I HAVE WRITER'S BLOCK!!!!!!!!!! WHY GOD, WHY!?

[jenocyde]

I really love this thread. I haven't been on the forum lately, so I didn't see it until today. In a rush now, but maybe I'll add to it later. Keep up the good work, writer's block is a really depressing feeling for me.

 

[Tamske]

My cure to writer's block:

(1) Have something else to do. Like teaching.
(2) Ideas will come on the most problematic moments. Carry a writing booklet and jot them down while your students make an exercise.
(3) Type them in the right order.
(4) Make a file with the scènes one after the other, mark missing scènes and estimate how much time it would take to write them. Do the same for scènes you want to rewrite.
(5) Tell your time frame to an ESTJ. The outside pressure makes you continue.

Do this in no particular order.

And, of course, never do this:
(6) Lose the booklet.

 

[ObeyBunny]

Pick a number between 1 and 25. Now pick a second number.
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1. A wreath of flowers
2. A bowl of candy
3. A chain
4. A campsite
5. A dead animal
6. A mountain
7. A sundial carved into a tree
8. A floating river
9. Scum in the water
10. Under a desk
11. Parallel bikes
12. Subliminal messages
13. A cul-de-sac (neighborhood)
14. A pale face in the water
15. Birds nailed to a post
16. Hoof-prints in paint
17. A streak against the sky
18. Stars and supernovas
19. An elongated dragon (Chinese dragon)
20. Fangs growing from the ground
21. A strip of sidewalk
22. A person’s bones turning into sponge
23. Scissors, a handkerchief, an all-month bus pass
24. Sliding glass doors
25. A rehearsal for a play

What ever you picked must make its way into your story or poem- not as an analogy, but as a place, thing, event that happens. The seed suggestion can be an infinitely small portion of the story (like saying that your character passed by a campsite with birds nailed to posts, before he decided that he wasn't in a safe place and left the area.)

 

[Spamtar]

Magic Words if you get writers block and want to suddenly start writing:
Spamtar alacazar

 

[durentu]

I've noticed that writer's block is similar to jazz improvisation. Bobby McFerrin says that the skill most important in jazz is momentum. To keep going without criticism and everything you do is ok. Aside from the technical exercises, for improvisation, try to sing for 10 minutes straight, no matter how silly or strange it is. Just keep going without thinking about it.

From psychology, Frankl and others noticed that if you become conscious of what you do naturally will basically immobilize you. Take walking for example. Everyone does it without much thought, however, if you start analyzing how exactly you walk, the placement of feet, muscle controls, arm swings, body weight shifts, breathing, you probably find yourself stumbling and perhaps even fall down.

For writer's block, it's best not to think about writing or start editing as you write it. Bourdain admits that he doesn't have writer's block, but puts things on paper with the condition that he doesn't edit it right away. He lets it sit for a week or so before he goes back check it out.

For me, I generally ramble on for an hour. Stupid stuff, crazy stuff, with or without an audience in mind etc, really don't pay attention. Sometimes it's about the shape of a crumbled piece of paper. Sometimes I look at something from different angles like an artist drawing a model or fruit bowl. I sit in one position until I get bored writing about it, then I move to the other side and notice things, then laying down, standing up etc. If frustrated, I knock the fruit bowl down and write about that etc. Just continual movement without editing.

Writing with a specific goal in mind rarely works for me. I mentally create a play space to write with. It's the difference between making a sand castle with a picture in hand and putting yourself in a sandbox or a beach. It's not as accurate, but I'm still moving in the general direction.

I visualize it like driving. You know how to get fro point A to B, but it's never a straight line and sometimes you go backwards for a little bit. But the idea is to keep moving.

 

[ObeyBunny]

From psychology, Frankl and others noticed that if you become conscious of what you do naturally it will basically immobilize you. Take walking for example. Everyone does it without much thought, however, if you start analyzing how exactly you walk, the placement of feet, muscle controls, arm swings, body weight shifts, breathing, you probably find yourself stumbling and perhaps even fall down.

