Have you ever sat down to write and there is nothing? As my lead protagonist would say, “zip, nada, zilch.” There could be a few reasons as to why this has happened, but here are the big three.
ONE: You haven’t really got much of a story (yet), it’s the last shred of meat on the carcass type thing, and you are trying to do too much with way too little.
This one is annoying, but also fairly simple to overcome. You’ve got your notebook and pens at the ready, go for a walk in nature, NO TECH ALLOWED. Yep sunshine, it’s just going to be you, your Bible, and your brain. Find a nice spot, sit down, open the notebook, and watch the birds and the ants, or make pictures from the clouds.
Very soon you’ll start getting glimmers of ideas, even entire pages of notes. Bits here, bits there, bits everywhere. It might not be the entire novel, but you’ll be able to move ahead with your work.
TWO. There’s something that you don’t know, but you don’t know that you don’t know, so you don’t know how to fix it. Whichever one, it’s coming through as Writer’s Block.
Not as easy a fix as the last one, but still doable. Again, you’ll be writing things, only this time it will be in your writer’s journal.
PROMPT: Dear Diary (or however you wish to begin) I’m really worried about my progress with [name of work], I just can’t seem to figure out [situation].
Free write for a while and see if something comes up. It could be that Great-Aunt Millie stole the silverware, and that’s why Georgina Thappleweight now has nothing to fall back on as her ancestral mansion is repossessed and developed into condo’s, but you don’t know that until you’ve written half a page.
If this doesn’t work the first time, then try again tomorrow, you will come up with something.
Of course, it could be that your characters want to take you places where you don’t want to go, so you’re fighting the process. To quote Stephen King “A good novelist realises he is a secretary, not God.” If this is the case, then suck it up cupcake, because if you keep up that fight, you’ll lose. Oh, you may finish the work (eventually), but it will never be as good as it could have been.
THREE: Paradoxically, sometimes your writing comes to a screeching halt when things are motoring along brilliantly (think one of those European roads with no speed limit). Yep, it’s all happening so fast, and the writing is pouring out so effortlessly that it must be absolute… crap.
Of course, that may well be the case BUT it might also be that sneaky creature known as imposter syndrome. Dunh, dunh, DAH.
Yep, it’s a fact, writers have to exist at both ends of the spectrum simultaneously. We must be egotistical enough to believe that we can pull this elephant out of the milk bottle, and humble enough to realize that the writing comes through us not from us. Then, when it’s time to edit, we have to lay the ego even further aside so that we can mercilessly vivisect our babies.
Good times had by all.
And there you have it, three simple ways to get yourself out of the doldrums and back into clear waters.
If this article helped, then you may want to check out the rest of my blog. I write for the complete beginner to more advanced writer. Here’s the link:
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