[danney44]

I love writing. Like it's a huge part of my life.
I'm in 9th grade and in adv. English and I have absolutely no trouble at all with writing anything for that class.
My problem is that I can't get my words onto paper for my own writing.
Its hard to explain but ill think of like these amazing sentences and stories in my head but as soon as I go and start to type or write I can't get anything down even if its like 2 seconds later.
Any suggestions on what I can do?

[jillianleab]

Just keep writing. You don't have to write anything that makes sense, just get your fingers moving on the keyboard. If you have a regular desktop computer, open Word (or whatever program you type in) and turn your screen OFF. Then type. Don't worry about what you say or how you say it, just type. If you can't think of anything to say, say "I can't think of anything to say" or "Gee, I like cookies" or "Boy, this is a pain in the butt" or "I have writer's block". The point is, it doesn't matter WHAT you type, as long as you KEEP TYPING. By having the monitor off, you can't edit yourself; you can't worry about spacing, or spelling or any mistakes you might have made. Do this for a while, and eventually something will come to you. If you are having a bad case of writers block, it might take days, but getting your fingers moving (even if it's just typing "I can't think of anything to type") will help. If you use a laptop push the screen all the way down so you can't see it, or tape a piece of paper over it - anything to block your field of vision.

Good luck!

PS: This advice was given to me by a published novelist - and I've used it myself. It works!

[Zayne S Halsall]

Since you don't appear to have a problem writing for your advanced English class, and I'm assuming you do write stories and conjure amazing sentences for those projects as well, I would suggest the following:

Set yourself a personal project, be it an essay or a short story, with specific objectives along the lines of something you would enjoy writing about, or have had ideas about in the past. Make sure you give yourselves deadlines, or a time pressure, so that you evoke the same mental reflexes that your class does.

Get into the habit of taking notes of your ideas, as soon as you have them - you can always flesh them out later, and trying to put everything into context immediately can often cause a mental block. The same can be done with your sentences - have a scratch pad where you store them; then, when you find a use for them in one of your stories...

Hope this helps!

[danney44]

Excellent Idea! :]

[vingogly]

Here's things I've learned when struggling with my own case of writer's block. You'll have to find what works for you.

As Zayne says, it's all about discipline. Set aside a time each day when you sit in front of the keyboard and write. Jillian's advice is excellent: write about not being able to write, if needed, or just write whatever's flowing through your head.

And don't write a paragraph, then spend three days revising it over & over again. Get the whole piece out before you start revising. Otherwise, you can get caught in revision hell and never finish.

I also find that talking about a creative idea too much kills it. Try to avoid talking to friends about your ideas for stories; write them first, then share the finished product. Put the finished product aside for six months before you look at it again, then be a vicious critic for your own work and revise, revise, revise.

Vasily

[kiki_doki]

My brother writes poetry and he thinks faster then he can type/write, I bought him a dictaphone which he finds very useful. You can get digital ones which are very cool!!
So get a dictaphone!

[Wondergirl]

I too am a writer and have found tricks to get me past writer's block. I ask a writer friend to give me a first sentence, and then I spend time creating a story out of it. Some of the sentences he gives me don't do anything for me, so I dump that one and ask for another. I've come up with some very cool stories when doing it this way.

Also, don't think you have to write a story A to B to C to D etc. Write the middle, then go to the end, and then come back to the beginning, and then add more to the middle section--not to be schizophrenic about it, but don't limit yourself. Some of my best ideas have come while lying in bed at night or when waking up at for a.m. to turn off my electric blanket. I have paper and pen next to my bed and record these ideas, some of which, of course, are impossible to read in the light of day or are extremely weird, but some have panned out to help move my stories along.

And don't obsess over the story and worry about where it's going. My characters write the story. Let yours do that too. It's much easier that way.

[life1973happened]

Good evening...
I think every single answer you have been given thus far have been great. I like you, and so many others on here, love to write. However, that does not mean things always come to us. My writing is for personal reasons. I began writing in my first journal when I was around 8 years old. I found I could open my heart to a blank sheet of paper and not worry that it would be criticized by others.

As I got older I kept with journal writing. Now I find myself writing a lot of cards, both for work and personal situations. But my dear friend what I found is that the toughest writing for me to do is that when you are broken, angry, hurt, lost or confused. It's at those times when your head spins with all the emotions the human body can have at one time. Have you ever noticed that? The obvious problem with that is when writing is your escape, you find yourself stuck, in a not so good way.

So though my advice is much different than the others, maybe it will work for you, as it has for me over the years. Many years back my ex husband bought me a small digital recorder. It's a small tiny device that is probably outdated now but still works perfectly for me. When I am at a loss and I find myself staring at my computer, a letter or simply my journal, I pull out that recorder and I start to talk.

It's a great device and when you begin to talk into it, it's like talking to a close friend in which you don't worry about the using the 'right' words, correct grammar or even complete sentences, you just talk. You will be surprised when you start talking what your heart and head start to pour out.

When you have finished you can later listen to your own words and fine tune them. It's a great tool and a small little gadget that you will find over the years is just the release, the doctor, the Kleenex, the friend or the parent you need at just the perfect moment.