For writer's block, it's best not to think about writing or start editing as you write it. Bourdain admits that he doesn't have writer's block, but puts things on paper with the condition that he doesn't edit it right away. He lets it sit for a week or so before he goes back check it out.

I visualize it like driving. You know how to get fro point A to B, but it's never a straight line and sometimes you go backwards for a little bit. But the idea is to keep moving.

Very good point- When I try to over analyze my own writing (while I’m writing) I just end up feeling like a teacher-ly third person watching someone else struggle putting together basic sentences (as stupid as it sounds, I end up remote viewing myself type.)

It’s altogether a frustrating process (if your inner critic is halting your fingers and pointing to the screen and saying “that was a stupid sentence” “you’re slapping the reader in the face with this bullshit, make it more subtle”)- especially if you’re not writing for pleasure, but instead trying to keep to a deadline.

So just writing anything that comes to mind- whether it makes sense or not, whether it is pleasing to the ear or not, whether it pertains to the actual intended message and direction of the essay or story or not- is an excellent practice.

 

[ObeyBunny]

Usually when I suffer from writer’s block, it’s because I foolishly have written myself into a corner by setting up a string of circumstances and character interactions that logically don’t move the story in the direction where I want the story to go.

It’s my personal philosophy that there are (roughly) 12 sources of writer’s block.

1. Fear of criticism,
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2. too much sympathy towards a character (not killing off or harming someone which would have been a good source of story conflict) So you have pages and pages that accomplish nothing.
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3. wanting a story to lead one way but it instead starts down a different path (so you stop in your tracks and violently brainstorm how to rip up the path before you and have it turn back around)
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4. not knowing enough information to put something together. (an essay or story is just one idea transcending into another. Lacking information is like trying to put together a rainbow while missing colors in a spectrum and having only big black or transparent gashes to look at)
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5. Trying to compose and edit simultaneously
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6. Demanders of chronological order (what ever you write first will be the first words that the readers see. writing a story without knowing where it will go)
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7. Not knowing what the story is about- just having a random assortment of paragraphs that read beautify. (Note! The worst thing you can do in this situation is to add a murder scene and call your book "symbolic") You've probably encountered these books while taking a freshman English class.
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8. Pushing yourself too hard (such as saying “I’m going to write 10 pages a day!” or saying “Well, it needs to be a 450 page book and I need to submit it in 8 weeks”)
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9. Not wanting to write in the first place (A variation of this is just wanting see your name under the title of a book so you can impress your friends)
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10. The writer is distracted by outside things (such as constant phone calls, empty Pepsi cans touching your wrists as you type, or an annoying garlicky taste in the back of your throat)
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11. The writer’s mood changes (You were writing the book when you were pessimistic about humanity or the universe in general. The book, up till now, reflects that. However, life starts to get better for you and you now find that you can’t keep the story negative- but how are you to change things? Your character has just lost half his family in a car fire and has been moved into a foster home with child molesters.)
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12. The writer puts away the book he’s working on and then returns later after he’s become a more skillful writer. (If this is what’s happened to you, you probably said something like “I can’t finish this! My muse would never respect me again!”)

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This thread is intended to find solutions that deal with all of these. - and to find more sources of witer's block.

 

[Tamske]

For me it's (5) (+ procrastination, of course). Whenever I type directly in my word document, no matter if I know I can always edit it, I always want it to be okay directly. A physical separation between scratch (booklet) and neat (computer) does the trick for me.

 

[ObeyBunny]

For me it's (5) (+ procrastination, of course). Whenever I type directly in my word document, no matter if I know I can always edit it, I always want it to be okay directly. A physical separation between scratch (booklet) and neat (computer) does the trick for me.

For the current story I am working on, it’s numbers 3 and 6. The only reason why I’m doing chronological order is because I had this one scene in my mind that I thought was so cool (at the time) that I had to expand the story in both directions (by which I mean I think of stuff that caused the scene to happen, and things that occur as a result) just to have that scene in a story.

Unfortunately, the scene I was thinking of was at the end of chapter one. I also have a few stray scenes that I want to have eventually make their way into the book. Now I have the arduous task of filling in the gaps so that one story event leads to the next one logically.

