Ficly

The Block

The Block. It’s so hideous, I hesitate to even mention it for fear of causing a collective jinx. Whatever I do, it’ll be there one way or the other. Goodness knows I’ve had my fair share lately. For instance, Ernest Hemingway reportedly answered that the most frightening thing he’d ever encountered was, “A blank sheet of paper.”

In brief…
Why
“The easiest thing to do on earth is not write.”
(William Goldman)
and
“People have writer’s block not because they can’t write, but because they despair of writing eloquently.”
(Anna Quindlen)
So
“Planning to write is not writing. Outlining—researching—talking to people about what you’re doing, none of that is writing. Writing is writing.”
(E. L. Doctorow)
And
“Read a lot. Write a lot. Have fun.”
(Daniel Pinkwater)

So, welcome to ficly, the perfect cure for writer’s block! Read a lot and be inspired. Jump on a challenge to get something done. Hit that ‘Random Story’ button, and see where it takes you.

Fight the block! Write, write, write!

18 comments Posted 2009-10-14 Author: THX 0477

Comments

  • Sam Ervin

    I like hitting the “Random Story” button, myself; it’s perhaps the most useful button on Ficly. If there was only a way to enter past stories into challenges, I’d love to have a “Random Story” challenge.

    By the way, just out of curiosity: who runs the Ficly Twitter page?

  • StudMuffin (LoA)

    Lord knows I’ve been having writers block. I wasn’t even on this site for a week until today.
    It’s good to be back

  • StudMuffin (LoA)

    you should make the random story button more…. easy to see.
    I didn’t know about it until like a week of using the site.

  • g²LaPianistaIrlandesa

    I think I’ve been going through a combination writer’s block/lack of time issue. But such is life for somebody taking 4 AP courses.

    I especially like the experimental nature of ficly, but I think some people are “afraid” of writing something iffy and having it get knocked down, and others are afraid to knock something down. We can all work on both of those, we just have to work on being less self-concious about our less-than-perfect works, and being more constructive in criticism. There are ways of telling people that something is very, very rough without feeling like the “critic” is crushing the writer’s soul in the process. They’re things we can all improve upon, we just have to help each other do so.

  • StudMuffin (LoA)

    Amen!

  • Kevin Lawver

    Sam, the Ficly twitter account is Jason and me. We both randomly post stuff whenever we feel the urge.

  • Eloquent Mess {(LoA)}

    I’ve been hitting a giant wall as of late. Plenty of ideas, just no pen to paper! I want to organise my novel in a specific way, and I’ve got plenty of thoughts, but I don’t feel I have the creativity yet to do a decent job of it.

    Soon, though… Soon. The planning is underway, and I’ve got good ideas…

  • Eloquent Mess {(LoA)}

    I didn’t even know there was a “random story” link until you mentioned it just now, and I searched. The bottom of the page isn’t the best place for it…

  • Eloquent Mess {(LoA)}

    HAHAHA I hit the “random story” button and it brought me here:

    http://ficly.com/stories/8629

    Which happens to be the end of the history of the universe that I’m writing the first novel in… The very novel I’m having writer’s block with.

    Oh, the irony.

    Maybe it’s trying to tell me something?

  • Fyora Cartagan

    I actually bought a book called The Writer’s Block.
    And my writer’s block seems to be worse than ever (if that’s possible) since I got it. Talk about jinx! I thought it would help, but…not so much.

  • wytherwings

    I go through periods of like a whole month where I’ll not be able to write anything. It’s kind of what I’m going through now. The only time I can write is during creative writing class, when the teacher is giving us a prompt, and even then I can’t always get something out.

  • Kevin Lawver

    We’re working on moving the Random Story link – we just need to find a good place for it. Patience, grasshoppers.

  • Anonymuncule

    You know, this little post inspired me to stop getting bogged down in outlines and historical research for my Civil War zombie story. Thanks :)

  • stargazer1960

    Oh, I want to write! The first grading period is ending soon—always traumatic— and my principal announced that they are moving my science lab to the art room and the art room to my science lab.
    I want to write a new ending.

  • blusparrow (LoA)

    i kinda have it in spurts… where all the sudden it will come to me… or it might not at all… ficly really helps though

  • Rachel Addison Miller

    Whoa, EM…that is just odd and NOT a coincidence, I think! ;-) But that’s me, the superstitious…jk

  • OrangeOreos (LoA)

    It’s been too long since I’ve been on here…. And talk about the perfect blog post to come back to.

  • Robotech_Master

    This is one of my favorite stories about how to break creative block:

    ‘In 1915, after the debacle in the Dardanelles, and with an ugly war transpiring across the English Channel, Winston Churchill was let go from the British Admiralty. Anxious to relax his mind and emotions, he purchased a box of oil paints. In his garden at Hoe Farm, Godalming, Surrey, he faced for the first time a white canvas and laid a spot of blue sky “the size of a bean” somewhere on the upper half. “My hand,” he said, “seemed arrested by a silent veto.” While contemplating his commitment, he heard a car in the driveway. It was Lady Lavery, the wife of the painter Sir John Lavery. A well-known artist herself, she grabbed the largest of Winston’s new brushes and slathered on the blue sky in a trice. This event prompted Winston to conclude that the most important thing for an artist to have was “audacity.”’

    —from http://www.painterskeys.com/clickbacks/churchill.asp