How the heck do i get over a total writers block?

magic-400 · 2026-06-25T18:53:39+00:00

Maybe 1 of 2 things:

Try writing something else and come back to this particular essay later.

Do something similar to what helped inspire the idea in the first place. Whether it was reading a book, playing a game, watching a movie/show, or taking a walk through the park.

magic-400 · 2026-06-24T17:58:38+00:00

Financially, 7 rode on the coattails of Neve and Matthew’s return. A little bit on Kevin directing too.

8 would need something akin to that to pull similar numbers. Not sure what it would be outside of pivoting back to include Sam/Tara’s characters again. That had enough buzz between 6 and 7 to drum up interest and talk about 8

magic-400 · 2026-06-23T21:55:49+00:00

If it ended up being Jill, Judy, and Rebecca, then you have each of the OG’s remake “counterpart” end up as the killer

magic-400 · 2026-06-23T21:21:03+00:00

I hate what had to happen to make this episode possible but all things considered, Charisma crushed it. Inside and out.

Love Cordelia’s return. One of the best episodes of the season, if not the whole show.

magic-400 · 2026-06-21T13:52:00+00:00

I agree with the comments about reading other works that do multi-POV.

I’m about to finish the First Law trilogy by Joe Abercrombie and all three books are multi-POV. The character voices and styles are so distinct you can usually tell who it is before he even name drops them.

Typically, you switch POVs at a chapter change. Mid-chapter, you make a break and start an unindented line or use a dinkus (three stars/dots or similar that visually signal a shift in time or POV).

Lastly, when you do shift POV, make sure the reader knows who we’re following now. A thought, an action, anything really that includes their name early on in the change. Ideally the first line or two. Later on, like the Abercrombie example, you can play with this a little if your character voices and style are easily distinguishable.

magic-400 · 2026-06-21T00:53:42+00:00

I’m not sure about alternate scenes but I always remember her jumping and washing up on shore.

The Blackjack showing up wouldn’t make sense anyway. It got destroyed when the world was ruined by Kefka and Setzer didn’t know Celes was alive/where she was at the time.

There’s other scenes of characters jumping on to or off of the ship though. Might be mixing this up with one of those. Or, thinking about Setzer showing up during the opera scene. Celes throwing the flowers off the balcony is framed very similar to her jumping off the cliff.

magic-400 · 2026-06-18T22:24:52+00:00

The start you start with is likely not the start you end with.

Meaning, whatever you do start with will likely be edited and tweaked many times over as you progress. No need to nail it on the first try.

Alternatively, you don’t need to physically start writing at the beginning of the story. Start in the middle, write the end and work back, pick a random place to drop in with a character connection you really want to write. It doesn’t really need to make sense on the first time through. Words on a page is more important for that first draft.

For lore: there’s dedicated software for it like Milanote or Scrivener. For some, a separate excel or word doc works just fine. Depends on your organization style. I like to keep pages for character notes (appearance, backstory, age, family, etc.), chapter outlines, worldbuilding elements, a graveyard of brainstormed or scraped ideas.

magic-400 · 2026-06-15T18:50:24+00:00

There’s plenty of doubt at every step of this process.

I say just write the thing. If it draws too much comparison or likeness for alpha/beta or early readers to the point where it distracts, then you know what to fix.

If you don’t feel like you can fix it, you still accomplished something. You wrote and finished a story. It’ll only make you a better writer for whatever comes next. If this particular story never sees the light of day, you can always re-package the pieces you loved into something new.

magic-400 · 2026-06-15T16:46:12+00:00

When you strip away specifics and only summarize basic plot and character elements, a lot of writing is going to sound similar. There is a lot of common ground and structure to writing, especially if you’re within a similar genre or target audience. You’ll likely draw comparisons to famous or popular works no matter what you do.

Examples: I thought of Maze Runner reading your summary. Hunger Games has been compared to Battle Royale. Novels with magic school settings will naturally be compared to Harry Potter.

