Story Time: Overcoming Writers Block

 

The hardest part of any project for me is getting started. I would often feel very intimidated staring up at the big picture and the monumental task ahead of me. This certainly has applied to scriptwriting and writer’s block for our current visual novel story in the ⑨ Jam for this fall’s Touhou Fan Jam.

We began by creating a soft beginning idea and ending, forming an outline, and brainstorming key story points for our visual novel. After a discussion with KeikoKup, I started to put the script together out of order. I could not believe the amount of creative freedom I felt with thi

s! I would start writing parts of the story that excited me at the time, thus giving me more and more content to work with. I then found out it easier to jump around to different story points since I already had one written. This sets off a chain reaction of creativity that really helps put a whole story together.

Something I feel is important to remember is that you should not be afraid of failure. Failure is one of life’s greatest lessons. A lot of times as artists and programmers, we can become perfectionists. We feel that if we are going to write anything down, it better be perfect. This is the beginning of a creative block. If you just allow yourself to write down whatever emotions come to mind, you will at least have your idea out there. You can always go back and revise later! Be brave and just put down those ideas, even if they are not yet polished!

 

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