Writer’s block.
It’s something that all writers, at some point in their lives, have experienced at least once (and usually way more than once).
So, I’ve been working on this otome visual novel for quite a while now. The title is Selfish, and it’s indie dev studio, Winged Studios’ first project. It has a very interesting plot, one about courtesans and kingdoms and deep, dark secrets. Intriguing, isn’t it? Yeah, I thought so too! I think I’m really lucky to be given the chance to be the writer for two of the five routes. So far, it’s been really amazing.
BG by Vui-Huynh, taken from Winged Studios’ blog
But here’s the thing. I’ve been stuck on this one scene for literally weeks. Yes, weeks.
I’ve tried everything. I’ve tried skipping it, I’ve tried changing it, I’ve tried gluing my butt (well, maybe not, but I definitely thought of it) to my desk just to please, come on, write it.
And still, I’m stuck.
I’m sure you guys know how frustrating it is to not be able to come up with something remotely decent when you’re trying to write something. Or, when you finally do come up with something, you realize that it’s trash and end up deleting it anyway. And so the cycle goes on and on and on. *cries*
During these times, it’s so tempting to just give up on it and completely remove that scene altogether (…although, of course I can’t, since it’s a pretty vital scene, haha). But see, the thing is, if I give up, then that scene will remain unfinished, probably forever (no, not really). Meanwhile, if I try, I’m probably going to have a hard time, but eventually, I know that I’ll also end up writing it the way I want it to be written, and I’ll be a much better writer than I was before, too.
Well, what do you know, the saying, “you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take“ turns out to be applicable when it comes to writing hard stuff!
I’ll try again. And again, and again, until I finally get that scene right. I definitely won’t give up.
After all, you guys will be there to cheer on me (and the whole team) right?
If you want to be updated on Selfish’s progress, you can follow Winged Studios’Twitter account or dev blog. The latter is still pretty new so it doesn’t have much on it, but rest assured, more content will be coming soon!
How about you, how do you overcome writer’s block? Share your experience in the comments down below!
ran writes 