 

[ObeyBunny]

Note! This is not a cure for writer's block, it's just a good practice I wanted to share with you guys.

You should have something new written down by the end of each week. I’m not telling you to write daily but you must have at least one sentence every week that can be put into a shoe box and used later when you’re writing prose.

It can pertain to a specific scene you have in mind, or it can be a generic statement that can be used anytime within the story (such as describing an emotion such as fear or longing.)
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Here is an example of some phrases and sentences that I have in my shoe box (or Microsoft word document) Please don’t steal these phrases, I still intend to use them

Scene specific:

• *Primitive alien (from a hunter-gatherer tribe) wakes up in an observation room and can't leave for 5 weeks* -He hated the door -that bitter, trembling anger born of (Suppressed) fear. What could be on the other side of this particular opening? More walls or perhaps emptiness. This wasn’t his earth, it was some kind of living hell.

Generic phrases:

• *being admonished* -head lowered, somewhat observing the carpet pattern underfoot.
• *some sad event*- A quick stinging sensation from my left eye to my right- and then the tears came.

 

[durentu]

Very good point- When I try to over analyze my own writing (while I’m writing) I just end up feeling like a teacher-ly third person watching someone else struggle putting together basic sentences (as stupid as it sounds, I end up remote viewing myself type.)

I forget which, but some famous writer would sharpen some number of pencils (I think 10?) and keeps writing until they are all down to the nub.

 

[ObeyBunny]

Note! This does not solve writer’s block, they’re just good practices:

• Keep a notebook and pen (or voice recorder) on you or near you at al times. (a pocket notebook in your purse, nightstand, backpack, and glove box) Don’t go to a restaurant and rely on being able to writer anything on their napkins.
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• While reading a story, stop in the middle of the chapter (or when ever the book reveals relevant information) and think of all the possible places the story could go from there.
  1. (Damien, the bad guy, dies? Well the book isn’t over yet so he’s either replaced by a new villain, was an innocent man all along, or he somehow has survived.)
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• Try an exercise where you read two paragraphs of a story and reword everything.
  1. Example: “I hit the ground, my face scraped along the pavement. I felt faint. I could taste the blood in my mouth”
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     might become
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  2. “The punch rocketed me to the ground at an angle and I ended up abrading my left cheek, ear, lips, and part of my forehead. Dizziness and the metallic flavor of iron washed over me in throbbing waves.”
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• Make mental and physical notes:
  1. Keep track of your story’s timeline, (how many events happen in a year? Wouldn’t that amount of danger make your character neurotic and paranoid?)
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  2. the physical geography of the land that is traveled and what landmarks are visible from where your characters travel *Make paper maps* (why wouldn't your characters find the lake temple if it's within a mile of where they are? What exactly is obscuring their line of sight?)
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  3. how your characters find things like food and water (for high fantasy stories where they're not near a grocery store),
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  4. and who your characters meet. (that crazy old man walks the road every day, what is keeping the villain from finding him and questioning him as to which direction you went?)

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• Keep lists of synonyms and antonyms for basic words:
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  1. Noise:
     -sound, racket, clamor, blast, blare, resonance, hum, echo, thud, crash, jingle, shout, scream, yell, screech, bellow, holler
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  2. Fight:
     -hit, shove, hurt, wound, kill, strike, punch, slap, beat, smack, batter, knock, push, thrust, heave, propel, jostle, throw, toss, manhandle, harm, injure, damage, spoil, slaughter, destroy,
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  3. Sad:
     -Weep, cry, sob, moan, wail, howl, blubber, depression, despair, sadness, gloominess, misery, hopelessness, melancholy, anguish, blue, unhappy, discontented, forlorn

 

[ObeyBunny]

Further help on getting into the minds of characters who you don’t agree with

Sometimes your evil characters are evil for no reason other than to give the protagonist a sufficiently difficult obstacle to face. This does not reflect well for you as a writer if major characters are lacking motivation.

