On Writer’s Block
When I tell people I’m a writer, usually one of the first questions they ask is Do you suffer from writer’s block? I’m not sure why this is; perhaps it’s curiosity about the writing process or where our ideas come from. The other two common questions I often get are: What do you write? and Are you going to self publish? which I’ll answer in separate posts. For now, onto that pesky phenomenon known as writer’s block!
Short answer: Yes, of course I suffer from writer’s block (I’m only human).
Long answer: Yes, but I don’t like to call it that. For me, if I’m struggling with what to write next, it usually boils down to one of three things.
Something Isn’t Cool Enough
Sometimes I’m unable to write because my inner editor isn’t convinced that something is cool enough.
For example, in my cozy mystery, part of the main character’s backstory is that she recently broke up with her boyfriend at work, but it took me a while to figure out the most unexpected way for this relationship to end. She could find out he was cheating on her by spotting him in his office with another woman… But that’s boring. Or she could receive an email meant for another lady at work… Closer, but still pretty generic. Wait, what if three women brought his favorite dish to the cross-departmental potluck? Eureka! That’s just quirky enough to work!
Going through this process with everything in a story can be staggering. What dish did the three girls bring? What was the main character’s reaction? What’s the main character’s cat’s name? Etc. But that’s what writing is. It’s constant re-writing and re-evaluating to make sure everything is cool enough.
Derailed Story
They say if you put a frog in cool water and gradually heat the pot to boiling, the frog will cook itself. That it won’t realize it’s in danger until it’s too late. Well, that’s what a derailed story is like.
Sometimes I get stuck because the plot has been slowly unraveling, but I didn’t realize until, pow, I have no idea what’s supposed to happen next (even if I have an outline). This leads to backtracking to determine where things went awry. It’s kind of like two (or three or four) steps backwards so that I can eventually take a step forward again.
This happened recently with my cozy mystery. I’d reached the end of Act 1, the first major Turning Point, but couldn’t figure out what to write next because there were clues that should’ve been planted and characters that needed further development early in the story. So, I took a couple steps backward and rewrote scenes, sprinkling in the missing pieces. And then, onward!
Unproductivity
Writing is like any job. Sometimes you have good days, and sometimes… not so much. Who knows why or when unproductivity strikes. It could be life distractions, a full moon, inconsolable cat, whatever. This one, in my opinion, is the hardest because it’s the most ambiguous to identify and toughest to conquer.
My tricks for when this happens: going for a long run, reading a book (or several), checking out an art exhibit, downloading new music, writing a blog post, really just doing something that inspires me. That gets the creative juices flowing so I’m excited to sit at my desk and work on my story again.
Writers: What forms of writer’s block do you encounter? And how do you conquer them?
What I’m reading: Diners, Dives, and Dead Ends by Terri Austin
What I’m listening to: The Hunger Games, Catching Fire Soundtrack (on First Play) – so excited to see this movie!
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