I appreciate when the sincerity and honesty of a writer comes through in their work. And, while I want that writers would give thought to how to think considerately and not disrespect potential readers/listeners, I dislike the idea of being pandered to as a reader/listener. I like writing that's "real" and it shows.
Music is what I write; and I think some of the same challenges w/ writer's block/motivation is shared between composers and writers.
For blocks, my favorite thing to do is ask myself "what am I trying to say/convey here?" and then, without trying to consciously answer the question, leave the physical space I'm in and do something recrational and completely different that will take my active thinking off of the writing process; and I keep doing that or other recreational things until any residual feelings of frustration or being sunk are gone. Then, still not having thought about the writing process, I'll come back to the writing space, restate the question of "what I'm a trying to say?" and then just write without hesitation or self-critique. Then after I've written for a while, I'll see if anything's shifted.
I believe in the power and effectiveness of the uncounscious mind being trusted to work things out sometimes when our active/direct thinking gets stuck.
For motivation, my favorite thing to do is make a game out of giving myself a small amount of time to get a large amt of info out of my head and onto the page. I find this helps externalize what's in there so I can look at it in more concrete form, and- even if I end up discarding most/all of what I purged, this process frees up more thinking for moving forward with developing ideas.
Often, I find that my own self-directed critical eye can be the biggest impediment to moving the creative process forward; gotta side-step it pretty frequently.
The biggest thing that helps me write is being in a physical space this is condusive to creative work and a mental space that is clear of distractions. What works for me is a few dedicated spaces where I write, times of day/wk when I write and rest and nurishment before I write. ...and I always give myself a mental hug when I'm done, regardless of the outcome- cuz it's not an easy process.
This story, Brian Blade - Get There: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ST48K75hxDk
Backing you all the way, Erika!

I think what helps me write most is to change my surroundings as much as I can. Some people need particular circumstances in order to write well. I try to not be that way.
It's hard sometimes, but it might be as simple as getting up from my desk and going out for a walk for a few minutes. When it's just my apartment, or my office, or the same coffee place over and over again, it gets harder to draw inspiration from surroundings.

This video comes to mind: http://vimeo.com/24715531

Oddly enough, the single most helpful writing tool I've found in the last year is a $13 pair of headphones and Rainymood.com. For some reason it is the perfect balance between white noise (which doesn't help me concentrate) and music (which distracts me). Listening to rain and thunder is the perfect solution.

I often re-read two short stories when I feel like listening to interesting writing. They both come from science fiction, not uncoincidentally since I think a lot of science fiction writers were particularly outgoing in their themes and style. 
The first is' "Repent Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman' by Harlan Ellison. It was recently off in a terrible movie with Justin Timberlake, I believe. But the original story is quite good in how it plays with language and its non-linear plot. http://compositionawebb.pbworks.com/f/%255C'Repent,%2BHarlequin!%255C'%2...
The other is a Ray Bradbury short story, "There Will Come Soft Rains" which is a chapter his 'The Martian Chronicles.' I can't find a link to it online but it's a well-told story of the end of the world as told through a computerized house. For a story that has no human characters in it, it is still able to convey a lot of emotion and poignant imagery.

I think there's two kinds of tasks: some you need motivation for, and some you need dedication for. Motivation will get you through a weekend, or a week at most, and rewards can give you motivation. But if you want to write a book, dedication's what you need. That said, I do have a page at the start of the ringbinders where I plan books, marked "Litany": it contains the reasons I want to get this book done, and the reasons I think I can do it. I turn to that page and read it to myself when I'm despairing of ever getting it finished.

Writer's block is a curse, and I don't know a good cure for it. You can get through it by writing *something* every day, and not letting yourself throw it away even if it's bad. Writer's block goes away in time anyway, and I don't know whether writing every day cures it any faster. But it's something I should be trying to do anyway.

There was a theory of computer programming back in the eighties that said that every non-trivial program needs "programming in the small" (to write each module) and "programming in the large" (to link the modules together). I think it's the same with writing. What I appreciate in a story is not only voice, not only a finely-chosen phrase, but also a working chassis of carefully-designed plot and characters. Many people think they can write when they've learned one, but only the writing of people who have learned both is consistently worth reading.

