WhiteSwordsman01 Presents: How to avoid future author's block as you write your story!

Hello everyone and welcome to another post of Wattpad's Summer Block Party!

If you haven't heard of me yet, I'm that type of author that often disappears in the thin air and comes back years later.

If you have heard of me and have read some of my stuff... Well, first of all I have to apologize for disappearing often (and saying I won't do it again the moment I return).

I've been thinking for a while about what to write for today, and in the end - as expected when I plan something - I could not think of anything decent that you haven't heard or read somewhere else (or before my post) already.

So I'll just go with the most tiresome, maddening, troublesome, soul-sucking, spirit-crushing... (Now I could add any terrible word in Oxford dictionary to describe it, but it would still be too little) problem we authors all have to face in our lives (editing, contracts and scammers in publishing industry excluded - if you're unlucky to stumble upon one):

That is right, my friends.

Ya'all know well in your hearts what I'm talking about.

(I'll now try to refrain from cursing, but that term just does not roll off my tongue without a curse word to back it up).

MOTHERF***ING WRITER'S BLOCK!!!

Now, before I get started, let's clear something up. I won't tell you about stuff like: "read more, take vacation, kill someone for inspiration" or something like that. I'll try to take you deeper into the world of creation (and f**k, don't ever write on your phone with protective screen on, the thing just went -2x my normal typing speed right now!)

Cough. Cough.

Anyway.

I won't speak about what a writer's block is, we all know it. Satan's incarnate. Period.

But did you ever ask yourself as to why do you even have such a problem to begin with? Most people will tell you that it's just a normal thing - f*ck, even my past self from year or so ago would tell you the same, consolate you with few words and give you some links on articles to read about it like a good senior I was (and my present self would plan to stab my past to death if it could).

It couldn't be helped. Many people honestly have no goddamn idea about why they suddenly stop writing (well, I killed my phone a month ago and had no PC and it's only now that I can write, but still...), and will have even less of a knowledge on to how to revert the situation.

Honestly speaking, the method I came up with after years of observation and listening to few old foggeys that work with book comics (same stuff, anyway) doesn't guarantee me 100% of success to get rid of the Satan's lil' minions, but it's successful in shooing them away long enough for me to clear my mind.

Let's compose a story right now.

I'll do my best to explain to you how to avoid those Satan's plagues in the meantime.

There are four things I use to build my story, usually I pick just one, but when I'm bored and want more drama, 2-3 or even all four can spice it up just perfectly.

Idea.

First we need a general idea for the story. Let's pick a hero beloved by all, who defeats the Demon King and saves the entire world from evil. (I'll pick this because we've all read those stories at least once in our lives, so it'll be faster this way).

First thing that can be used to write the story is precisely what I mentioned before. AN IDEA.

When you have an idea, you have a clear way in which your story will progress. A hero defeats the demon king - you can dig out quite a lot from here. First, you got a hero who's most likely to become a protagonist of our story (unless you want a MC who follows the hero and does all the work instead of him or something) - and we all have an idea what a hero should be like. Caring, nice, blonde, in shining armour if possible - if he does not have it, then just make him save some random princess on the road and she'll give him one as a compensation (and her heart too, now that we're at it).

Why him? Who cares, really. He can have a lover about to be sacrificed to a demon lord, his village burned, his father be one in the past and die, so he wants to follow in his footsteps or is just another version of Mulan (if hero is a girl) or he manages to get into a shady deal with another shady old foggy or because a handsome spirit of the sword from lake will make him do so. No one really cares about that, we only want him to go and thrash the demon lord.

Period.

We got our intro. We got our princess. We got the fancy armour and sword.

What do we lack?

To raid a dragon's nest for a good mount?

Sure.

So what now?

A princess is never there to fight unless you as an author want her to, so you can't relly too much on her for help. You also don't have any mana and hp potions, so you'll get yourself a mage and an elf - because everything is more OP when you form a fellowship to destroy a rin- ahem, a demon lord.

You got the basic info now. You know what you lack, but you know that you can get it as long as you're on your journey, so you continue forward.

You pick this and that, you save this and that, you participate in small-scale wars here and there, yet you still continue to go and thrash the demon lord - because that's it! The idea of the book! MC can't complain, he needs to do as told.

Now, here's where the problem no. 1.02 appears.

You suddenly have no idea what to do next. You've got a plot and the plan, but you cannot write anything. Why is it so? You have entire story, but you still lack something.

*Inhales deeply due to personal grudges with this lil' f***er*

You lack the second thing you can use to refine your story, and the thing that drives 90% of authors into a writer's block without them even realising it:

A BLOODY MOTIVE!

