Writer's Block

Like anyone else out there who writes, I get writer's block, but fortunately, I do have strategies that help me work through it. Sometimes my strategies work and sometimes they don't, which is why I need several in my tool kit to choose from.

There are times when I can write for several hours straight without interruption, and end up with 3 to 4,000 words in one sitting. Other times I can write and meet my 1,500-word goal for each session. Then there are the times that I can only get a paragraph or two done, or tweak what I've already written and call it a day.

I'm not always able to write every day. I work all week as a teacher, so when the end of the day arrives, sometimes the last thing I want to do is think or plan, or write. Some evenings I don't have the frame of mind to do anything other than watch mindless TV and veg for the night. This means that I could go a whole week before working on my book again.

Before I can get started writing I often times need to reread what I've already had, which tends to lead to lots of revising and editing. This process takes time, which means I need to be willing to dedicate several hours at a stretch to accomplish this. It takes a while to read what I already have, then I end up getting caught up in my story and I lose track of time.

Once I get back into the story, though, I'm able to continue with it. Depending on how long this takes depends on how many days I've gone since I last wrote. Then, as I mentioned above, I could write between 500 to 4,000 words in one sitting.

Staying focused can often be a challenge. There are times when I can sit down pretty much in the thick of whatever might be going on, like my kitchen table with the TV on, and just get right into the story. Other times, though, getting focused is the largest hurdle. 

One strategy that I use is listening to brown noise. Yes, I listen to a version of static that seems to really help me focus. I've tried white noise and soft ambient sounds, but brown noise really seems to help me the most with focusing. It downs out noise from around the house, and there's something about the tone of it that just helps with being focused.

If I'm in one of the spare rooms writing, I can't get away with closing the door to muffle the noise in the rest of the house, because as anyone who has cats or dogs know, nothing gets their attention more than a closed door. Next thing you know they're scratching or whining wanting to come in just long enough to snoop around and then walk back out again. The door is still wide open.

Patches supervising me.

One more thing that helps me is a window. I know it seems silly, but being able to look up and see the trees swaying or birds flitting back and forth from the feeders, is sometimes enough for me to give a slight distraction that helps me stay focused.

A deceivingly beautiful morning. It's 0ºF!

In spite of my strategies, sometimes I can't get into what I'm doing enough, so I work on my outline, deciding the events that I want to take place, making notes in my writer's notebook about the details I want to include, or working on my characters or settings. Or even do one of the exercises I described in my previous post where I'll use a key work, like the name of a character, for example, and write whatever comes to mind for a bit. Sometimes it's fairly easy to do, but there are other times when I struggle to do this for just five minutes.

When the best-case scenario happens, and I can get focused enough to write, magic takes place. At least I feel it's magical. I might have outlined what I want to happen in the book, but when I get started writing, the story starts telling itself. It just begins to flow. Details come out, the action takes place, and the characters begin to develop and become real.

These are some of the things that I try when I'm stuck with my writing. It's not that I don't know how I want my book to go, because I could give you a summary of what will happen in it. But it's the details, the development of my characters, my settings, and the lead-up to any events that take place. But I'll stop here. I want to leave something for another post.