Daily Prompt: Writer’s Block Party
When was the last time I had writer’s block you ask? I often feel like more the accurate question is when don’t I have writer’s block. But to answer the question is wasn’t all that long ago. Last week, I think. I was getting ready to start a very key part to the novel I was working on, and I wasn’t sure how to approach it.
It usually happens when I come up to scenes I know need to be in there, or just after key parts that leave me wondering where to go next. I don’t always outline, and when I do it’s mostly just to put the ideas I’ve already come up with in chronological order so that I can possibly fill in the blanks. But even doing this can leave me stumped, because there’s only so far i can think ahead. I usually let my characters dictate the direction of the story, and while that should allow for less blockage they’re often as clueless as me.
In the case of last week’s writer’s block it was trying to link two things, bringing them together without it just being filler. I think I went about three or four days without really writing a word. It doesn’t help the blockage when I’m also too tired to write, so I couldn’t muddle through it by writing junk and hoping to get something out of it. I had to resort to one of my tried and true (but hardly productive) methods of working through a block: doing nothing.
Okay, so it’s not nothing, but it may as well be. I usually listen to my novel’s playlist and either play a version of solitaire or browse the humor boards on Pinterest. While part of my brain is doing something mindless I’m having conversations in my head with my characters. Or they are with each other, either crazy sounding way it usually works well for me. Even if I’m physically too tired to write I can at least jot down the ideas that come to me so I won’t lose them.
It’s the best way I know how to beat the thing that plagues every writer. Just as everyone has their own way of dealing with a cold, I think every writer is different when it comes to clearing out writer’s block.
How about you? How do you get rid of writer’s block? Let me know or post a link to your blog in the comments.