But you, the writer, are a good upstanding person- you can’t squash a spider in your bathtub without feeling a little remorse, you can’t spread untrue and slanderous gossip about people without feeling like the slime at the bottom of a can of Vienna sausages, you can’t stand at a street corner and think about violently raping the people passing by without feeling revolted at yourself for being such a worthless burden on society who sooner deserves a slowly rotating knife in your neck than a cup of ramen noodles.

In truth, you can’t understand your story’s villain because you are too decent of a human being- so how are you to make him believable? How do you have your villain character justify his actions to himself?

Well, it comes from training yourself to think on both sides of the playing filed. Here are some exercises that will help you think in terms of both a villain and a saint.
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Exercise

In well supported essays, please outline both the benefits and detriments of some of the following. Try not to think in terms of morality. (I’ve made all odd numbers safe and sane, and all even numbers dark and gross):

1. Every student at a school should wear silk shirts and blue pants (mandatory uniform)
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2. Partial birth abortions for all humans on the face of the Earth for the next 20 years
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3. Handing out flyers that detail proper hygiene at a street corner
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4. Repealing the right to vote of all citizens who do not agree with you politically
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5. Building walls around neighborhoods and turning them into gated communities
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6. Increasing the types of crimes that would result the death penalty (rape= death sentence)
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7. Boring holes into the moon and digging tunnels (Colonizing the moon’s core)
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8. Putting 10% of the human population in stasis (suspended animation) indefinitely or until we want to free them or use them (like if a degenerative disease has made the remaining humans infertile)
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9. Making all the people who promise not to have children immortal, people who do have children grow old and die. Immortal people who have children are executed.

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Note! Supporting an augment must have proof and evidence. Simply saying “That’s pure evil” is not a good enough argument. Think of this as a debate- try to think of what your opposition would say and try to include reactions for it.

Here is an example of supporting and apposing arguments for number 2 (the abortion one)

• Argument for aborting all babies for the next 20 years:
  • Decrease the population so that each person has more resources for themselves
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  • Dead baby fetuses are good sources of stem cells. Advances in medical treatment can occur if there were more dead babies available.
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  • Children set fires, brake glass, piss on electrical outlets, steal coins and silverware and burry them, push random buttons on dangerous mechanical equipment, and do other such things that are dangerous and financially harmful to adults. The world is just that much safer without children.
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  • Companies that rely on child labor would become very identifiable- as they would go out of business or suddenly increase their prices to pay for adult wages.

• Argument against aborting all babies for the next 20 years:
  • Children’s immune systems tend to be better manufacturing antibodies than adults. The human race may go extinct if a virus came along.
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  • Companies that market things to children and pregnant mothers make up a large part of the tax paying businesses out there. The economy would be dealt a major blow if consumers for those businesses suddenly died or went away.
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  • Women (and men too, but definitely women) are biologically engineered to want to have children- an entire generation of people who are denied children can become depressed, suicidal, and slow workers. Not to mention, woman tend to put out more (hint hint) if they’re trying to get pregnant. Many men would be left getting even less sex.

This is a relatively easy assignment. It shouldn’t take you more than 10 minutes to do any of the questions. I did the example of some of the supporting and apposing arguments for number 2 in about five minutes.

 

[ObeyBunny]

Okay guys, I’m probably not going to update much between now and May 28, I should have been studying for my two remaining finals but I just got so tired of alternating between only two very much hated activities.

But please feel free to add your own content.

I’d love to hear how other people solve such problems as writer’s block, creating characters, writing interesting dialog, inserting twist endings, and stuff.

 

[Queen Kat]

I never have a writer's block, but I know many people who are often uninspired. The thing is, everything can inspire me (except math, maybe). Maybe you should open up to all the crazy things around you. Don't try to search exclusively in extreme things. I once wrote a story about a 67 year old woman who was pregnant of 17 babies at once, after I noticed that lots of women I know start having children very late, knowing that older mothers have more chances to get twins, triplets, etc. Just take little weird things and make them more extreme if you think it's necessary. That's always effective.

