WHAT TO DO ABOUT “WRITER’S BLOCK”
I’m asked about writer’s block often enough at book signings. I’m never quite certain what the person’s concept of the phenomenon is, and personally I dislike the phrase. What is it? It could be the inability to decide where the story’s plot goes from a certain point, but Terry McMillan once said that it’s when the writer simply gets “bored,” and by that I assume she means bored with, or tired of, the story, which is like a death sentence for a writer.
I have never had “writer’s block,” for want of a better term. Let me modify that declaration: I have never had writer’s block on a story I am enjoying writing. Once I tried to write a novel with the German colonization of Ghana as the background. The opening scene saw a group of high-end Germans sitting around in a drawing room smoking cigars and drinking brandy. At the end of two pages, I realized I was stuck, but the real problem was I didn’t like the story, felt no connection with it, and hated the characters. It was a writer’s block in a way, but it was also my subconscious informing me that this was not a topic I was excited about writing.
Now in 2014, in a way I have come full circle in my third Darko Dawson novel, Murder at Cape Three Points, because Cape Three Points (CTP) is the area of Ghana that the Germans did briefly colonize, but now I was writing about it from a different perspective through the medium of a contemporary murder mystery, my undisputedly favorite genre.
CAPE THREE POINTS, “LAND NEAREST NOWHERE”–GHANA
(Image: ghanawestcoast.com)
Only a few kilometers away from CTP is the village of Akwidaa, where the nearby forest contains the ruins of the seventeenth century Fort Dorothea, one of the oldest forts in Ghana and a former trading post for the Brandenburg African Company. There is now very little to see of this fort and without preservation it’s likely to eventually crumble into nothingness.
RUINS OF THE FORT DOROTHEA (Photo: Kwei Quartey)
Just as I did, Darko Dawson visits these ruins with his wife Christine in the novel. So when I made that miserable attempt to write about German colonizers with whom I could not relate or about whom I did not care, I could not have known that the topic would resurface decades later in a different fashion: a relevant, relatable form in the context of which I would not come to a roadblock in my writing. Which is a roundabout way of saying:
First requirement for not encountering writer’s block: be sure you are writing something about which you care and feel excited. I don’t consider the maxim “write what you know” sufficient. I know medicine, but I’m not that drawn to writing a medical thriller. I’ll leave that to Robin Cook.
Second: Set it up right. The setup of the story should be like a coiled spring, the release of which propels all sorts of consequences and situations that complicate the story and demand solutions.
Third: Consider writing a synopsis. At first, I didn’t like synopses, priding myself in saying that I write cold and what happens happens, but now I find that they act as a roadmap to the final destination, reducing anxiety about “what’s going to happen next.” I think writers who decry synopses (and Terry McMillan is one) fear being constrained by the synopsis, but there’s no reason why that should happen. It’s like a journey from point A to B. You can leave the highway to stop in at a visitors’ center or coffee shop, but you still know where you’re going even though you hadn’t originally planned the detour.
Fourth: If you do get to a point where you feel like you’re stuck, don’t panic. These things have a way of sorting themselves out, especially if your setup is good. Sleep over it, and you might be surprised in the morning that you have a solution.
Fifth: If all else fails, consider doing the story over or abandoning it completely. I almost cringe to say the latter, but it’s better to abandon early than wrestle with it till late. This is one situation that a synopsis might obviate, because during the creation of the synopsis, you’ll have the opportunity to see what works and what doesn’t.
Happy writing.