F**K, I SPEND 2 YEARS ON ONE BOOK REALIZING THAT I LACK SOMETHING, BUT NEVER KNEW WHAT AND WHEN I FOUND OUT... to say that I wanted to jump of a roof is an understatement.

Now, some of you might snicker in contempt to my words, some might already have a knowing gleam in your eyes, but this is literally the most legit reason why writer's block hit us.

Let's go back to our hero from earlier. His story seems fun, does it not? It has some logic right? You would read it because you understand where it goes, right? But somehow, it's not enough to grab your entire attention, is it?

Ofc it's not.

Why's our hero here? What does he try to prove with his actions? What is the motive behind him wielding a sword?

Now we might jump back to the beginning part I said was boring. Readers love drama and we authors love to be sadistic towards our characters so that a reader can see what they're truly made of.

And honestly, no one really loves pure-hearted heroes like Frodo nowadays, so let's be evil asses and give our hero a past he deserves. Something that made him stand up and traumatized him - if possible.

Let's say that his goal is to prove to the entire world that even if your origins are humble, even though you are laughed at and mocked down and no one believes in you, you can still become a hero.

The old hero's son or daughter (not the MC's children, it is the child who is MC), who's been faced with mockery and taunts from his neighbours every day decided that he'll shut them all up with his future achievement.

So we've got a nice motive and a point we're trying to prove in this story now.

Bottlenecks are now gone. Before we only had a plot to deal with, but it was too dull. But now we know what the MC wants and why he wants to do it, so naturally you'll throw in more people to the mix and more situation where his strong beliefs will affect the course of his actions and eventually lead him into more trouble.

If he'll go with broken leg and kill a dragon after only remembering his father's face and his neighbour's mocking voices, it's because of the motive. Motive (aka the power of bonds) will drive him to kill that dragon and he'll naturally have the MC protective hallo for following the motive that will make sure that he doesn't die a premature death.

Cuz we need him alive to give that motive a meaning.

And 'cuz there ain't a good book without a good culmination.

That's where the villain joins the fun!

The third way to create a story is not to focus on a plot nor motive, nor to put the protagonist in the first plan, but rather the villain.

That's right, the evil dude will write the story.

Now, villains can never avoid the unspoken rule to attack the protagonist. He's literally there just to become his paving stone and die gloriously or pitifully because he didn't crush the protagonist at the very beginning - as any normal sane person would've done in his place (especially we authors) - and hero achieves his goal at that moment.

Some villains, I prefer to save.

Now, let's go back to our story. We talked about hero and his nature and now we need to make him clash with the villain. Hero has his motive to kill the villain, but what about villain himself? Why does he bother with the hero?

You can literally write 10k books and most will revolve on: just because, him having found an OP weapon or just seeing a hero as a pest in his plans. He'll even feel disgusted to act personally against the hero, giving him enough time to mature. Villains in adventures and fantasies are just dumb like that. And 90% of troubles a hero will face in the book will be villains work (the remaining 10% are side quests fueled by the hero's protective MC halo that will guide him to some OP weapons).

So, let's put the villain in the center of attention.

First, how did he become a villain and why he wants to destroy the world now? Protagonist comes later, he's too insignificant at this moment.

Let's say he used a be hero himself in the past (no, not the MC's father, but you can do it too if you want) who's done incredible amount of good deeds and everyone loved him. He was the strongest, the brightest, the best and kindest person humanity ever knew, reason they didn't dear demons at all. Wherever he walked, people would praise him and throw roses. He also went on a journey just like our MC when suddenly, he makes a mistake (can be before or after he defeated the previous demon lord).

That mistake can now be one of the following:

-Someone plotted against his reputation and made him look like he did a terrifying thing

-He shone too brightly so he became a thorn in the emperor's eyes who then decided to get rid of him

-He naturally made a mistake, without anyone setting him up, but that was still enough for everyone to point accusing fingers his way and scorn him, saying that his previous identity was a mask, and that he's truly ville at his heart

-He wanted to do more and make two species stop with the war, but humans drunk on greed and glory blamed him that he joined the dark side and blah blah blah

There's many more you can use, those are just appetizers.

Alright, so now we have a cause. Once the brightest hero now became the cruel Demon Lord seeing that humans are beyond redemption and either had his mind twisted or just stopped caring too much.

Human emperor, naturally, hid everything about it and made the secret about demon lord's past remain a secret.

Do remember one important thing if you write about heroes, though.

They aren't always beloved, they are pitiful instead. If they chose to save someone they love instead of a random person on the road, they'll be scorned. Once they get rid of the villain, they would only be revered by the young. Many adults will be jealous of them, so they'll do their best to smear their reputation with mud. Emperor will NEVER, absolutely ever allow them to grow their wings too much, especially after the threat of a demon lord is gone.

Unless they only have one daughter who MC loves, and MC who is stupid enough to follow every emperor's word.

