Beat Writer's Block 

i'm the guy with inferiority complex. Not sure about perfectionism (I don't think so). I have to try this, but I'm going to write without worrying about having it as a piece to publish. Thank you for another gold mine.

NOTE: This is another long comment, because I have too many thoughts on this (and this isn't close to all of them). I say "you" a bunch below, and because I'm unsure if it's clear or not that my meaning of that is in the universal sense, not specifically you (Creative Writing Corner), I'm letting you know that now to hopefully avoid coming across as condescending or something. These are good suggestions. I especially like the idea of writing terribly to help get comfortable with the writing process and remind them that no one else needs to see this version of the story. This can help not just in dealing with writer's block, but also in getting aspiring writers to learn that the process isn't supposed to be perfect from start to finish (and, as you say, it will never truly be perfect). It's a good exercise, too, to look over this bad writing with a detached mind that's more curious and interested in problem-solving than feeling embarrassed over what came out on the page. So I'd add: pretend like you were not the one who wrote it, and don't know who wrote it; only that there are problems with the writing and you would like to figure out what they are, and, if possible, fix them. If that is too much of a challenge, or seeming impossibility, then identify a recurring theme/idea from the writing and start from scratch with an attitude of 'Okay, well, if I'm to do a story around *that,* what are the ways I could do that?' I find embracing curiosity and wondering about what my characters think and feel in relation to each other and the overarching ideas of the story to be helpful in dealing with writer's block. Getting frustrated and crumpling pages into balls and tossing them away was embedded into me growing up as "part of the writing process," but it doesn't have to be at all; and if anything it's a sign that you're far from the Flow State, as the focus is more on writer's block bothering the writer here than wondering about the story and what the writer wants to convey. I have about four separate word docs for ONE story I've been trying to craft the outline to for the past four or so months. (As well as a couple copybooks worth of notes. Though that's a mix of other story ideas as well.) My first one contains 736 questions. The latest one has about 306 questions. The second one? 1389 questions. There's a lot of dart throwing, you could say, with this approach. But I find it often helps lead me to better ideas far more so than just staring at a blank page and hoping words come out does. Speaking of which: go take ideas from other stories that you like and do something with them. If you've ever watched a bad movie that involved concepts you thought were cool and interesting (or otherwise resonated with you), then you may know what "wasted potential" looks and feels like; and you may also have wanted to rewrite that story. So do it. Take those ideas and rework them into your own version of that story that's better than the one you got. Keep working on it until it's well away from what it originally was that it can now be considered your own story. (Obviously not suggesting to plagiarize works. Don't just straight-up copy entire pages from The Name of the Wind and insert it into your own story, unless you have the author's and publisher's permission to do so. And of course, don't just copy The Name of the Wind and pretend that you wrote it, title (and character name) change or no. I will say, however, that as long as you don't publish something someone else made under your name, you can play around with their stories as practice to improve writing, concepting, confidence, etc.) Everything's a remix on some level, and inspiration is everywhere. Truly original ideas at this stage are most likely going to be incoherent gobbledygook - which likely won't make for a good story. You can also take from real life, if you prefer. Heck, do both. If you want to write a story, you want something of yourself in it anyway, so focus on what story you would like to read that hasn't been made yet (we're talking quite specific here). I think another good writing exercise (or approach) to deal with writer's block is to establish a central theme for your story and keep wondering about it. What characters do you have and what are they like? Do they have a purposeful place in this story; do they serve the central theme, or even support/inform the characterizations of the ones that directly contribute to the main theme? What are the many perspectives you could have on that theme? Make those perspectives into characters. Okay, now you've got your cast. Flesh them out with personality. Could they embody those perspectives better? Think about how those POVs would clash with opposing POVs and come together to develop a compelling argument or fight with understandable, consistent emotional motivations backing their words, gestures, actions, and reactions. Merge characters if it'll make the cast less redundant and certain members more interesting and relevant. Alternatively, you could start with a character and ask what their core belief is. Then, in the words of LocalScriptMan (who I learned this from, only recently), "do a Jeopardy on that belief to figure out what question it's the answer to, and then figure out all the other potential answers to that question." Same applies to plot ideas (wonder what the moral, emotional, or philosophical issue the people in your story would argue about). No matter the starting point, the cast of characters will be orbiting a theme. (For more check out the video: A Different Way to Think About Storytelling | LocalScriptMan in 3 Minutes) To build off what LSM was saying, I'd say that if you're stuck for figuring out what themes you want to convey in your story, think about your life, and really reflect on the patterns: what's kept cropping up, what's frequently impacted you, how do you tend to feel most days (and the similarities and differences across childhood, adolescence, young adulthood, etc - and that's a development that could be considered for the story, too; not necessarily 1:1, but there are ideas there that you've experienced and resonate with you - and you can use them as launchpads to explore bigger questions while taking into consideration alternate perspectives and lives around the same issues, emotions, dilemmas, etc). On the flip side, grow empathy by continually trying to put yourself in the shoes of others. Wonder how they feel, what their struggles are, how they've suffered, how they've survived, how they've failed and succeeded, what made them happy and sad, what made them embarrassed and mad, what motivated them toward their career, what demotivated them from their passion, what rekindled joy in their life, what drove them into a self-destructive cycle of addiction, what deeply hurt/traumatized them when they were young and how it's impacted them ever since (e.g. unstable household and lack of emotional support or proper guidance instilling in them severe anxiety and sending them down a road of alcoholism and/or drug addiction to try to cope with that), etc. Here's another one: Got writer's block? Go for a walk. Seriously, the amount of the ideas and solutions to troubling questions / obstacles in my writing that have come to me on walks is astonishingly high. Don't make the mistake I often made (and still make) in forgetting a pen and notepad. Those are musts for walks in my book (you may prefer using your phone to record your thoughts, though - whatever works for you). I had more to say, but something in my brain loosened a piece in the Writer Jenga Tower I was building there and now that it's tipped over after all that I suddenly don't feel like putting it back together again just to reconstruct the thought. NOTE: As usual, I am not a "qualified" writer. I have no published works, but I feel like I'm making more and more progress in my creative writing these days thanks to a lot of what I just put forward, so I figure why not share? Hope that helps someone who manages to read through all (or any) of it.