I think I don't have any more stories in me.

[doravg]

I have written 20 books. Today, I dropped my latest project, and tried to start two new ones, but couldn't. I don't know what to do. Usually, I just sit down, and trek my way through a novel in under 15 days. Today, I just don't feel the joy. I have been in writer's blocks before, but this time, I have even less will to force myself to write. Any advice on how to find the spark again? I wrote only 1,4k words between the two projects today. I really don't want to cancel my 4thewords membership, seeing as I prepaid it for an entire year. Does that site even give refunds?

 

[Story_Marc]

Why did you start to write in the first place? Why do you write?

 

[Moonbw]

I am not sure if this can be of any help, and this might not even be your situation, but planning the story ahead might be of help. Personally, when I am writing, only on the beginning I am fueled by pure excitement of writing. When I get to the point I more or less imagined and don't know how to go from there, that's when it dies. So currently I try to extensively plan my stories, and I noticed that it works much better than going blind. Don't know if it is your situation, but hope it might help.

 

[Fox-Trot-9]

Are you kidding? After writing 20 books almost non-stop for however long you've been posting, of course you're running out of steam. What you're experiencing right now is something every writer goes through. We all call it the 'slump,' in which you lose motivation to write. It's just part of the process of being a writer, and since you've been so prolific, I'm surprised you still have to will to want to keep writing.

You need a break. You need to read and watch stuff that interests you. You need to slow down and let your mind wander for a bit. If you still wanna do something still connected to writing, write down story ideas if you have to and collect them in a notebook.

But please take a break. Life is a well of ideas. Live it, read it, watch it, and it will give you more inspiration to write.

 

[doravg]

Why did you start to write in the first place? Why do you write?

I had this really good idea for a story, that I want to write. Now, I am all out of ideas. I write because I am bored. That is exactly one year ago.

 

[SuperHeiyan]

First, take some rest.
Second, judging by the titles in your signature, you seems to be one of the authors who see inspiration in the undeveloped ideas of others. So go read some mediacore books and watch anime or whatever made you acquire ideas for most of your books after the first 3. First books rarely indicative of your source of inspiration as an author after all.

And damn, 1.4k words a day is still like half of what I normally do in a week. I mean, my actual work involves in writing text too, and most of it rather boring instructions and IT product analysis, so I kinda exhausted when I write for fun, but it is still not a small number.

 

[BlackKnightX]

Expose yourself to different things—both in the real world and in the world of your imagination. Go out, travel, talk to new people, enjoy life. Or stay home and watch/read/play something new, something you find interesting.

Oh, and this might help as well. You see, the ideas don’t stop coming. Everyday, you are bombarded with lots of new ideas, but usually you just kind of brush them off as mere thoughts. Instead, I suggest you look out for them.

Try jotting down ideas. (Maybe you’re doing this already seeing as you’ve already written so many stories.) You don’t have to use any of them. Just jot down when they come to you. Watch a movie and see something interesting? Write that down in a notepad and go on with the movie. Play game and suddenly get an inspiration? Jot that down. And so on.

Once you start doing this, after a while, you will notice you have become more susceptible to new ideas. You will become an idea machine. When you have a few ideas accumulated, just start mixing and matching them up, playing around, and making a story out of them.

Good luck to you, friend~

 

[K5Rakitan]

Fall in love. That's good for inspiration. Just don't have kids. You'll be so busy reading to them while they suck your nipples that you won't have time to write.

 

[RavenRunes]

yeah, you need a rest! You're a machine with the writing. Take some time out - if nothing else it will give me time to catch up with the ones you have on here, you write faster than i can read!

