Took a break, and now I can't write!

I took my break throughout all of December, and just got back into it, and suddenly, writing more than 1 page a day seems like an arduous task. My mind wanders off when it's not berating me for boring prose and not enough description, and unlike NaNoWriMo, when I do get into a writing funk and type furiously, Mom or Dad will snap me out of it to go help my brothers with some trivial task. Any help with this?

Are you writing a new story, and/or have you planned any of the story?

Well, one of the major problems I've seen people complain about is trying to find the motivation to keep going. Some people will listen to music to help them concentrate, others will have word sprints (seeing how much they can write in so much time) or go to Write Or Die (I've never used it, so I don't know much about it), people who write their stories on a computer tend to disable their internet connection. The most I can really suggest is finding a time and a place that you can write comfortably with fewest distractions.

The other problem I've seen is writer's block. For me, if I'm in between major events in one of my stories, then I tend to have it. But I've discovered that those in-between moments are a perfect time for character development.

Ah, I'm getting the same problem. Give yourself a word count. At the moment I'm editing (read: changing the tense from present to past, because it turns out in November I was a pretentious idiot) 5k words a day. No excuses. Light does not get turned off in the evening until it is done. After that, I'll be adding 1k a day until it's finished - I anticipate some time in March. I imagine once I've got this tense-changing business done that there will probably be a multicoloured sticker chart involved for carrot-and-stick purposes. But the thing is, we might not have November as an excuse any more, but the way to get writing is still the same: just do it. Just get it out. Don't edit. Keep writing, it's probably rubbish, but that's okay. Use Write or Die on it til it screams for mercy, right?

I can't seem to get started again either. I went back to the chapter where I left off and for the life of me I couldn't figure out how to pick it up again. I'm almost afraid to go back to it (which makes no sense, the file is not going to jump off my flash drive and beat me to death).

I used to write all the time, but then I took a break from it to get my grades up. Now I have 2 story ideas in my head, but for some reason I can't figure out a way to start either one of them. I have everything figured out for the stories, the titles, the characters, the plot, all of it. but for some reason they won't start.

It's a momentum thing. When you move you stay in motion and it takes effort to stop, when you stop, it takes a lot more force to keep you going.

I've had difficulty getting back into things, too. I only managed to crank out the end of a story a few years after starting by force of will, and it's the kind of ending that isn't quite "tacked" but does give the appearance of "she wanted to get this over with, and ensured everything would be optimal so it would play out right".

I still can't quite get into writing the other stories I have outstanding due to missing scene plans. Mostly my mind is just re-writing what I've already wrote so that it would go better, except I usually end up with three plans for a scene I already had instead of one plan for a new one. Stinks, really.

I had that issue at the start of December. I had the benefit of this being the final novel in my trilogy so I really wanted to get it done but I only had 50k and I knew it would be at least 100k. I can't do NaNo outside of NaNo!

But I can...Every day I sit down and write. When I want to stop I check my word count and say ''get to 96k then I can stop'. Or, more sadistically, 'get to the end of this chapter'. (Average chapter length 6k.) Although the first one meant I didn't sleep before going to work Monday. Worth it!

I was at 80k I think six days ago. I hit 103k last night. The book will probably finish at 110k and I can't wait to keep writing.

So you -can- do this. Just tell yourself how nice it will be to see that book in print. I like to get mine printed at Officeworks and bound there to edit it and boy does it feel good to see all those pages together. (Especially because the last time they did it the pages had a higher GSM than usual. Boy did I look like I wrote a lot!).

Just keep chugging and when you want to quit, write another 500 words. You might find yourself not wanting to quit after all.

I usually sit up in my room and listen to my MP3 player with the volume cranked up all the way so that way I dont hear anything but the music and my own thoughts.

During NaNo I feel like it 'it can't be crap' and then outside of NaNo it carries over when I want to write. It is incredibly frustrating.

Thanks for the advice, everyone. Writing is still kind of hard, but it's getting easier. :)

I'm facing the same problem. 18 day break in December, and I did nothing with it- well, I read 2 series start to finish, but I did nothing writing related, anyway. ^^; And my goal was to sorta continue writing after NaNo ended, but three days turned to a week, a week to a month, and a month till now. I think I'm setting a new couple of goals for myself. a) Roughly a (50k) NaNo a month (ignoring how badly I've failed in January). b) Sit down and just write or plot what I feel like writing for at least half an hour each week day and an hour on non-school days. *crosses fingers*

Let's do this! :)

Story of my life. Quit halfway through November and haven't been able to write more than 200 words since. My muse is bugging me but the words just won't FLOW. I like this novel—so why can't I finish it?

You can always come join us for the Feb March edition of the 60k in 60 days challenge (over in Life After Nanowrimo). You can click on the ticker in the second post to go to the site it was made on, make one up, post it, and then keep it up to date through those months so everyone can see how you are doing and harangue you if you fall behind. ;P

I have outlines for all of the stories that I am actually thinking up. I have 3 with plots and everything, but the 4th I am making up as I go along. Even WITH the outline I am still find it SO hard to write, I actually write in my notebook and don't type anything up until I am satisfied...I HAVE managed to get 1 1/2 pages done though (in 1 week, sadly)

Okay, now I kind of have the very same problem.
I took a break from my novel over Christmas; I just had no time for it, with all the things to do. Then I extended the break over New Year's, because I was to host our party this year. After that there was cleaning up, packing my stuff, traveling back to my place etc. And not to mention the fact that I wrote a couple fanfics in order to kill off some plot bunnies (Which didn't actually work; three one-shots just turned themselves into fully grown, novel-length stories. Brilliant -.-). Then I had a bit of a struggle coming up with a topic for my bachelor thesis. Finally, the temptation grew too much and I just HAD to play Silent Hill: Homecoming. After which I started yet another fanfic, yay me. At least, I now know what to write my thesis about...
All this stuff managed quite well to keep me from getting back to my novel again, and now after I've got almost all the paper work for college out of the way, I just can't get myself to go on with my novel anymore, although I so desperately want to finish it! What the hell am I supposed to make of that?!

tl;dr: I hate my life >.>

(Sorry if I bothered anyone, but I just had to get this out of my system...)