Barricades and Blockages

[Gavin Luper]

Well, I'd like to state I've finally gotten over a block of my own. My Webcomic Magick has been worked on steadily for the last few days and hopefully I can get Chapter 2 done and uploaded before Mid July. Which will be awesome for my devoted fans... all 12 of them.

I'm thinking 12 fans is pretty decent, isn't it? Considering our fics here only have a handful of readers typically. So a Webcomic with a dozen after chapter 1 sounds like you're doing well!

[mattbcl]

My latest isn't truly a writer's block, really - actually I'm getting a lot more done these past few days, a couple pages every day. My problem is brevity. There's a lot I want to say in the story, a lot that needs to be said in order to set up a big climax, but now I fear I'm saying too much! My girlfriend tells me it's not a big deal, that the story will write itself the way it needs to be written and that I should be happy it's flowing out more easily now... but I really don't want to bore my audience (of what, two or three?) into a stupor.

[Gavin Luper]

My latest isn't truly a writer's block, really - actually I'm getting a lot more done these past few days, a couple pages every day. My problem is brevity. There's a lot I want to say in the story, a lot that needs to be said in order to set up a big climax, but now I fear I'm saying too much! My girlfriend tells me it's not a big deal, that the story will write itself the way it needs to be written and that I should be happy it's flowing out more easily now... but I really don't want to bore my audience (of what, two or three?) into a stupor.

I do this all the time, and I agree with your girlfriend - you should flow with it. Wait until it's written itself out, then go back and edit it then, and it's at that stage you should be thinking about how engaging and entertaining it will be for a reader - but not when you actually write it.

If you read it back and decide it's boring, you might decide to just summarise what happened in that scene by having a character recall it in a paragraph or two rather than several pages that might not add much to the story itself. I do this in LtL quite often - deciding to condense dull but relevant things down into paragraphs rather than writing the scene in the first place. But sometimes I write the scene and, I, at least, find it to be illuminating of the characters in some way, and end up keeping it in despite my initial concerns about how interesting it might be.

And within reason, I think there's a natural ebb and flow to that. I don't think any reader wants to be bored, but if your story is all ACTION - ACTION - ACTION, it loses rhythm and people get tired. So the lulls need to be there, and maybe they don't have to be overly interesting, just engaging in some way that makes the reader appreciate them.

Hope to have helped bro.

[classy_cat18]

You can stop the action without losing readers' interest anyway. Exposition, character development, interaction, flashbacks, etc.

...Yeah, I tried giving meaningful advice that Gavin hadn't given already. Don't think that worked too well. Just listen to the ones that manage to post something.

[Mew Master]

Music. Music will be your guide.

Normally for me it's some anime songs and instrumental. GOOD instrumental can just bring images to your mind. At least for me it works.

Like this!

[Crystal Tears]

And within reason, I think there's a natural ebb and flow to that. I don't think any reader wants to be bored, but if your story is all ACTION - ACTION - ACTION, it loses rhythm and people get tired. So the lulls need to be there, and maybe they don't have to be overly interesting, just engaging in some way that makes the reader appreciate them.

My sister was watching something on her laptop that stated something similar to this. It was about plots and stories; specifically how they grow in a certain way to either do exceptionally well, or stagnate.

The basic premise was this: the action in your movie/story/game/whathaveyou, should be used to draw your audiences attention, then at some appropriate point; it should plateau, and that's where everything seems to calm down. Facts are given, new characters introduced, and then it begins again. The inclination of action, rising, before another plateau. The graph of sorts keeps doing this, raising the audiences anticipation for the final culmination, whatever that may be. As you said; you can't have action all the time, or the lulling, simply put: it has to be both.

Apparently this graph (simply put: a glorified line graph); is apparently the key. The video she was watching used Star Wars as it's example, the beginning has a opening of action; Leia's ship is being chased/attacked by the one Darth Vader's aboard, before it calms and shows Tatooine and Luke, meeting Obi-Wan; the droids, etc. Of course, the action starts again, raising the bar when Luke's Aunt and Uncle are torched.

This is the key to having a great story, obviously its not the only thing; but it's a part of it. o:


As for me, I'm not suffering from a block at the moment. Here's opening that it stays that way.

And yes, Denny is right, music helps a lot too. :3