How to you get in the mood/beat writers block/apathy?

I want to write but i have been staring at a blank screen for 4 days...

I have no idea...

Only four days? I get it, that feels like a lot.

I just came out of a 70 day stretch. Yes, over TWO months! Had to take a break from the site for a while. Then I was hit with some inspiration out of the blue this afternoon. Wrote two short stories for KimmiBeGood’s comp and started outlines for three longer stories. Being summer, I am usually pretty active, so who knows when those stories will be ready.

Don’t force it. Take some time, step away from technology, and it’ll happen.

And if all else fails, you can always fall back on porn and/or kinky role play in the chat rooms. I am sure that one of the two (or both!) have lit a fire under more than a few authors. lol

Personally, if I don't have an idea that I'm excited about, then I don't spend time trying to write. I know you (Manda) often have multiple series going at once; when I'm in that situation, if I'm feeling stuck with one, I'll gravitate towards the other. But I never sit down and decide "I want to write a story now" without already having an idea.

We're all different, thank goodness, but for me, not thinking about it at all works best. No barriers of fretfulness to get in the way then, when the creative juices do start trickling again.

Read other people's stuff. Works for me.

Honestly? I suffered from writer's block recently, and also, I poured a lot of my energy last year into an 60,000-word story that drained every desire to write, and I had to ditch it or stop writing forever. What did I do to revive the need? Porn films. Seriously. Not the fake rubbish. There were countless really good porn films made in the 70s, 80s, and even today. Find the subtitles, and watch them. I watched a few, not just for the aesthetics (although the women and men were delicious) 😳 and some of the stories are excellent. It worked, and I took inspiration from these to start writing again.

That or read, read, and read some more.
Also, some kind soul has put this book up online. Read it, especially the preface, you are among friends of an old dilemma. https://todhartman.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/anais-nin-delta-of-venus1.pdf

I've been in a funk for months. Mainly due to personal issues (elderly parents), but also simply a lack of time and energy. I usually have 2 stories I'm working on, and another 2 that I've scribbled a rough outline, but the past 6 months I simply have not had the desire to finish any of the stories. I have usually found that if the story has a "special event" (4th of July, Valentine's Day, etc) that I can power through a writers block, but that has not been the case this year. My suggestion: watch porn, masturbate, have sex.

I haven't drafted anything in over a year. Anything published within this last year were old drafts that I finally edited. I still have 11 to edit, but even editing makes me grumble.

My reading has fallen off a lot this year, which doesn't help matters, but my desire to read is slowly coming back. With that, hopefully my will to outline and draft will return also.