Breaking the Rut, aka Hey, Look, Resources!

The scenario is all too familiar. You're a couple thousand words into a writing project – or a few paragraphs into a term paper, maybe – and suddenly, you run out of steam. Or, even more difficult, you're sitting at your computer, staring at a blinking cursor on a pristine white screen that fairly screams I AM NOT BEING PRODUCTIVE! Maybe you've thought too far ahead and you've scared yourself out of your writing groove, so to speak, or maybe the concept of actually having to do the work behind the writing is preemptively dragging you down. Maybe you just genuinely have no idea where to begin. The fact of the matter is that you are stuck, stressed, and may or may not be facing a time limit at present.

S'okay, dude, we're gonna save you from your Twitter feed.

Fear not. You are living in an age of technology, my friend. Where there's a will, there's a way, and if people can use the likes of Twitter to inform the people of the internet that they have just made a sandwich, then there's sure as hell got to be a few programs out there that will get all draconian on your procrastinating self. My personal favorite (I use the term lightly) is Cold Turkey. Fairly straightforward – you blacklist whatever sites you want and enter up to a week's worth of block time, and presto. No more Facebook time you until you get your paper done. (Or NaNoWriMo novel, or fanfiction, or... insert other neglected project here.)

But wait, there's more!

[INSERT OVERENTHUSIASTIC SHRIEKING HERE]

There's also a ton of awesome story generators online. These range from random prompts (try Creative Writing Prompts or Ink Provoking) to actual assignment generators like Language Is A Virus and Archetype Writing. Archetype's is particularly handy – it sort of troubleshoots common problems you might encounter while writing via different generators.

Need a pep talk more than a starting point? No problem. This is the internet. People never shut up. There are pep talks galore! Granted, not all of them are good ones, but you can pick up some handy tips from Scott Young, The Renegade Writer, and Timothy Hallinan. (Just remember that pep talks and reading up are great, but you should probably avoid letting Pep Talk Time segue back into Tumblr Time. I know – that place is like Hotel California. How do you think I wound up downloading Cold Turkey?)

Just pretend this is all you'll see if you try to "just quickly" check your dashboard.

With any luck (and maybe a little of trial and error), you'll make it over the hurdle you currently find yourself facing. You'll finish the chapter you meant to write last week, or you'll get through the rest of your term paper, or you'll finally find the muse that sets your pen in motion. Maybe – hopefully – something from the above list might even give you a new way to approach your writing from now on!

And unless you're one of the poor suckers who overestimated their Cold Turkey time limit, then you can go brag about your latest writing accomplishment online.

Or you can tell the Twitter People about your sandwich! (Image by Allie Brosh at Hyperbole and a Half.)