And a story that blows me away: "Nothing to be afraid of" by Jan Mark. It's short and simple and packs a great punch, teaching you something you need to know in the world.
 

So my friend Joe Meno, who's written a bunch of amazing books, tells a pretty good story about writer's block.
His father was a stonecutter. He'd head to work at 6am every morning, and come home at 6pm every night, exhausted. Never once, in the decades that he did this, when Joe would ask him how his day ones did he respond, "I have stonecutters block--just couldn't do it today."
Writing is work, same as any other. The best way to overcome writers block is to write--shift gears, write something else, write something fun, write something disposable To simply say "it isn't happening" is to set yourself up for ever-greater blockages. Keep a schedule, keeping meeting that schedule, and you'll be amazed how much gets done.
Happy birthday!

When I write authentically from my heart, and from my experiences without concern for how others will interpret it - I write well.  I struggle when I feel as if there is a target audience, or I worry about reaction.

love this! 
When I've had trouble with creative writing (getting started is always the hardest) I found it's much easier to sit down and write your memories. Just start with whatever comes to mind first and write everything you remember about it. I did this every morning for awhile and it put me in a good mood and I was surprised with how well the stories came together even though I was just mostly rambling. It also got me in the habit of writing every day. 
It's difficult to take on a big creative project when you also have a full time job (this has been a constant struggle for me) but I've heard 90 minutes in the morning can work. 
Another piece of writing advice I really like: "Find out what your character wants most in the world. Focus on the character and plot will follow." That works whether you're writing fiction or writing about yourself. 

I remain filled with hope for our future ever since reading Alastair Reynold's House of Suns. So long as we remember love, sacrifice, and forgiveness in our lives and work, we will find ways to save our hopes, stories, and selves.
Can't wait for the zine. Laura sent me.
Best,
C

Really -- individual words, their meanings, their origin, their shape.
I just read a great little book by a poet and zine author: "Obsolete -- an alphabet of poems inspired by dead words." Sounds like she's sold the last copy, but here's her website:
http://thelalatheory.com/
I've also gotten a lot from the process of Proprioceptive Writing, explained here:
http://www.pwriting.org/what_is_pw.htm
Noah

From someone who you've helped with writing this seems well, wrong. But for what it's worth, on those rare occasions where my mind is completely clear, I find it useful to just bang things out as quickly as possible, a stream of consciousness if you like.
Reading about the first fanzines that came out in that fascinating era between 1976 and 1978, it seems that the punks were always in a hurry to get things down, slip things into the photo-copier ready for plying at the next gig. Much of the content then, was just whatever came to mind at that moment. Maybe this is the key to a good zine. Let the subconscious take control, write - don't edit and just see what comes out.
That way at least you can build up content in the smallest amount of time.

Erika: I think it's a cool personal goal. Congratulations on it!
A few pieces of advice I've been given that I like:
1. If you want to write for volume consistently, just commit to completing a single page a day. If you want to writer for quality, just commit to completing three pages a day and throw out two of them.
2. When you're stuck, just write nonsense until something real comes.
3. Keep a Spark File, in which you just jot down words or phrases or ideas you like and then come back to that document whenever you're stuck or need inspiration or want to combine something with someone else.
(Also, please do a wrap up post of some of your favorite pieces of advice from the comments and elsewhere and then share that link in the Facebook invite for your party!)

As a non-writer I find I very rarely suffer from writer's block :) .  You should therefore take everything I'm about to say with a dump-truck full of salt.  I haven't done much in the way of creative writing since high school, but I do have to write lots of things as part of my job and personal life (emails, wiki posts, design documents, etc).  I almost never have writers block with these things.  Some I write faster than others, but most of the time if I'm going slowly it's not because I'm trying to think of what to say but rather how to say it.

I think this is the fundamental cause writer's block: it only rears it's ugly head when you aren't sure what you should be writing about.  When writing an email or wiki post, I have a clear idea of what I want to communicate and the rest is simply the serialization of thoughts to text.  This short piece, for example, has been very easy to write because I have a topic (writer's block), and I've spent the past few weeks putting some thought into what I want to say about it.  If, on the other hand, I were given the task of writing a short story about whatever I wanted, the task would become much more difficult.

