As much as we love being able to just write a bunch of chapters and put them out without running into a dead end or dry spot, there’s often a point where almost all writers either run out of content, run out of ideas, or run out of the ability to actually put the ideas into text. Sometimes waiting can work, but sometimes you might go a week, a month, or even a year without posting a new chapter to a story. But occasionally it is needed to force something out in order to show some degree of progress. So how likely/often are you to “force” yourself to write and post chapters that you may or may not be proud of just so you can push forward? If you don’t force them out, what do you do to put yourself in the mindset to actually write comfortably or battle writer’s block?
Honestly with my ADD and tendency to procrastinate, I often have to get into the right zone in order to get into writing, so… more often than not I’ll force myself to sit down and write, usually on my phone. There are a few stories though that have gone a pretty long time without posting new chapters. I really need to update those at some point…
Sometimes you need to rip something off to get an idea going. For example Anime Club Harem rips off Fate/Stay Night and Doki Doki Literature Club, Fantasy Adventure rips off the legend of King Arthur and Superhero Academia rips off My Hero Academia (it was originally going to be an outright My Hero Academia fanfic).
I can relate. There's a certain period of time that lasts for days or weeks for my brain to think of something. Previously people have told me that, a good way to get rid of writer's block is to simply type something, but if I do that, it's usually a blank screen that's staring right at me in the face, and when I do type, I get angry in just a matter of minutes for one reason or another - sometimes it's because the idea is stupid, or the words aren't complimenting one another, or the stupid sex scene feels like an essay/hurricane of verbs, nouns, and adjectives that could mean anything, but largely means fuck all in the grand scheme of things. It doesn't work for me honestly, so better to weather the storm than to chase a hurricane, at least for me.
Mixed bag of procrastination, lack of time, lack of inspiration, or "where do I go from here?" for me. But in terms of forcing a chapter, I am quite dumb in setting up a personal deadline of getting a "scene" up once a week. Yes, most of the time, they suck. But then, I'm no longer stuck there. I have a new set of problems to deal with, that I could make less sucky. Also Upload Day is also my ideas day. It's the Seinfeld writing method of "Don't break the Chain". Even if you have nothing going on in your head, put ANYTHING down. A title. A one word line. A set-up. A punch-line. As long as your brain has something to bounce off tomorrow, you might get SOMETHING.
Toward the end of my last burst of writing, I did a lot of 'forcing' chapters because I wanted to add to stuff for readers and it burned me out something fierce. Sadly it's left me in a position where I dread picking anything back up because it left such a bad taste in my mouth. The feeling sucks. I'd strongly suggest people not make that mistake. Sit back for a bit and wait until the muse strikes you again. It's healthier mentally I suspect for writing to be organic than to try and force your way through a block. Of course, other people may work better in ways that don't work for me
I've heard of this... More seriously, I did a spot of freelance writing in college and learned that when you're pressed to it by deadline, waiting for the muse of erotic prose to strike you just isn't an option. You just have to be able to make a decision and start writing, even if it's a bad idea that you later go back and edit or rewrite, at least you can produce something. For me, not all of my writing may be as inspired or polished as I'd like...but setting myself a regular daily deadline for content, I can usually produce fair prose at a steady clip. That doesn't necessarily work for everyone else, but for myself, I like to be able to keep adding chapters on a regular basis with an eye toward (eventually) completing the story.
I rarely force chapters out because I tend to follow them according to interest. Once in a while a particular arc seizes my interest, or encouraging readers are looking for something. These might be cases where I'd push harder. Or when a partly complete chapter sits for a bit, and I decide, OK, let me Get This Out There. Since I rarely work from a long story arc / plot destination, I feel less pressure to get "there", wherever "there" is.
I honestly wish I forced more stuff into my stories in the past. If I did, I would have more stuff to show for my work. Now, I have no time to write, and all of my stories are at a standstill. Now, do I like forcing stuff out? Well, no, but it sure does make me feel that my story is still being continued. Usually, I edit forced-out chapters and make them look and sound a little better. I actually have a lot of writer's block right now, mostly because my free time has been cut down to about 30 minutes a day and I have no time to just think. Normally, I just wait until I have free time and then just make the best use of the time I have. Yet, until then, every one of my stories is at a halt.
I try to keep a list of the threads / stories I've been working on up to date on my Homepage so if I get stuck and I'm forcing too hard on one thread, I can hopefully get inspiration to go onto another and come back to the blocked one at a later date.
Having a "homepage" of links and notes in a Chyoa story chapter is a nice way to remind yourself and other folks of which threads are likely to be warm. I might lift your Homepage idea; if so, I would probably stick it in my profile there and signature here.
