How to Fix Writer’s Block

There are four and a half million articles on Google trying to answer this question. I therefore feel it is fair to conclude that there are many ways to defeat the dreaded block.

I believe that writer’s block changes from case to case, and not only is it different from author to author, your writer’s block might require a different cure each time you catch it. You might figure out a way to fix your block one day, then next month you’ve caught a new strain and that walk outside doesn’t cure you.

While I can’t give you a fail-safe remedy, I can tell you what’s worked for me.

 

Acceptance:

 The first thing that needs to happen is the acknowledgement that writer’s block has indeed arrived. Sometimes I’m aware it’s happened after a few hours of staring at my screen, while other times, it takes several months before I fully accept that every time I sit down to write, very, very little is getting done.

Once I acknowledge this, I ask myself a question: is this my problem, or is it my book’s?

Does my book have a structural problem?

• Do I know why I’m writing this story? What are my goals? Do I need to go for a walk and daydream about seeing my book in a bookshop and talking to enthused readers about characters I’ve created?
• I also like to check in with my physical body, particularly if it’s only been a single bad day of writing. Have I had enough sleep? Am I hungry? Have I had enough coffee? Have I had too much coffee?
• And the big question: have I beaten myself up for not writing to the point where I’m too beaten up to write? Do I need to take a break?

Okay, so now I’ve rewritten my goals, daydreamed about my Booker prize, eaten carbs and reminded myself that J.K. Rowling and Jane Austen felt exactly like this, I can start to look at my writer’s block tactfully. I have two main strategies.

 

Strategy Number One:

I sit down opposite an empty seat and invite my character in for an interview. I transcribe this interview onto my laptop.

Me: Hi Alex, thanks for talking to me today. I have a few questions for you about what happened after London. Can you explain to me what happened after you left the city?

Then I wait and see if the character has a better idea than I do. If a question doesn’t work, I change it slightly. I might ask what they want to have happened, or what did they dread might happen.

The characters always know more than I do.

Strategy Number Two:

Writing sprints.

This is a useful activity if you’ve spent the last few months beating yourself up over how crap you are at writing. It’s useful if you don’t know where your plot is going. And it’s extra useful if your life includes five kids, a full-time job, and a moonlighting gig as a spy, because it only takes ten minutes a day. We’ve all got that.

How to do it:

 

• Find ten minutes of time, whether that’s before bed, during lunch, or after you’ve gotten up to pee in the middle of the night and can’t get back to sleep.
• Set a timer for ten minutes.
• Optional step three: turn the brightness on your computer to zero. Black screen. This is for the over-critical, obsessive re-readers. Don’t do it. It’s not time for that yet.
• Write for ten minutes flat. It doesn’t matter what you write. It doesn’t matter if it doesn’t make sense. You are unclogging the blockage, and it doesn’t matter what’s revealing itself. It just needs to come out.

 

You can repeat all these tactics as many times as you need until storytelling feels a little easier.

 

Writer’s block is the worst, but it doesn’t last forever!

 

 

Guest Blogger: Amie McNee