Writers Block And Generating New Writing Ideas

Every writer at one time or another will struggle with writer's block. This can happen at any time and at any stage in a story sometimes before you even start it. When this happens you can distract yourself by making endless cups of tea or checking various social networks. Alternatively, you can try out one of these fabulous writing exercises. Keep all your writing exercises in one place and take them out every once in a while to see if any ideas jump out at you.

1. Sit down in your chosen writing environment and surround yourself with your equipment and then just write. I have read writing tips from a wide variety of authors and this tip occurs over and over again. Just sit and write, don't think about what you are writing just write and don't delete or cross anything out. You never know what treasures you may uncover.
2. If you are a new writer just starting out then here is an exercise to help you generate ideas. Sit down and make a list of three topics you feel you have enough knowledge of to write about them and then just start sketching ideas.
3. Get a box or folder and start collecting newspaper or magazine clippings that interest you. When you are struggling for ideas simply go to your box or folder and pick one of the articles and see if you can begin start a story based around it.
4. Not sure what style of writing you want to write in? Make a list of all the books you like and the things you like about them. Doing this should help you to determine the style of writing you prefer.
5. Pick a paragraph from one of your favorite books and try to write a paragraph of your own in the same style.
6. Pick your favorite scene from a book and write an alternative follow on scene.
7. Write a story about a character completely the opposite of you and how they would cope if they lived a day in your life. How would their reactions differ from your own?
8. Go through one of your photograph albums and pick a photo. When you have found a photo you like write a scene for a story based on this photograph.
9. If you are having a problem with one of your characters try placing them in a setting completely alien to them and then writing about their reactions. For example, if your character is an elderly lady place her in a tattoo parlor.
10. If you are struggling to write believable dialog watch a program on TV and write down some of the dialog.
11. Keep a journal of your dreams for a month and see if you can find any interesting ideas from them.
12. Rewrite a traditional nursery rhyme as a story or rewrite a fairy tale but add a twist.
13. Start with a sentence, any sentence then ask questions about it. e.g. She had never felt like this before? When you have a sentence ask some questions about it; Who was she? What did she feel like and why? What was she like? What is her job, age etc
14. If you are stuck for ideas try writing from a different perspective, rather than using examples from your own life try putting itself in someone else's shoes.
15. If you are trying to write poetry pick one of your favorite poems and write a poem in the same style. When you have written the poem compare it to the original and examine any areas for improvement and anything you like about your version can be saved for another poem.
16. Write down all the ideas you have not just the good ones. If your idea doesn't fit this particular story it could be adapted or used in another story in the future.
17. Don't give up partway through a story if you struggle initially take a break and approach it from another angle or go back to the last bit of the story you liked and try to figure out when and why it stopped working.
18. Finally, read as much as possible whenever possible. The more you read the more ideas you will have.

Of course not all of these exercises will suit everyone and you may find that some are more or less useful when trying to over come a bout of writers block, give as many of them a try as you can stomach and you are almost certain to find some inspiration some where along the way.

If you're still struggling with writers block check out these writing ideas, they are meant only as a starting point or to help generate your own ideas for writing but hopefully they will get you going. Writers block can be a difficult problem to overcome but rest assured if you just work through it, it can be overcome.