Goodreads asked Twisted Hilarity:

How do you deal with writer’s block?

Twisted Hilarity My writer's block often comes because I can't think of what the characters would do next. My solution: flesh out my characters and their world.

Sometimes, I fill out character sheets that give me a bit more information - favorite foods, favorite sport, secret fears, that sort of thing. These can be very helpful, and often help me see where I haven't fleshed out my character. However, the problem I have with these is that they often don't engage my emotions. The character tends to feel like a list of facts, not a person.

I do better when I have a character that feels like a real person to me. So what often works best for me personally is to imagine short, emotional scenes from my character's life. If I'm very frustrated by the block, I'll go on a walk and imagine the scenes in my head. If I'm simply feeling blank, I'll write the scene down. Maybe the time my hero was picking walnuts during a rainstorm and was trapped in a tree overnight by a herd of wild pigs. Or the time my villain rescued a child from a pedophile because the little one reminded him of his brother who starved to death in the slums.

These tend to bring my characters to life in my own head. It may help me learn more about their culture, or their family, or their motivations and, quite often, what their big, red buttons are. Once I know them, their reactions in a given situation are as easy to predict as a good friend's would be, and the block usually disappears.

If I am REALLY stuck, to the point I can't even imagine a scene, I'll pick a few random things - a setting, an object - and think of what my character WOULD do with these. For example, a kitten in a bank vault. Just from that, I already have to imagine in what circumstances my character would encounter these, and how they'd react, and so on. If nothing else, it helps jump start my thinking a bit, and that can be all I need to things flowing again.

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