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Unsticking
what's stuck: head laxatives for the blocked writer
Author: Jody Wallace
Original Publication Date in Love Notes: March 2002
The week before this month’s SFR Newsletter (Science
Fiction Romance Newsletter), I was really busy.
I wasn’t boning up on the Sapphire nominees (that was December), I
wasn’t working on my article, I wasn’t tending a sick baby, I wasn’t
moving to a different city. No, I
recently signed up with my local RWA chapter, which has a “Book In A Week”
program. At the beginning of the
week, each writer sets his or her own goals (stretching is encouraged) and then
reports daily on the progress. I
thought, no problem, two chapters, and this will force me to sit down and write
instead of eat, cook, go to work, clean house, watch television, and so on and
so forth. However, I did not count
on having the dreaded Writer’s Block, even though I knew my plot was as stuck
as a truck in the mud and that’s why I’d been putting off my book anyway.
So this month, I’m going to present you with a very
different (for me) sort of article. Instead
of telling you about fifty-seven different websites, books or offshoot topics,
I’m going to list several writer’s block remedies that are proven to work
(by me).
1) My favorite
I discovered when I was working on the SFR
Choose Your Own Adventure. When
you write short episodes with choices at the end and then write out all those
choices, you begin to see a myriad of reasonable directions your characters can
take. So try thinking of your stuck
spot as a Choose Your Own Adventure: come
up with three logical selections of what could happen next.
Write all three scenes, making them relatively succinct, then come up
with choices for each of those scenes. When
the episodes are short, it is not as intimidating to tackle them.
Likewise, since this is sort of a “game” you can drop your serious
“Great American Novel” attitude, which frees you up to be very, very
creative. Just be aware that you
run the risk of becoming fond of *all* your divergent paths!
2) Try to (a)
go to sleep, (b) get frisky with your honey, or (c) drive somewhere in annoying
traffic. These are three activities
during which it is actually inconvenient for your stagnant mind to have a
breakthrough concerning the plot of your novel.
And thus, it increases your chances that the breakthrough will occur.
It’s a Murphy’s Law thing, and you might as well use it to your
advantage. It’s your decision how
to postpone your inspiring activity and flee to your computer, your legal tablet
or your fast food napkin. If that
postponement results in a very annoyed honey, just remind him or her that’s
what life is like with one of the world’s greatest writers.
Then duck.
3) Start a
poem, a short story or another novel, satisfying your stymied itch to invent.
As soon as you become involved in that endeavor, your first story will
probably light up like Las Vegas at night, and you will have to decide which one
of these tasty morsels to focus on. This
brain laxative functions like the previous suggestion in that, during the
creation process of a different text, it becomes inconvenient for you to return
to your initial one. But a bonus is
that there are no honeys to get mad at you and the new thing you write might
have more potential than the old thing. And
again, it’s your decision which one of these threads to follow.
4) Tell
another person about the plot of your book and its characters.
It is important that this person be your friend, because otherwise she
will not be able to sit through all the “um’s” and “you know’s”, but
it is equally important that this person not be familiar with your plot and not
be a fellow writer, or she might try to tell you about her own immobile
narrative in sympathy! In fact, if
this person’s favorite reading material is something other than your chosen
genre, you will have even more success. In
explaining your plot to your friend, she will probably ask you some very
pertinent questions and might suggest a few actions your characters can take
next. (If that suggestion is,
“Your hero should go soak his head,” be aware that you might want to tone
down his alpha tendencies!) Hearing
yourself fumble for the right words might also bring to light areas where the
book needs some reworking, anyway. After
you do that reworking, which you can approach as a task instead of breaking new
ground (Must find every instance where hero is mentioned and give him a
redeeming quality), the reason for your plot stickage might even disappear.
5) Change your
writer’s hat for one you don’t want to toss to the dog as a chewtoy.
Write an in-depth book review of a novel similar to yours or an article
about some aspect of the romance genre. In
forcing yourself into scholarly or instructive mode, it transfers you to an
entirely different train of thought. This
is not like suggestions two and three in that you will want to write when it is
inconvenient or like suggestion three in that it finds another outlet for your
urge to create, exactly. This one
changes your mental gears, maybe even your mental vehicle.
And since there are plenty of markets online for both reviews and
articles, you can even get it published and point to it, saying, “See?
I’ve been busy!”
6) Last but
not least, be sure to change your oil! Wash
your car, go for a brisk walk, pull weeds in the garden, mop the floors by hand,
run around the house screaming -- do something that gets your blood flowing and
*really* gets your mind off the feelings of failure you are probably
experiencing. Likewise, get away
from that blank slate and perform some task that is not only useful but has a
definite beginning and ending, which will ramp up your sense of accomplishment.
Household tasks that have to be done everyday don’t really work for
this... unless you don’t do them everyday!
And remember, you need to take a break every 3,000 words or miles,
whichever comes first, or the black smoke that begins to come out of your
tailpipe is going to offend everyone around you.
Love Notes, the official monthly newsletter of Music City Romance
Writers, is provided to paying members free of charge. If you are an MCRW member and would like to submit an article to
Love
Notes, visit the main newsletter page
for more information. If you would like to reprint one of these articles in your
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original source. For any other uses, please contact the
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