One the most frequent questions I get from readers and folks
that know I’m a writer is whether or not “writer’s block” truly exists. It’s one of those burning questions that
every writer faces at one time or another in their life and the answer for each
might be different. For me, I can tell
you, without a doubt, that writer’s block does exist. There are times when I’m working on a story
and my brain just sputters out. I’m not
talking about those times when I’m tapping at the end of a day and hit a great
breaking point so I decide to call it a night; no, these block moments are
times when the creativity just sputters out the way a lawnmower engine dies
after you flood it with too much gas.
Does that mean that I let those moments get the best of me,
walking away without a fight? Heck
no! That’s just not the kind of person I
am. So, when writer’s block rears its
ugly head, I fight back. There are a
number of different steps I take and some of them might help you too!
·
Push your way through it: Whenever my creative muse stutters and grinds
to a halt, I grit my teeth and try to blast right through the blockage. Basically, this means I keep on typing,
cranking out whatever words come to mind related to the story, no matter how
crappy they are or how ragged the sentences feel. Hopefully, after doing this for a little bit,
my creative engine will restart and after I groan at what I wrote previously, I
can pick up where I left off and continue with the tale.
·
Work on a different story: I’ve never been able to write just one story
at a time. It’s just not possible. Too many characters clamor for my attention
so I always have more than one “work in progress”. Whenever I get stumped with one, and pushing
through it doesn’t work, I switch over to another story for a bit. I find that the change in characters,
setting, and story line often pulls me out of the slump and I can eventually
switch back to the first one.
·
Work on something else creative: If pushing through and switching stories
doesn’t work, I’ll pull myself away from the keyboard altogether and work on
something else creative instead. It’s
important, to me at least, to keep the creative part of my brain active so if
writing doesn’t do it, then painting or making jewelry will often work and soon
I’m back at my first love, writing. You
don’t even have to choose something fancy to get creative with; if you have
kids, get down and dirty with them, doing some finger painting or arts and
crafts.
·
Do something to clear your mind: If all of that fails, I will get outside and
go hiking in the mountains, using the fresh air and the beauty of the outdoors
to clear my mind and calm my nerves. Perhaps
yoga or meditation works better for but whatever it is, sometimes you have to
go there to break through a block.
·
Take a break:
If none of those steps work, I know it’s time to take a longer break,
put away the keyboard and the idea book, and not think about writing for a
while. I still do marketing and keep up
my websites but I don’t attempt to write on any of my stories until I get the
itch again, usually some time later. My
blocks rarely ever take me to this point but sometimes when combined with the
stresses of life they do. I’ve learned
to let my brain recover and it always does.
So now you know how I deal with
writer’s block. How do you deal with it?