 

[ObeyBunny]

Here’s an exercise I think you will get a kick out of:

1. Go online and find some of the most heinous, unpublishable, badly designed, poorly written, nonsensical piece of shit stories available online- preferably short stories or episodic fiction.
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2. Read them- in small pieces so that you don’t loose your sanity- but read them.
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3. Read a few lines, or a few paragraphs, or even a whole page if you can muster the strength, and do the following:
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   1. Think about why this story is so fucking awful.
      • Is it that the characters are unlikable bastards?
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      • Is it because the narration doesn’t give you a clear sense of where the story is taking place?
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      • Is it that the wording is bland or, alternatively, bombastic and indecipherable?
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      • Is it that the characters don’t really make tough choices and the story, as it plays out, is chosen for them?
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      • Is it that the genera doesn’t make sense or interest you in the first place?
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      What about this unholy abomination- this spit in the eye of god- is the worst part of your reading experience?
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   2. Now, without reading all the way though, think about what could change the story for the better.
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      • Should the ‘Mary Sue’ character touch a magic stone that would make her a flawed human being?
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      • Should the characters start to attract reader sympathy by gaining some likable quality?
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      • Should the phraseology be tossed out the window and then rewritten with clearer, more impactful sentences?
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      • Should the magic carpet of connivance that has prevented the characters from making decisions on their own be swept under their feet- and then the rest of the story have the subplot of the characters getting used to making choices?
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      • Should the story suddenly change genres? Should it stop being a historical fiction and start being a romantic drama?
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      What would make the story suddenly interesting?
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4. Now finally (without reading all the way through) think of the many places the story can go to from where it started to what you think the corrections should be.

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So, to reiterate, you need to:

1. Find bad stories.
2. Think of why they are bad and how they can be improved.
3. Think of how the story would be if you made all the changes you listed in step 3, except you kept the way that the story started (the sequence of events)

 

[ObeyBunny]

1. Think of a story that you liked
2. Boil it down to its elements (the important characters and their interactions, the places they go and the new plot points that happen there)
3. Next, make a poem out of it.

Take Nightmare Before Christmas for example (this is the original poem that inspired the movie):

It was late one fall in Halloweenland,
and the air had quite a chill.
Against the moon a skeleton sat,
alone upon a hill.
He was tall and thin with a bat bow tie;
Jack Skellington was his name.
He was tired and bored in Halloweenland

"I'm sick of the scaring, the terror, the fright.
I'm tired of being something that goes bump in the night.
I'm bored with leering my horrible glances,
And my feet hurt from dancing those skeleton dances.
I don't like graveyards, and I need something new.
There must be more to life than just yelling,
'Boo!'"

Then out from a grave, with a curl and a twist,
Came a whimpering, whining, spectral mist.
It was a little ghost dog, with a faint little bark,
And a jack-o'-lantern nose that glowed in the dark.
It was Jack's dog, Zero, the best friend he had,
But Jack hardly noticed, which made Zero sad.

All that night and through the next day,
Jack wandered and walked.
He was filled with dismay.
Then deep in the forest, just before night,
Jack came upon an amazing sight.
Not twenty feet from the spot where he stood
Were three massive doorways carved in wood.
He stood before them, completely in awe,
His gaze transfixed by one special door.
Entranced and excited, with a slight sense of worry,
Jack opened the door to a white, windy flurry.

Jack didn't know it, but he'd fallen down
In the middle of a place called Christmas Town!
Immersed in the light, Jack was no longer haunted.
He had finally found the feeling he wanted.
And so that his friends wouldn't think him a liar,
He took the present filled stockings that hung by the fire.
He took candy and toys that were stacked on the shelves
And a picture of Santa with all of his elves.
He took lights and ornaments and the star from the tree,
And from the Christmas Town sign, he took the big letter C.

He picked up everything that sparkled or glowed.
He even picked up a handful of snow.
He grabbed it all, and without being seen,
He took it all back to Halloween.

Back in Halloween a group of Jack's peers
Stared in amazement at his Christmas souvenires.
For this wondrous vision none were prepared.
Most were excited, though a few were quite scared!

