JWalker

How do you keep writing your novel when you have no inspiration? I'm really struggling with this at the moment. I have about 6 chapters written of my novel but haven't been able to continue writing the rest. Has anybody got any advice or any way of getting around this?

JW

C.M.C.

The simplest answer is to just keep on writing. If inspiration hits while you do, that's great. If it doesn't, you'll at least have something written that you can mold and shape into what you want.

Dan

The same way you keep plugging away at work or school: you just do it, because you know that you should. If inspiration hits at some point (and it probably will), great. However, for those times when your muse is on a coffee break, you have to keep moving.

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OtherWorlds

When I run dry on inspiration, I usually set aside my work and pick up another book. Maybe it's something a friend wrote or just a novel by my favorite author. It's been said before: great writers are great readers. I believe in that. I find reading other peoples brilliant work inspires me with such envy it always lights a fire under me to get back to my own novel and make it the best it can be.

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JWalker

Yeah I've tried to keep writing and read other books. I just can't see the ending of my novel, maybe that's my problem?

JW

Sam Winchester

With two of my novels, I didn't see the ending in my head until I was almost writing it. Sometimes it happens this way. Just go with it. Novels aren't an exact science.

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JWalker

Yeah I guess. I'll just have to keep writing and hope that I find an ending.

JW

blackthorn

Yeah just start writing crap down on paper. Don't really put any thought into it, just do it. Eventually you should find a literary diamond in the creative rough!

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JWalker

Yeah thanx blackthorn!!!

JW

SilkFX

For me, part of the thrill of writing is NOT having every chapter, scene, paragraph, etc., plotted out. This is why writing to an outline has never worked for me.

Can you "let go" and just see where the pen (keyboard) leads you? Try it...

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you die without knowing
whether anything you wrote was any good
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SparkyLT

Hm...I can't write without inspriation...nothing good comes out. It feels too forced. I can write through writer's block, but it's terrible when I do. On the other hand, that can sometimes break it and later I can edit the bad part.

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lisajane

I stop writing and start writing on something else, while thinking about where the first story could go. This tends to help me, but if you're writing to a deadline, might just be best to fight your way through it and keep writing.

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JWalker

Thanx for all the advice everybody, I've tried what most people have said sometimes it helps sometimes it doesn't but I'll keep writing away.

JW

Taxiday

I'm almost at that stage on my collection of short stories. I have no real idea where I'm going.
But ... in writing my stuff, I gathered a lot of reference material and am now going through it to see if anything can give me an idea of where to go next.

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S-wo

The problem I had when I seemed tired of writing was that it was much easier to do so after I watched a great inspiring movie that I haven't seen in a while or for the first time.

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