do!

I come to Lusternia without much creative writing background - I MUSHed some, I played a few MUDs before Achaea, but all in all, my talent (I like to think I have some, anyways!) is all raw, nature talent, and I've certainly refined it over the years with simple use, and definitely moreso as an Administrator. I can look back at some of my initial work and see how much better I've gotten (though I am as verbose as ever).

Now, onwards, at least vaguely towards, my point.

A lot of times when I reach a block while building or writing out conversations for an event or a mobile's personality or what have you, I work on something else. I try to keep a couple of projects on my plate at all times, so that I can bounce back and forth between them. I also try not to consider the depth or size of the task(s) ahead of me. I find when I sit and go, 'Man, I need to do 40 more rooms, make these ten mobiles, give them in-depth personalities, prog this quest and this part of a quest and man I need to do another kakuro and that's going to be rough I hate those things and man I need to do a mastermind for this and then once that's done I need to go back to this mobile and add this and give him this function in the quest ebcause I forgot it and then I still need to do the anti-quest and then, well, that's half the quest at least, and oh crap, I forgot to fix this bug and that bug and do this and I don't understand why this isn't working, the script is right and...'

It gets overwhelming. I start to psyche myself out, and find my work overall suffers over it.

Sometimes I am lucky and can just step in at one point, start working, and just keep going and suddenly go, 'holy crap, I thought this past six hours of work would have taken me five days to do... Man, is it seriously 4am...? Shoot. I've got work in an hour.'

However, sometimes I am not so lucky. Sometimes I cannot get over the enormity of a task, and can't stop focusing on it - then I either work on something else or, failing that, take a small break. I'll go mposing one of my order mobs, or one of Celest's mobs, or someone's entity, or what have you. I find small things like that break the tedium and get me in the mood. Sometimes I'll look at designs, sometimes I'll read the Elder War books again (I really do love them, I've read them all a good 20 times a piece, easily).

Sometimes, though, what works for me is to break it into parts. Sometimes I'll draft everything and fill in the blanks, sometimes I'll freewrite, sometimes I'll daydream it all in my head. Sometimes I stand up in my living room playing out events in my head, aloud, doing weird voices for all of the characters. I just do whatever it takes to get the juices flowing!

For me, this is a problem and a blessing, I don't sit down and say "I'm going to write this out, and that's final." It's hard for me to do. The only two ways I can actually do things are through rage or inspiration. The second rather than the first though.

Are you trying to build up, or build down? If you build up, you have to be very defined. If you build down, you can leave vague things that slowly sharpen over time. Jigan started off more or less a clerk. No personality, a few ideas, and only a want to learn and do. Slowly, he collected things and his past kind of built up around him. It's not much of one. As far as anyone is concerned, Jigan popped out of the Portal, and there he was, oh, and his parents are Ordos and Shysheia.

What is more important is what he is now, and then you can slowly, slowly build your way downwards into his history.

Or, you could do the other thing, sit there and get really, really angry at it and then just horribly, horribly mangle paragraph after paragraph of backstory, and then when you calm down, go over it an edit it.

Whenever I get writer's block, I have a very precise ritual I follow.

I make myself some tea and I sit down at the computer. I put on headphones, or pump up the volume as high as it can go. Then I put on some relaxing, yet inspiring music. Usually Enya, Enigma, Sigur Ros, Adiemus, or Ryan Farish. I close my eyes, inhale for four, hold for four, and then exhale for ten. And then I'm able to write again.

If this doesn't help (and it might not!), try looking for inspirational pictures and music on the 'net. I know I don't have as large of a post as Eventru or Jigan, but it's only because I find my writer's block banishing ritual to be as simple as I typed it above.

Good luck, and if anything works, let us know!

My music of choice for being creative is dance/techno/house/club mixes. I find the soothing beat easy to be lost in, and it ALWAYS pumps my mood.

When I have a writer's block(yes, I write D:), I just stay up until 1 or 2 am, Ideas come to me in waves when I'm tired

I dunno, maybe it's because the drowsier I am, the more receptive I become when it comes to ideas. I find things more surreal when I'm drowsy and random thoughts just pop up in my head without warning, and then another, and another, and so on and then the ideas start to mesh with other and BAM!!, there's a new piece.

Help appreciated! Allowing oneself some time to unwind, coupled with a few techniques mentioned here (especially the staying up late one) are helping me slowly regenerate my Inspiration, which is currently at 43%. I think that what it took most of all was the realization and nurturing of these cute little aesthetic habits.


I impart my favour upon each of you. Except for Eventru; he gets a kiss.

glad we helped!

Heh, that's so true. I find that my better essays are all written when I'm so tired, I'm almost asleep. Somehow, being drowsy and fogged up allows me to make much more creative links and jumps between ideas and such.

Edit: Of course, it also means I make more typos than usual.

I've had writer's block/laziness for about two years. I have a daunting project ahead of me, because I was young and stupid, and made a bunch of rooms with no descriptions.

However, the other day, someone brought to my attention that there was no visible way out of a certain room (the clue was supposed to be hidden in the room description), and so I had to quickly pop over and write something. Also, I was unsure if nexus would still kick me out after five minutes, so I wrote quickly. I guess the pressure got to me, and it got done.

So, for some people, they can go to a coffee shop and relax (which is sounding good today!) and sometimes you need a little bit of pressure and tension to get through it. Set a deadline, or realize the urgency for you to finish because otherwise your character will appear a lifelless shell (like my rooms).

Good luck!

When I get writer's block, I always find that the hardest part is pulling the plug out of the dam. I like to listen to songs I've never heard before, (pandora is great for this,) and visualize them as the opening credits to a movie that is based on what I'm writing. If I'm writing about characters, I jot down a bunch of random questions to fill out the character's personality. Such as, "How was so and so raised? What was the turning point in his/her life? Who did they idolize growing up and why? What doesn't he/she like, and what is their reaction to this pet peeve? What is their dirtiest, darkest secret?" Think of the evil thing that they can do easily, and the other evil thing that they'll never do. Maybe your character has no problem stealing, but will have serious trouble murdering an innocent. Create inner struggles as well as outer struggles.

Give characters motivations and personality in the background so that when you're writing later you have something to refer to - like a personality survey. Little things might not seem like much - but it'll come up eventually in your RP or story. And most importantly, when you finally get the plug out of the dam... just let all the ideas come out on paper (or notepad) and piece them together later. What might seem irrelevant at first might be gold later.