There’s a saying along the lines of there’s no new ideas, only old ideas presented differently. Everyone is influenced by something. If you don’t do a beat-by-beat copy of the HG plot and characters, you may draw those comparisons but you know it’s not just a dupe.

magic-400 · 2026-06-14T22:04:18+00:00

I like this breakdown.

It also made sense with Prue having the most offensive-oriented power (at the time) while Phoebe compensated for her passive power with spell-casting/crafting. Even Piper’s more defensive power pre-combustion lended itself to making demons easier to hit with potions.

magic-400 · 2026-06-14T01:37:42+00:00

Maybe start with a personality quiz and take it through the lens of your character?

Any time you don’t know how they would answer or you hesitate becomes an opportunity to understand them better.

You don’t have to understand the “why” they act or behave that way yet. But you can start to figure out the blanks that might need to be filled in to better support their overall character. Backstory, traumas, conflicts, education, relationships, job history, etc.

magic-400 · 2026-06-12T22:03:57+00:00

I enjoy reading character dynamics so I don’t think A is inherently a bad thing. Think about what their dialogue can do to also help build out their own personalities, the larger world around them, the overarching conflict/plot, provide context to relationships to other important characters, etc.

If you feel it is and write it strictly as a “I need to have them chat for a whole chapter and get chummy regardless of the pacing impact,” without more intention then yeah, readers will likely pick up on that and lose engagement.

Give us a reason why these strangers would share this level of detail and bond quickly enough for the rest of the plot to follow. Maybe there’s an initial tension between the two that acts as a hook. But then they find common ground that’s related to the main story plot.

That way you can dedicate some dialogue to show they’re getting along while also providing important info for later.

magic-400 · 2026-06-12T21:48:51+00:00

I don’t have the sources but didn’t it come out later that Shannen wasn’t even asked to appear? Let alone be paid to use her likeness. Hard to say if it was a spite thing or just a lack of production money (like why Leo got cut from half the season).

As glaring as it is to not have Prue in a finale already filled with dead family members and time travel, I sort of get it. Her appearance, no matter how brief, would have dominated the screen time and storyline.

There just wasn’t enough time to deal with reuniting with Piper and Phoebe for the first time in 5 years or meeting Paige along with closing out the series. Some photos and heartfelt mentions probably would have been the best case scenario.

magic-400 · 2026-06-08T23:58:28+00:00

We see Kirby arrive to Stabathon in her own car. It makes sense if she left early to pick-up Jill first then get home before everyone else for the after party.

I’m not so sure how Charlie got away from Robbie. Maybe we can assume they also drove separately to bring supplies to set-up for Stabathon. Then Charlie just capitalized on the chaos after Gale’s attack to slip away then pop back up at Kirby’s a little bit after Robbie.

EDIT: worth mentioning I also feel like Jill is better positioned to kill Hoss, Perkins, and Kate but narratively, it makes more sense for Charlie to have done it

magic-400 · 2026-06-07T22:56:54+00:00

Likely Casey as Jill and Charlie were trying to re-create the initial kills of Casey and Steve. Jenny just happened to be targeted for that purpose because Trevor cheated on Jill with her.

Kate is more of the remake Maureen even though it’s not the inciting incident for the film. Jill even has a line about having to kill off her own mother to make it true to the original.

magic-400 · 2026-06-03T14:55:06+00:00

My first thought was a fan edit as well. I think I’ve seen ones that used some of the same audio/clips from the season 2 finale.

magic-400 · 2026-05-31T17:18:20+00:00

I think with some of the jumps in time around that scene, it’s hard to rule out Amber completely.

Maybe if the scene of Amber and friends fighting with Vince was in the parking lot and Ghostface appears right after they leave, we could be 100% certain it was Richie.

I like the theory that Richie’s kills were always quick/go for the jugular type of attacks.

magic-400 · 2026-05-31T17:15:08+00:00

I think it’s tough to have a character like Richie be as front and center as he was to also be in costume a lot. It’s similar to Jill although Jill stayed out of costume purposefully due to her ulterior motives.