If I were writing a creative piece and got stuck, I think my first instinct would be to simply stop trying to write.  Trying to write without a thought to share is like trying to whistle without air in your lungs - you can purse your lips and contract your diaphram all you want, but not much is going to happen until you inhale.  The solution is not to keep trying to empty your brain onto the page, but rather to refill it.  I would therefore do anything but writing, but preferably something menial or boring that will let your mind wander and come up with some new thoughts.  Even going to sleep can help, especially if you're actively trying to come up with ideas as you go to sleep.  I find my brain tends to chew on things I was thinking about in the hours and minutes before I fell asleep, and sometimes it comes up with some interesting things (sleepy brain is much less constrained by the bounds of reality than wakeful brain).

This is starting to get long winded and I think I've made my point, so I'm going to call it quits.  Hopefully someone will find this helpful :).

Is to get up as early as I can -- preferably before the sun is up -- and start drafting when my mind is still only half-awake, and hasn't had time to let any anxiety or perfectionism creep in. If I can get something down on paper, it's much easier for me to go back and edit it.

Cheap quick answer so I can get on the BS line before your party's over! 

Reading other people's writing aloud. And occasionally reading aloud my own. But others' first.

Also, as a reporter-ish person, writing satire for practice. No copy-pasting / fact-checking required.

I'm reminded of why I love words whenever an etymological connection between two of them suddenly clicks for me. This can be something a simple as noticing that, say, "vomit" and "emetic" come from the same root, or intricate as figuring out the proto-Indo-European root for 'navel', or abstruse as realizing that the word "chair" is ultimately just the word "sit" plus one prefix and one suffix—the complex and varied relationships between words are what I love most about them.

 A friend of mine was recently debating with me, arguing that he should be allowed to use slurs for the purpose of comedy. He said that people are too sensitive, slurs are just words.
To which I say, nothing is just words. People live and die over words every day. The law is just words. Holy books are just words. Shakespeare is just words -- hell, it's just dialogue. Go up to a cop and say "Eat shit, pig" and I bet there will be consequences for those words. Action movies (ie, violence movies) may be mainly explosions, but grown-up movies are mostly people talking. It is not hard to say something someone will remember for the rest of their lives -- so if you try to, choose wisely. Talk is very expensive.
Happy 30th Erika!
 
 
When I was a little kid, my older brother told me I talked too much. I was trying to process that, and I imagined that we are these creatures and talking is when our antennae broadcast to each other, and that this is but one of the many things we can do with our bodies and that I am overusing it 

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 12/16/2012 - 17:11

 A friend of mine was recently debating with me, arguing that he should be allowed to use slurs for the purpose of comedy. He said that people are too sensitive, slurs are just words.
To which I say, nothing is just words. People live and die over words every day. The law is just words. Holy books are just words. Shakespeare is just words -- hell, it's just dialogue. Go up to a cop and say "Eat shit, pig" and I bet there will be consequences for those words. Action movies (ie, violence movies) may be mainly explosions, but grown-up movies are mostly people talking. It is not hard to say something someone will remember for the rest of their lives -- so if you try to, choose wisely. Talk is very expensive.
 

Happy 30th Erika!

All my writing has been on blogs, so that's where I'm coming from here.
My biggest, #1 top suggestion is simple: read (and edit) your work over and over and over -- not just in the editor, but in prview mode.
My best work is re-read probably a few dozen times before I publish, and then another dozen or so afterwards.  I'll come back and re-read it again when I see people talking about it, or when I notice it has been mentioned in an external post, just to understand what conclusions people will draw based on the introductory framing.
As you read you will notice things that sound wrong, or phrases that you use too often.  More importantly, once you get a post to the point that you can enjoy reading it again (rather than cringing) -- especially over time -- then you know you have written something good.
You'll notice things that are flowing slowly;  You'll notice sentences that don't add value, or could be stronger;  You'll identify walls of text that need to be broken up;  You will be able to reference yourself and make more consistant points across the piece.  All in all, your work will wind up five times stronger once you know it like the back of your hand.