Honestly, you must never have a pure hearted hero. Hero needs to suffer, he needs to doubt, he needs to cry and know of betrayal, then clench his teeth and stand up again. That's the kind of hero that inspires us all to be better as well. Someone who can easily fall and submit to the darkness, but still he stands proud and tall. Also a hero is someone who will always have unlimited supply of weapons and luck that will never let him have no weapon to destroy the Demon Lord.

(This seems like a good BL material, ah)

You got two options now as well:

1) The demon lord like that had no lingering obsessions in this world so he decided to simply destroy it

2) Humans killed someone he cared for just to spite him, so he's enacting his revenge now

Now you're wondering, with such troublesome past and OP personality, why would he bother with a small fish like MC?

Remember everything we said about his past and how he was scorned before falling to the dark side? Yes, that is the reason why he targets the MC.

MC is walking the exactly same road as the demon lord. He's just as bright and determined to become a hero and prove to the world that he can do it. He also had a fellowship around him. MC also stumbles and fall like the demon lord himself had.

But, there is something different now.

No matter how many times he stumbles, he always rises. Our hero was in the center of mockery in the past, this is nothing for him. His father was discarded when he was no longer needed, MC is well aware that he'll follow the same steps. But even so, he doesn't give up. He cannot give up!

And that's when the first spark of interest appears in villain's eyes. He cannot stand the MC's existence. He cannot accept that the boy can do something he couldn't and that's what irks him to kill the MC. MC has no idea of villain's past, the emperor hid the secret well, so he just goes along the story and fights the villain.

Villain doesn't want to kill him, he wants to break him - perfect excuse why the MC survived 'till the very end. But even so he never breaks the MC.

In the end, they fight and MC finds out the truth. You can chose to make him kill the demon lord or disappear together where they'll live in seclusion away from the world now. Or if it's romance, make the demon lord fall for MC while he tries to break him and join their little group to stalk him later with secret identity or something - you now have entire tree of ideas when you know your villain well to chose how the story will progress. I personally opt for him joining their little group.

Just imagine demon lord acting like a piggy member of the fellowship (reference to the games: piggy member is the dude who makes the entire team die just because he tapped on something he shouldn't have, be stepped somewhere he shouldn't have or said something he absolutely shouldn't have etc.)

(Gamers will understand the meme above better than anyone - we've all been there)

Know your enemy and you'll know yourself. Whatever villain lacks, MC has. Whatever MC has, villain lacks.

Never look at your story as complete even after you've written the last word of it. Think of it as a little tree. As you get ideas, the three sprouts new branches and leaves and slowly grows bigger and more lush. Every idea is another branch and tree can never stop growing completely.

I never follow the complete plan for the book - eh, but then again, I almost never have a complete plan for the book either.

Fourth plan as to how to make the story is a bad idea, so don't follow it. It's to never have a plan. Just invert it to create a planner and write according to it, if you want.

Among those four things I mentioned, there is sure to be at least one reason for why you have a damned writer's block - and as long as you know the cause of the problem, you can always solve your problem.

Motive is usually the most common, but once you have a point you want to prove, letters will simply flow out from your hands like a magic.

That's about all I wanted to say.

Now, as I mentioned before I killed my phone, I'll now hold a little competition. The two lucky winners will get illustration for their own books from me and here's where you can check how I draw that stuff:

https://www.instagram.com/ayla_d._viktoreva/

I want the entries to be about your fantasy novels, but I don't really know what, so write in comments your ideas (don't just limit it to fantasy, vampires and anime fanfic can do to - it's about what I can draw lol. Wuxia and Xianxia are the most preferred, but I doubt you guys read the 1k+ chapter books like I do).

Comment here for the nomination and I'll pick the entry the most people agree on. Idk where I'll hold it though, maybe on my profile, maybe on Instagram or if Kelly let's me do it here then so be it. I have a karmic problem that whenever I plan something, hell and heavens unite to crush my plans.

In any case, I gave up worrying about it - life is better when you if ignore problems. It's not considered a problem if it doesn't bother you, after all.

Ah, I mentioned before that rewards could be given away only on the territory of Balkan, but I changed my mind. I wanted to send it via post, but forgot that I can just send it via Gmail as digital picture lol, so you can participate from anywhere in the world now haha

*Alter ego that's been slumbering for years awakens*

"... Dumb. Why do we even share the same body."

*Me looking at the f***er after an entire month of not having written a single sentence*

"..."

"We don't, I'm getting rid of you."

Have fun everyone, there's still an entire week until the end of the block party!

Logging off:

Ayla D. Viktoreva (aka. the WhiteSwordsman01 - I've been using that nick on wattpad for years that I can't bring myself to change it now lol)

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