For the next few days, while it lightninged and thundered,
Jack sat alone and obsessively wondered.
"Why is it they get to spread laughter and cheer
While we stalk the graveyards, spreading panic and fear?
Well, I could be Santa, and I could spread cheer!
Why does he get to do it year after year?"
Outraged by injustice, Jack thought and he thought.
Then he got an idea. "Yes. . .yes. . .why not!"

In Christmas Town, Santa was making some toys
When through the din he heard a soft noise.
He answered the door, and to his surprise,
He saw weird little creatures in strange disguise.
They were altogether ugly and rather petite.
As they opened their sacks, they yelled, "Trick or treat!"
Then a confused Santa was shoved into a sack
And taken to Halloween to see mastermind Jack.

In Halloween everyone gathered once more,
For they'd never seen a Santa before
And as they cautiously gazed at this strange old man,
Jack related to Santa his masterful plan:
"My dear Mr. Claus, I think it's a crime
That you've got to be Santa all of the time!
But now I will give presents, and I will spread cheer.
We're changing places I'm Santa this year.
It is I who will say Merry Christmas to you!
So you may lie in my coffin, creak doors, and yell, 'Boo!'
And please, Mr. Claus, don't think ill of my plan.
For I'll do the best Santa job that I can."

And though Jack and his friends thought they'd do a good job,
Their idea of Christmas was still quite macabre.
They were packed up and ready on Christmas Eve day
When Jack hitched his reindeer to his sleek coffin sleigh,
But on Christmas Eve as they were about to begin,
A Halloween fog slowly rolled in.
Jack said, "We can't leave; this fog's just too thick.
There will be no Christmas, and I can't be St. Nick."
Then a small glowing light pierced through the fog.
What could it be?. . .It was Zero, Jack's dog!

Jack said, "Zero, with your nose so bright,
Won't you guide my sleigh tonight?"

And to be so needed was Zero's great dream,
So he joyously flew to the head of the team.
And as the skeletal sleigh started its ghostly flight,
Jack cackled, "Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!"

'Twas the nightmare before Christmas, and all though the house,
Not a creature was peaceful, not even a mouse.
The stockings all hung by the chimney with care,
When opened that morning would cause quite a scare!
The children, all nestled so snug in their beds,
Would have nightmares of monsters and skeleton heads.
The moon that hung over the new-fallen snow
Cast an eerie pall over the city below,
And Santa Claus's laughter now sounded like groans,
And the jingling bells like chattering bones.
And what to their wondering eyes should appear,
But a coffin sleigh with skeleton deer.
And a skeletal driver so ugly and sick
They knew in a moment, this can't be St. Nick!
From house to house, with a true sense of joy,
Jack happily issued each present and toy.
From rooftop to rooftop he jumped and he skipped,
Leaving presents that seemed to be straight from a crypt!
Unaware that the world was in panic and fear,
Jack merrily spread his own brand of cheer.

He visited the house of Susie and Dave;
They got a Gumby and Pokey from the grave.
Then on to the home of little Jane Neeman;
She got a baby doll possessed by a demon.
A monstrous train with tentacle tracks,
A ghoulish puppet wielding an ax,
A man eating plant disguised as a wreath,
And a vampire teddy bear with very sharp teeth.

There were screams of terror, but Jack didn't hear it,
He was much too involved with his own Christmas spirit!
Jack finally looked down from his dark, starry frights
And saw the commotion, the noise, and the light.
"Why, they're celebrating, it looks like such fun!
They're thanking me for the good job that I've done."
But what he thought were fireworks meant as goodwill
Were bullets and missiles intended to kill.
Then amidst the barrage of artillery fire,
Jack urged Zero to go higher and higher.
And away they all flew like the storm of a thistle,
Until they were hit by a well guided missile.
And as they fell on the cemetery, way out of sight,
Was heard, "Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good
night."

