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Writer's Block: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}{{Mechanics of Writing}}
[[File:s Block 122.png|frame|link=Calvin and Hobbes]]
{{quote|''"He had writer's block once. It was the worst ten minutes of his life."''
|'''[[Harlan Ellison]]''' referring to [[Isaac Asimov]], a very prolific writer.}}
Someone struggles with putting pen to paper and can't get their thoughts out. Regardless of whether it's something as simple as a school report or as complex as a full-length novel, they just can't bring themselves to write what they want.
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This tends to involve one of two things: either someone tackling a temporary writing assignment, or [[Most Writers Are Writers|someone who writes for a living]]. Often, to get past it, the person in question has to overcome some kind of mental block in order to continue writing. A [[World of Cardboard Speech]] may happen as the character breaks their restraints and moves forward.
In these cases, it rarely crops up more than once in a work. In the former, this is because the task of writing is never mentioned
Occasionally, the whole thing will be [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]], sometimes with some sort of [[Visual Pun]].
May result in a [[Last-Minute Project]], and can lead to [[An Aesop]]. [[Writer's Block Montage]] is a subtrope. See [[Fictional Document]] and [[Most Writers Are Writers]
For a work [[Meta Concepts|written about the writer's own writer's block]], see [["How I Wrote This Article" Article]].
This is very much [[Truth in Television]] (except for the part about a writer never running into the same obstacle again - recurring writer's block is a thing). Writing is not always easy; just ask any [[Real Life]] author.
{{examples}}
▲== [[Anime]] & [[Manga]] ==
* Happens to Nakuru in episode 13 of [[Mayo Chiki]]. After a boy confesses his love to her, she gets very confused by it as she feels she's not the type to attract boys, since she's a [[Meganekko]] and obsessed [[Doujinshi]] writer/artist of [[Boys Love|BL manga]]. She then asks [[Mistaken for Gay|Jiro]] out on a date to see if it's simply because of her [[Buxom Is Better|boobs]], and after he helps her by barely resisting her advances, she seems to snap out of her block. But then she also has a [[Love Epiphany]] when she [[Bishie Sparkle|looks at him afterwards]] as well, and hilariously runs away.
* One example comes from ''[[Asu no Yoichi]]''. When Chihaya is stuck on new ideas for her manga, she lets Yoichi read one of them, and he tells her that it's very interesting. She then gets excited, and in order to get some new ideas, decides to [[The Tease|flirt]] with him a little bit. Although [[Chaste Hero|he lets her down gently]], she laughs and says she was just joking about it, then [[Clingy Jealous Girl|her sister Ibuki]] walks in, and Chihaya jokingly lies and says that Yoichi was trying to strip her. [[Hilarity Ensues]] as Yoichi gets chased by Ibuki.
** After seeing some of Chihaya's classmates mock her hard work and trash her illustrations, then talk about not wanting to do anything with their lives, Yoichi beats them up for their lack of motivation, as well as their attempts to put down others who are trying to do something with their lives. His actions inspire some more ideas for her manga as a result.
== [[Comic Books]] ==
* In Issue 5 of ''[['Mazing Man]]'', Denton gets writer's block, and the main story is all his friends coming over and telling him stories to put in the comic. This issue came out without the [[Comics Code]] stamp of approval because one of the stories told to Denton concerns zombies, which was a no-no.
* The ''[[Sandman]]'' volume "Dream Country" includes the story "Calliope", about a writer whose first book was a critical smash, but who has writer's block so badly that he can't even start on the follow-up book. He is given the Muse Calliope, and by keeping her captive and raping her repeatedly, he is inspired to great writing. Calliope is released after some time, and when the writer complains that he won't have any ideas without her presence, Morpheus grants him an unending stream of ideas—there are so many and they come so fast that he goes mad trying to even write them down.
== [[Film]] ==
* The short film ''Franz Kafka's It's a Wonderful Life'' is about Franz Kafka suffering this while he is about to write ''[[The Metamorphosis]]''.
* In ''[[Her Alibi]]'', Blackwood is suffering from a long dry spell in his writing. To resolve it, he goes to the local courthouse to watch the criminal trials and mine ideas, and it's there he meets the enigmatic Nina, who stands accused of murder, and decides to give her an alibi so he can use her presence to fuel the premise of his book.
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* Mort Rainey in ''[[Secret Window]]'' suffers from this at the film's opening.
== [[Literature]] ==
* In ''[[The City of Dreaming Books]]'', the [[Take Our Word for It|most perfect piece of writing]] is a short story about the author dealing with writer's block.
* A crippling case strikes one of the supporting characters in David Lodge's novel ''[[Small World]]''.
==
* In series 1 of ''[[Spaced]]'' Daisy has aspirations of being a writer, but struggles with writers block / lack of motivation and comes up with distractions for herself. This is highlighted in the last episode of season 1, where during an argument, Tim references several of the plots of previous episodes (to the backdrop of Tekken 2):▼
{{quote|'''Daisy:''' I am not avoiding work!▼
'''Tim:''' Oh right OK, oh well, ooh let's have a party, ooh let's do some theater, ooh let's get a dog, ooh let's spend hours in front of our bedroom mirror BOGLING TO ASWAD!▼
'''Daisy:''' That was research! }}▼
== [[Newspaper Comics]] ==
* ''[[Calvin and Hobbes]]'' [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshades]] this by having [[Literal-Minded|Calvin]] make a ''physical'' writer's block...one that prevents anyone from using his desk.
== [[Theatre]] ==
* Happens with Rodolfo in the first act of ''[[La Boheme]]'' just before Mimì first knocks on his door. Rodolfo and Marcello are both afflicted by this in the fourth act (which uses the same music).
* Jeffrey Moss in ''[[Bells Are Ringing]]'' almost kills himself struggling to write a play on his own and not getting anywhere.
==
▲* In series 1 of ''[[Spaced]]'' Daisy has aspirations of being a writer, but struggles with writers block / lack of motivation and comes up with distractions for herself. This is highlighted in the last episode of season 1, where during an argument, Tim references several of the plots of previous episodes (to the backdrop of Tekken 2):
▲{{quote|'''Daisy:''' I am not avoiding work!
▲'''Tim:''' Oh right OK, oh well, ooh let's have a party, ooh let's do some theater, ooh let's get a dog, ooh let's spend hours in front of our bedroom mirror BOGLING TO ASWAD!
▲'''Daisy:''' That was research! }}
* Like ''[[Calvin and Hobbes]]'' above, ''[[El Goonish Shive]]'' has a physical big square writer's block show up in some of the non-canon strips. In this case, it's Shive [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshading]] his own writer's block. And once in-story ([http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2006-06-07 sort of]). He even made two [http://www.egscomics.com/backgrounds.page?&start=36 backgrounds] with it.
* In ''[[Dominic Deegan]]'', a variation occurs as one of Gregory's friends suffers from this while trying to write lyrics for a song.
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[[Category:Narrative Devices]]
[[Category:Creator Standpoint Index]]
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