Writer’s Block
Hey, y’all! I hope everyone had a great Memorial Day weekend (as much as anyone can with a pandemic going on). Also, I would like to take a moment to thank the veterans who served our country and those who are serving us now. Thank you for protecting us and our freedom.
It’s been a while since I last posted—and I’m doing my best to keep up a schedule so I don’t go dormant—but I wanted to take a break from social media and the works Monday and just write in peace for once. As I was writing, I became stuck in what’s better known as writer’s block.
What is writer’s block exactly? Well, the simple explanation is when your creative juices have dried up and you don’t know where to go next with the story. To add further context, it’s pretty much when your Muse has decided to stop talking to you and is giving you the silent treatment.
Everyone gets writer’s block—even artists and musicians, though theirs might be called something a little different. The main thing you need to know about it is this: Writer’s block is the worst thing for a writer/author. Especially since our jobs hinges on our ability to punch out those words and create amazing story lines, plot twists, and character growth.
That being said, I have hit that block with my second novel in the Crymsen Crescent series and I’m struggling to climb over this stone wall. However, if there is one great piece of advice that I received long ago, it’s this: Keep writing. Even if it might be trash and you hate it, keep writing. You can always go back and change it later or add more detail here and there. I know this, but I still struggle with applying that piece of advice, so the best tip I can give to young writers is this:
Don’t give up on your novel or story just because you don’t have a clue what to do next.
It’s beyond critical that you “keep moving forward” as Walt Disney once said. Keep writing that story, even if you have to go back to the drawing board and rethink a scene or two. That’s okay. Do you know how many times I went back to the drawing board on my novel? I couldn’t even tell you because I lost count. Brainstorming is a part of writing and taking a moment to do that every day is perfectly fine.
Alessandra Torre encourages new authors to do the what-if game, where you look at scene from several different angles by asking yourself what if. For example, what if Cinderella didn’t meet her fairy godmother but still went to the ball? What if Prince Charming never danced with Cinderella at the ball but he did meet her somewhere else?
Playing the what-if game really helped me when I was writing my first novel—in fact, my original plan for the novel changed after doing a what-if. The overall plot may have been the same, but the way I finished it and the tiny details in-between changed.
So, if you’re novice writer or thinking about writing your own novel one day, don’t give up on your book or story just because you have writer’s block.
Brainstorm. What-if. Keep writing.
And remember, you got this.
What are some of your tricks to beat writer’s block? Leave a comment below and let me know!
