Beating Writer's Block to A Pulp!

A lot of things can cause writer's block.  Sometimes life just throws so many curve balls at us that we're running here and there trying to help family, going from crisis to crisis, working a day job, keeping all our commitments, that when we finally sit down at the keyboard so exhausted, that nothing comes out.  We feel sad and hopeless and begin to believe that everything we've written is behind us.  This is the hardest part.

You have to believe, and you have surrender.  What did I do?  I kept trying to write.  I have several partial projects now.  I am a person who writes books and publishes, so I know I can finish a project.  But when flow stopped I turned to other things.  Exhaustion and not having a vacation in a long time made me rethink my options.  I still tried to write and squeeze out a paragraph or two maybe a page.  Then nothing for days.  So I joined a computer game.  I did beadwork.  I make flower barettes.  I researched subjects that has always interested me.  I looked around in the family tree and even came up with a Scottish castle.   I had even visited it years ago but didn't know then I  was family.  lol

A friend had once suggested a setting.  I didn't see a story there so I tucked that setting away.  A daughter suggested a type of book, which I didn't think I would ever write.   Then it rained.  Really rained and stormed and howled through the night.  I began to write like a flood unleashed the book I would never write.  The story poured over me and still is pouring over me.

So to beat writer's block, you have to believe.  You have to surender.  You have to know that even not writing will bring you back to writing if that's where you are meant to be.  Sometimes we need to recharge our batteries.  Be inspired.  Find that muse and dance.

–Susan

Susan Hanniford Crowley

http://www.susanhannifordcrowley.com

 

Filed under: A Writing Sirloin Tip, Helping Other Writers, Susan Hanniford Crowley, Writer's Life, Writing Topics