Jack pulled himself up on a large stone cross,
And from there he reviewed his incredible loss.
"I thought I could be Santa, I had such belief"
Jack was confused and filled with great grief.
Not knowing where to turn, he looked toward the sky,
Then he slumped on the grave and he started to cry.
And as Zero and Jack lay crumpled on the ground,
They suddenly heard a familiar sound.

"My dear Jack," said Santa, "I applaud your intent.
I know wreaking such havoc was not what you meant.
And so you are sad and feeling quite blue,
But taking over Christmas was the wrong thing to do.
I hope you realize Halloween's the right place for you.
There's a lot more, Jack, that I'd like to say,
But now I must hurry, for it's almost Christmas day."
Then he jumped in his sleigh, and with a wink of an eye,
He said, "Merry Christmas," and he bid them good bye.

Back home, Jack was sad, but then, like a dream,
Santa brought Christmas to the land of Halloween.

the end
Poem copyright Tim Burton​

 

[ObeyBunny]

A story with a happy or hopeful ending will take a bad situation and turn it into a positive one. (Example: man dies trying to save a stranger- stranger learns the meaning of unconditional love [and becomes a better person])

Time to practice reshaping negative things into forces that are for the greater good.

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1.
Think of your disabilities, or if you don’t have any, think of someone you know of who does.

Mine, for example, are:

1. Dyslexia,
2. dysgraphia (It’s the writing portion of dyslexia)
3. One eye that sees in 20-200 vision (bad vision)
4. The other eye that sees in 20 -40 vision
5. ADD (attention deficit disorder)
6. Cry baby syndrome (no further explanation shall be given)
7. Being a bit vindictive when I’m angry
8. Easily car sick/ plane sick/ boat sick.
9. Vertigo in low light levels
10. Shit loads of fears- I organize my life around safety.
11. My teeth have about $14,000 worth of work that needs to be done on them

(Good god, that sounds bad)
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2.
Next, Let’s put a positive spin on the things you listed- How they come together to give a person who has them strength of character. If they don’t, what do they teach others?

So for example:

• Dyslexia, dysgraphia- teaches patience. The people who taught me to read, and mechanically tell the difference between letters like “q,p,b,d” sure had to have a lot. If the people around me have a greater degree of patience, they end up treating the people around them more agreeably and tolerant. A father who has a son with terrible dyslexia tends to be a more sympathetic boss (if he has people working under him.)
  
• ADD (attention deficit disorder)- Probably teaches patients in others- as well as in myself. Although, it might just teach parents and school teachers to teach subjects in a more interesting or varied way. Teaching geography songs, putting on historically actuate puppet shows, creating flow charts for psychology- that kind of stuff. Although, with the invention of Riddlin, the positive aspects of ADD on other people might be lost.

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An exercise like this should help your character's struggles seem like "a cross to bear" that somehow benefits other people morally or spiritually. If the other people in your story are evil and are not going to be changed for the better, your character's struggles may just be something to teach the character to be a moral person.

 

[Tamske]

A few more generalities I've learnt among the way!

* Annoyance. If something annoys you in a work of fiction, try to explicitly define what it is and why. Then start to do better. If I ever use elves, they will have all sorts of skin colours. There are no real prophecies allowed in my fantasy stories. And if you enter the memory of someone, you'll see the scenes from that character's point of view, not as an onlooking bystander.

* Details. A few well-placed details can make a story, while a page-long description breaks it.

* The reader is stupid. This is - of course - not meant as an insult to readers. The reader never knows as much of the background and the characters as you know. Unless you show him, he'll have wrong ideas about your world and this can cause discord later on in the story.

 

[ObeyBunny]

A few more generalities I've learnt among the way!

* Annoyance. If something annoys you in a work of fiction, try to explicitly define what it is and why. Then start to do better.

This one is my favorite.

Using a technique that is similar to this one, I'm able to create some pretty darn good character motivation. And I’ve found that if you read a story (published by someone else) that you don’t like for some unnamable reason and then you investigate- you can pretty much fix the issue and make the story legitimately fantabulous.

"Rule of source of annoyance" (I’m now stealing the name because I like how concise you’ve made the concept) is one of the most cherished tools in a metaphorical writer's tool kit.