Writer's Block

Have you ever experienced writer's block? I experience it all the time. I get so overwhelmed with the size of my projects sometimes it’s even hard to start that first word. Which brings up a very important question:

What do you do if you are ever facing down a monster-sized deadline but your back is up against that ten-foot-writer's-block-brick-wall?

You have several options. You can:
A.) Run away, quit, give up, cry off, surrender, retreat, yield, throw in the towel, raise the white flag-- you get the idea. Basically all those things your critics are telling you to do, and sometimes even a small part of your own inner critic might be repeating the same words.

B.) Start from scratch and cross both fingers hoping that this time you won’t run into that brick wall.

C.) Call your agent/editor/publisher if you have one and beg for more time. (Perhaps you can come up with a fake story about how your dog has scriptor-clauses-itis so you‘ll be delayed one to two months as your pet goes through recovery. Feel free to embellish by adding medical-sounding ailments-- you are a writer after all!)

D.) Choose the harder route (the path less traveled by as Frost put it) and climb over the brick wall where you find that nice shiny sword so you can slay that monster deadline just in the nick of time.

Before you go crazy and chose A I want you to think why you are having that writer’s block. Also, if you decide to jump ship and try option B you are going to run into the same problem again-- it's only a matter of time. Option C is okay to use once in a while, but if you use the ‘sick dog’ card more than once they are more than likely going to drop you like a badly creased Pokémon card.

So yes, the last option, D is the best choice for any writer. But the challenge then is not just climbing the wall and slaying that deadline, but also finding out why there is a wall there in the first place. This can be a very large conundrum. Sometimes it could be something as simple as a character’s name not fitting right. Sometimes it can be as daunting as the disapproval of a loved one.

Often times I find myself unhappy with where the story is going. In that case I feel like I have painted myself into a corner and now-- not only do I have to wait for the paint to dry-- I hate the color of paint I’ve already painted. In situations like this the answer sometimes is just to wait for it to dry. You’ll find out maybe it needs another coat-- or ten. Many times after a brief vacation from my work, I’ll come back and find I like the base but I need to revise. Only a few writers are happy with their first drafts, such as Isaac Asimov, but most rewrite over and over until the words are just right. J. R. R. Tolkien took about 10 years to finish Lord of the Rings and he had notes that filled books and books on the history of Middle Earth. So the best cure for writer‘s block is time-- if you have it. Rome wasn‘t built in a day, after all.

But time is a luxury that some of us can’t afford. When there is a giant deadline looming and time is not an option I have another method that gets my creative juices flowing. When the words do not flow, I turn to other art and media to inspire me-- sometimes I’ll draw the character, sometimes a scene. Sometimes I’ll crank up my favorite rock band or power-ballad and let the emotive powers of music flow through me. Reading is also good, but try not to read work of other authors of the same genre that you are writing in as it might influence your style or voice.

What are your cures for writer’s block?