Not
all that long ago I sat down at the computer screen and lamented to a good
friend of mine, who is a fantastically prolific writer, that I could never
imagine writing another word after my first fan fiction story was completed.
As hard as I might I could not think of any other way of developing another
story out of thin air again: I had one idea and that was it; thank you and
goodnight. But she laughed and told me not to be silly, of course it would
happen, and she was, as ever, right. But the road to getting past the hell
that is writers block can be a tough one, and many good published authors
get the same problem. I have composed a few tips to help those poor souls
who, like me, can stare at the blank page all day long and nothing happens
but frustration and ridicule. You are not alone, and this is for you.
If the page is blank and you haven’t started.
Then it may feel like an uphill struggle but don’t worry. There are various
ways of gaining inspiration and these are a few I’d recommend;
Read the books again - Yes, I know, why would we be on here if we
hadn’t read them in the first place? But re-reading the Harry Potter books
may just inspire you enough to grab that keyboard or put pen to paper. I
often find as I go over old passages that I find out facets of a characters
personality that maybe I missed before, or things that someone said that
could now be taken in a different context. Give it a go: it may be worth it.
Read and review other works on site - Now I’m not suggesting
plagiarising others work to get ideas, but a little reading and reviewing of
others works is a great way to get back into the rhythm of writing and
seeing what other ideas are out there. You may completely disagree with
someone’s point of view about Ron and Hermione and decide to write your own
story about them, or see Draco portrayed as someone you don’t recognise from
the books and decide to write about him. Either way you gain because you can
find inspiration and authors gain if you’re generous enough to leave a
review. The fan fiction world is happy both ways.
Venture onto the forum - Honestly not as scary as it sounds sometimes
and you don’t have to post to gain some much-needed motivation. Have a good
read of other authors POV and you’ll find there is a wide range of people
out there with differing views on Harry and the Wizarding World and
different ages too. On site at the moment there is also a Challenge section
on forum, which gives an author a rough framework to write a story about,
and so the hard work is pretty much done for you. Having recently done one
myself I can thoroughly recommend it, and the great thing about that is it
can get you back into writing (or start you off if you‘re new to all this
fan fiction business), which is often half the battle in the first place.
That and you have an audience of ready made reviewers awaiting your story.
What more could you ask for?
Take one word you want to use - Preferably a character or place, and
put it in the middle of the page, writing around it what you associate with
that person or place. Draw off shoots from those things and play around with
it. Add feelings, past events, lifestyle, quotes, physical appearance,
research notes and anything else you can think of and pretty soon you’ll
find a whole page full of notes for you to work on when you get started.
Planning for me on computer or paper is a must, unless you have a fantastic
memory or can wing it and churn out chapters at an alarming rate, in which
case I bow to your amazing ability!
If you’ve started and the wheels of inspiration have ground to a halt.
A truly horrible situation to be in, especially if you have regular
reviewers, but not unheard of by any means, and not impossible to overcome.
Depending on how you write, feel free to use any of these ideas:
Go back to your characters and get to know them again - If they are
straight out of the books then the research and re-reading the books comes
in to play here, but if you’ve created an OC and they are creating havoc
then go back and look at the original plans you created. If you’re now
yelling at me, ’But what plans, BJ?’ then I say ‘Make some!’ Everything from
hair colour to shoe size if necessary, but just know your OC inside out and
back to front. How would they react if Snape yelled at them in Potions?
Whose side are they on? What wand do they have? What is their weakness? Who
are their friends? What secrets do they have? Know them like you’d know a
trusted friend and they may just treat you like one too. You get the idea?
A problem shared …Talk about it with other authors. You may just find
it has happened to them and if you can possibly talk to others they can
throw ideas around which maybe you hadn’t thought about. Forum, again, is
perfect for this, and you don’t have to post but just read the discussions
going on. Fan fiction writing doesn’t have to be lonely on HPFF and most
writers are, by nature, incredibly helpful when it comes to things such as
this. And if you can return the favour then all the better. It isn’t just
you.
Set yourself a deadline - Now don’t yell! I know you can’t even think
about it and I’m telling you your 2500k chapter has to be in by next
Wednesday, but if you are that sort of writer that is used to pressure of
time from school, work, college or Uni then this may help. But be realistic
- a pressured chapter that is rushed will notice but a deadline can help
sometimes. This then leads to my next bit of advice, which is…
And now for something completely different - No, not comedy scripts,
but just write anything that comes into your head. Part of the battle is not
what you want to write but getting back into the discipline itself so just
run with it. Write a humour fic about Dumbledore, do a songfic while
listening to music, write a one shot about Remus Lupin (but do me a favour
and give him a happy ending - you know you want to!) you can change genre
completely, but above all write!
And finally …
Don’t panic !!! Relax. Easier said than done sometimes but if
nothing at all is happening then walk away for a while... literally! Go for
that walk in the sunshine you’ve been on about (my personal recommendation)
listen to some music, play computer games, (hey, the Harry ones have some
great characters in them that aren’t all in the books that could give you
ideas!) go shopping, have a long soak in the bath, or do some cleaning…yeah
ok the last one may be a bit drastic, but anything to clear away the
cobwebs, loosen those cogs and get the old brain machine whirling away
again.
And once it all begins to flow and form again, you‘ll be well on the way
to a novel length. Watch out JK!
