How do you solve writer's block? Do you take your inner child out for a treat? Do you growl at the dog until the dog comes up with a provocative response? Do you stare at the fish bowl and imagine what the different fish would do, if they were human and in the same predicament as your protagonist?
Meredith mentioned the fear of blockage in the six weeks following the publicity push for her novel, LADYKILLER. Like Meredith, I'm a sporadic writer (currently hiding from my manuscripts-in-progress), but unlike Meredith, I've never had one of my book-length mysteries published. Double Trouble! I have no evidence of my ability to get a manuscript all the way through the grinding mill and out the other end, a full-fledged published/promoted novel. And yet I'm not worried about writer's block any more. How can that be?
I've stockpiled manuscripts in various draft stages - from really rough to practically perfect (all things considered). They need revisions, but I need distance from them to see what's right and what's wrong. Even my current circulating manuscript no longer reads quite as perfectly as I thought it did, so I'm debating revising that AGAIN before approaching my next round of agents. Others might think I'm likely to fall off the trail and end up an unsuccessful, unpublished writer.
Hogwash.
There's no pill I can take or life lesson that will alter my fate. If you're a writer, it's in your bones. Life presents moments that jump-start my inner writer and force me to return to the keyboard. I bet it's the same for you.
There are several triggers that get me back to the laptop and back into writing mode.
Here are a few:
*Cleaning - enough said
*Reading a newspaper - odd balls show up every day - great potential characters
*Reading novels - especially mysteries - wonderful puzzles that kick my brain into gear
*Reading badly written novels - gets the old blood boiling
*Researching anything that's caught my attention - curiosity builds and I wanna share it
*Browsing through the library - ditto above
*Opening my emails and checking through my favorite blogs - endlessly provocative
*Watching the world go by at the food court or a park - life in grand variety requires comments
I like deadlines - especially since I'm mostly working on my own or taking on a writing competition. When I have a deadline I'll bulldoze my way through writer's block or skip right on over the section that's got me blocked. Lots of trees die as I squander words on paper. It isn't pretty, but eventually something gives.
When writer's block hits and there's no deadline, I try to ignore it. I go do something else (as the above list suggests). By not fighting it, I'm open to all sorts of stimuli that quietly chew away at the blockage. A good nap usually helps, but so does a trip to the mall's food court. Especially if there's a hot fudge sundae in the mix!
How do you handle writer's block?
Write On!
Nan
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Fighting Writer's Block
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3 comments:
Nan, right next to the sticky on my monitor that says: "Don't write it right, write it down," is another sticky that says: "You're a writer. Write."
That usually does it. Terrie
I have the wall in front of the computer covered with little sayings that I find helpful.
Hot fudge sundaes! I took one home as a pet once and now they follow me everywhere!
For me, the writing's often no good when I'm depressed or tired. I have to be careful to stoke my own fires, especially when work deadlines are getting me down (as they are right now. Heavy sigh.)
Walking helps. Daydreaming helps. Reading anything helps. Gardening helps. My cat's silky plume of a tail helps. Talking through the plot with a writing group friend helps, because often it's a plot problem that brings me to a screeching halt. Free-writing in-character helps. Asking what my characters are thinking or feeling in a given scene helps.
TV doesn't help. And much as I love doing it, wandering the web doesn't help either.
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