Often I have come across many writers who have come across what they call 'A writer's block'. This is a situation in which they find their brains 'blank' of writing material, or run out of ideas.This can be really harmful for your comic, if you have a story running and don't know what to do or where to turn the story into, or worse if you are working for a company and your dead-line is fast approaching.

A writer's block is the most experienced while wanting to start a new story. An idea pops up into our mind, this may not be a story but an element of the story or a part which you think is impressive. The same moment you grab your pencil and note-pad and sit down to write your story but lo! Your brain is a mess, you don't know where to put the characters, how to begin, how to go forward, cant think of names, cannot get a satisfying end plot or anything else. This is the writer's block.

The writer's block isn't a disease, how-ever, its okay to term the w.b as one, as it may cause a lot of stress, tension and doubt on self. Writers often give up and go do some other business to ease tension, which wont help you. Running away from a panther wont help you, as it will sooner or later hunt you down.

As bad as that sounds, there are a lot of ways to overcome it. Although it depends entirely on your mental resolve and creativity, this is where the talented writers shine. How exactly can we define a writing talent? Someone who can write while using exceptional creativity and elements? yes. But talented writers themselves know that writing exceptionally is not such a great thing. Its the ability to jump over the writer's block.
Don't be discouraged while talking about talent. Writing is a free and easily-developed skill.It arrives through observation on other literary pieces and experimenting it with on different people.

To get back to the point, a writer's block can have many causes.Lets list out a few causes when it comes to creating comics-

1.Plot not fully formed
When the plot isn't fully formed, when you didn't do an advance planning or re-search on the material that you are going to create, you may experience a w.b due to lack of ideas.When there is a lack of planning and research on the story that your are going to make, you will obviously find your self stuck while you reach a point of a story line.

2. Characters are less detailed
Often we just make the protagonist and start the story, and put the characters on the way as we write.This can lead to many 'walls' where the characters which you make on the go will be more of a curse in your story as some will obstruct the flow with their details and some will be controversial and will give a wrong meaning as the story advances and some will be just utterly useless.This will cause us you to boil your head unnecessarily and waste a lot of time. Often you will be forced to start from scratch, and this will make most writers who aren't so patient give up their task and drop the story. We ourselves know better to explain this situation, and that's why you have come to this blog.

3.Lack of partnership
This is not so important cause but it is an important fact when it comes to the w.b . When we under-take a project or start a story on our own, we often feel discouraged and will soon run out of ideas. This isn't the case in every writer, but most of them have the problem of it. The change that you are going to experience if you have a partner to work with, is going to be drastic!

4.Life pressures
Distractions distract you from what you want to do.Even so, in the case of writing.This is really common in almost all writers.We all have lives apart from writing, and hence have a lot of distractions, which can be really harmful for writing.Distraction concerning our school,relationships, our duties etc

5.Worried about resources
Often when we undertake a writing task, we begin by wondering what is going to happen to story than whats in the story. You may worry if the story is really 'flowing' or going 'fast' or if you are exaggerating an element too much, (How much popular you get is also on the list...but I bracketed this on purpose!).We also doubt is our writing is 'to the level'.A slight discouragement in this aspect will lead to a complete full stop of the writing session.

6.Writing without passion
I don't think I need to lay emphasis on this fact any further. I think you understand it from the title. When people are forced to write, like a student is forced to write his home work in 2 hours, they may end up in the writer's block. The lack of motivation is the reason for the absence of passion,which in turn leads to w.b.

7.Feeling of redundancy
Often as we go through some online materials and Articles, our ideas seem copied and we 'fear' that if we publish the story people who have seen the other story will accuse us of copying the main plot/story or even an element of the story-line. Such self-accusations and far-thinking can lead to the writer dropping a master-piece.

So so far I have stated a few examples of the causes of the writer's block.This isn't an exhaustive list, it is the common causes that most of the people experience.Chill, help is on the way.

Now lets get into the different methods to get rid of the annoying writer's block problem.Since its just a psychologic problem and not any diseases or sickness or genetic disability it can be just 'shattered' as we learn how to do so. Reading the causes can help us understand what exactly we must do to avoid a writer's block, but I want to make things more clear.These are the steps taken by me, the things which I do to avoid a writer's block.

1.Pause life to write
We have read about the cause of having a lot of distractions which can be harmful for our writing life. What I do is do the duties which I have to do, complete my assignment, solve problems which bug me and clear of my mind so that I have the entire brain to use at my disposal. Doing this gives me a free and calm mind to write and enjoy writing. Do not sit down to write if you have anything bothering you, no matter how much you want to write.

2.Detail are written down first
Before I start actually writing a story, I make bio-sketches of all characters I have in mind, place descriptions of all the scenes I am planning to make, if its a sci-fi then you can make detailed descriptions about the vehicles,weapons etc. These descriptions can be used at your disposal anytime as a reference to what actually 'are' your elements and you wont make any mistakes in the story if you do it like this.But you will surely end up in the block if you 'make on the go'

3.Collaboration
Nothing more is sweeter than having a writer friend who is interested in your writing and is ready to assist you with the plot and story lines and all. The support you receive from him/her will help you get out of the block and will ease your doubts and confusions. 2 writers are always better than one. So far this is the best method I have experienced to get out the block.

4.Worry
We often see other materials and stories and get discouraged if they have the same elements to what we have in mind.An also, we worry about certain other things like if we are up-to the level or not to amaze people in a day.Like I always believe, no writer is made in a single day, nor he becomes a millionaire by his first draft. It takes practice after practice, and always you have to take the first step to climb the ladder.If we stay at the bottom and cry we never reach the top. The same applies for writing. Start small, simple story in which you can handle, and don't think about weather its copied or not, just don't hurt your conscience by thinking about another story material with the same elements.If you are original and simple, people will never accuse you of copying.

5.Get out!
Whenever I am stuck, I immediately stop writing and wont think further and make my brains worse and end up in the block.What I do is I put the pen down and get out for a run or a walk or visit the shop or get to school to get some inspiration on dialogues, the way people behave etc. Seeing things with an observing eye and calculating how certain life incidences can be represented in the written form can be really useful.

There are many more that I want to stress to, but I really don't want to bore you the same time.So get your pens and get cracking!