Writing Tips

Overcoming Writers' Block

With this chapter, I hope to help you to figure out what to write when you are stuck with a blank page on Chapter One. (Though it also applies to other chapters.)

I have seen a great many struggling writer wannabes (not meant in a derogative way as I, too, even as a published author, am a struggling writer wannabe), who want to be a writer, have an awesome story in their heads (like my husband who still hasn't started his), but have every excuse as to why they have not yet put a single word on paper. The only thing I have seen more than this? Writer's who have obviously struggled through their books until they get stuck and cannot go any farther. Sometimes the scenes feel forced, sometimes they flow great until the abrupt halt, and other times they haven't got but one word-- or none-- for the chapter.

Where do you start when you're stuck or haven't even started?

Well, obviously, I am BIG on planning ahead, but that doesn't work for everyone. Sometimes planning ahead will get you right into the mess you are in-- so overwhelmed that your pen doesn't even know what to do!!!

More complicated is that every writer has a different way of doing things. Because some things might not work for you, but other things might.

For a long time, I had to be in a dark room or hidden away in a closet with a small candle-like light to be able to see by just so I could write. I had to feel like I was in a world without electricity or other modern amenities in order to open up my pocket of creativity and pay the muse my fare.

Sometimes I had to hear music like Evanescence or FlyLeaf.

And something that's a bit twisted but true, some of the time as a child and then as a teenager, I had to be crying or be trying to hold intense pain inside to be able to write, because that was the only time the need to write was present. (Traumatic childhood issues.)  For those times, it was intensely important for me to get it out on paper so it could fade away and be forgotten before it strangled me and murdered me on the inside . . . Love for writing is born from a great many source points, and for a great many reasons. For some, it's trauma, for others, it's purely inspiration, and then for many, it's a mixture. The point is, every single writer finds something different that causes them to write, and once they write in a certain condition for so long, it is very difficult to change that. Often, they find themselves suddenly blank if they get a new office--or even a new pen. Facing life changes that are even as minute as that stupid (but important) pen issue can cause a struggle inside the writer that may make them feel as though their brains are about ready to pop. Grr!

If it is something that has changed that is causing your own writers' block, try to identify what is causing it. Replicate what sparks your writing inspiration, if that's an okay, healthy thing for you, or start exploring some new steps to make what has changed become your new inspiration point.

Now. Enough of my boring intro, here's what you are after. You must create your muse's nest so she will come to stay with you. She's already been sniffing around inside your head, so you might as well welcome her for good.

Scrapping:

My first tip is to come up with as many really cool phrases or titles you can for your book, and write them down in a list. Even if you find someone else's title interesting.

What does each make you think of when you look at it?

Alright. You have successfully poked the gelatinous gray matter in your head. Now go tear out every magazine picture you can find and glue it to a piece of poster board, or to several hole-punched pages for a binder. (Or do the digital variation of this, with screenshots and an inspiration board somewhere, like in OneNote or its equivalent.) Anything you think might be relevant to your story, like a rat thinks any piece of paper or cloth or trash is relevant to his nest.