 

[Redemit]

Go capture a fly release it in your bedroom Lay down on your bed and proceed to stare at the ceiling for the next few hours as the fly buzzes around and if you have a ceiling fan turn it on the lowest speed and follow the blades with your eyes till you get dizzy you should be bored in minutes but don't stop keep staring until the boredom connects you to the universe travel to the 43ed and a half plane of existence go 3 doors down from the shop that sells pie and shoe strings to the dive bar that only serves chocolate milk and ask the mushroom bartender for the 7th Bob if anyone can help you get out of your funk its him

PS if you have like 3 left socks make sure to buy the special pie from the pie and shoe strings shop you won't regret it

 

[SailusGebel]

Steal ideas from other authors and their stories.

 

[bigbear51]

I don't know why people on the internet take the idea of a vacation like it's some foreign concept. I don't know much about how much this costs, but I doubt skipping out on a week or 2 would really be the end of the world. I mean, I literally traveled for a weekend a couple weeks ago and ended up feeling refreshed and even got some inspiration again.

 

[CarburetorThompson]

Well you have me beat, I got to 1 and 1/8th before throwing in the towel

 

[VeganMaster]

Another random author here(From WN) Have been doing this for over two years, and during this time there were many occasions where I basically had no motivation to go forward

Gaining inspiration was also a big issue. But I find that music tends to give me a lot of ideas. Going outside(anywhere really) with my laptop also works.

If you need it, take a few weeks or even months off. I did that while in the middle of writing a story once :)) No one will hold it against you.

I mean, you can see the comments here kinda reflect that too

 

[Aaqil]

I have written 20 books. Today, I dropped my latest project, and tried to start two new ones, but couldn't. I don't know what to do. Usually, I just sit down, and trek my way through a novel in under 15 days. Today, I just don't feel the joy. I have been in writer's blocks before, but this time, I have even less will to force myself to write. Any advice on how to find the spark again? I wrote only 1,4k words between the two projects today. I really don't want to cancel my 4thewords membership, seeing as I prepaid it for an entire year. Does that site even give refunds?

 

[Jailbreak571]

...
Take a break then accumulate ideas from your surroundings. Make sure to bring a notebook and a pencil wherever you go.

 

[InceTagn]

I had hard time writing because, I gained inspiration from real life.

Only writing an apocalypse novel when the apocalypse is happening.

 

[HappyVainGlory]

I have written 20 books. Today, I dropped my latest project, and tried to start two new ones, but couldn't. I don't know what to do. Usually, I just sit down, and trek my way through a novel in under 15 days. Today, I just don't feel the joy. I have been in writer's blocks before, but this time, I have even less will to force myself to write. Any advice on how to find the spark again? I wrote only 1,4k words between the two projects today. I really don't want to cancel my 4thewords membership, seeing as I prepaid it for an entire year. Does that site even give refunds?

Touch grass.

jk.

It sounds like you've tapped out your imagination well. At times like these, you need to recover your creativity juices by enjoying other people's works. Go find things that you enjoy watching/reading/playing and don't think about writing for a bit. Just enjoy and take everything in. At some point, you'll find you've reached a tipping point where the writer's itch comes back... Or you'll find something else that pulls you to act.

To prevent this in the future, you have to remember to create a sustainable writing habit. Creativity is similar to a muscle in that you can both strengthen it and ruin it by going past its limits. Although you might have been able to start off at a few thousand words a day when you were inspired, if you want to be able to write professionally or consistently, it's essential to find your floor and slowly raise that up rather than always striving to hit that ceiling.

tl;dr:

Refuel your imagination tank. Don't drive to E and remember to top up before then so you don't get burned out and stranded in writer's block land.

 

[RavenRunes]

you know, if you try all our suggestions, or refuse to take our advice, there's always absinthe and morphine. Couple of all-nighters on that and you could be writing the next Frankenstein.

 

[Error403]

You need to step back, uninstall anything you use to write, remove Google docs from your bookmarks, and just relax.
Writing 20 books is crazy, especially if you did it without breaks as it looks like here. You need to chill, live life without thinking about your next story. if you can't stop yourself, take a notepad, write it down and then promptly forget about it.