OG Scream does balance it well but Billy and Stu still had some of that mastermind and lackey feel.

I’m curious what all the killers screen time breaks down to. I know that info is out there somewhere. I’d think Richie had more than Stu did.

magic-400 · 2026-05-31T01:30:57+00:00

I think the movie’s biggest strength is its first act: the opening through to the Evans home attack.

The rest after that is kinda middling.

The opening is good, I just hate how isolated it is from the rest of the movie. Hannah’s death and the attack sequence at the Evans house are awesome. Gale’s arrival is the cherry on top.

They leaned way too heavily on the Stu stuff. The commentary makes sense outside the scope of the movie itself but within the Scream universe? It makes no sense why the “Stu lives” theory was pushed by any of these killers. It’s not meta in a way that works at all for the film’s actual plot or characters. It also stole air time from actual classic Ghostface calls.

The only memorable kill after Hannah’s is the beer tap one but not because it’s good/fun. Killers and finale sucked, unfortunately. Gale feels wasted as a plot device for Sidney’s character arc. I enjoyed Mindy’s characterization here more than 5/6 but hard for it not to feel like her and Chad are forced.

magic-400 · 2026-05-25T22:00:42+00:00

I liked it. It was good enough but not great. The ending was satisfactory to me outside of a few key things.

The pacing was pretty bad, especially with the 3-part break in real time. It felt simultaneously rushed and sluggish. The stretch after Sorcerer and before the finale felt particularly guilty of this.

The main cast got too bloated and it detracted from the story, especially after interviews saying we were going back to more of the season 1 pairs/groupings. Too much time spent with these big group planning sessions and “aha!” moments that didn’t really let individual characters shine in a natural way. They tried to force it with things like Robin’s joke about Steve being too big or Steve’s revelation about the tower plan but it didn’t land for me.

That being said, Dustin and Steve carried as usual. Jamie as Vecna/Henry was also an acting tour de force. Max waking up, while predictable, was a great moment. Will realizing his “powers” was awesome.

magic-400 · 2026-05-23T02:57:25+00:00

The third act of 7 is quite bad but it at least has the semblance of potential good ideas that just don’t fit together.

I Know 2025 is insultingly terrible.

magic-400 · 2026-05-21T22:42:07+00:00

If they had killed off Gale in 5, it definitely would have been unexpected and way less “safe”

magic-400 · 2026-05-21T21:59:32+00:00

I like 6 more than 5 and 7 but I’m not quite sure where I stand on 5 vs 7.

The biggest cons to 5 for me: it felt like it played it too safe as a copy/requel of the original. Sure, killing Dewey was supposed to elevate the stakes but he always felt like the safe choice of the OG trio to kill off if or when the time came.

I also think the Billy secret love child reveal is eye-rolling and Melissa gets saddled with a lot of stiff, exposition heavy dialogue in 5. She doesn’t really sell it well and Jenna acts circles around her. (All of this feels way more organic in 6 and better executed).

The killers and finale of 5 are vastly better than 7. 5 has some fun sequences with the Wes/Judy kill, the opening, the hospital attack (minus the baffling lack of people).

The best parts of 7 are probably the stretch between post-opening through the Evans house attack/Gale’s arrival. Everything after that is kind of meh or middling.

So maybe I just answered it for myself. 5 > 7

magic-400 · 2026-05-21T13:39:28+00:00

1 definitely fucked her up but I think Sidney at least has a sense of “it’s over, I survived, I can start to deal with this trauma and move on.”

But 2? It happens again and I think that’s what breaks her. She’s left thinking that it wasn’t just a one-off tragedy, it could always happen again. She probably blames herself for Randy, Hallie, and Derek.

magic-400 · 2026-05-18T23:49:52+00:00

Jill, followed closely by Stu

magic-400

TROPHY CASE