Monday, May 1, 2023

The Reality of Writer's Block

 


I don't know any writer that has not experienced writer's block. We all deal with it from time to time. What causes it? It is not necessarily just because you are not clear on where you want your writing to go. We can experience writer's block due to the following:

  • Having a bad hair day.
  • Stress in other parts of our life affecting our ability to concentrate.
  • Being not happy with what we have already written.
  • Being not clear on where our work is headed.
  • Being physically or mentally tired.
  • Knowing where we want to go with our writing but being unsure of how to get there.
  • Lack of self-confidence.
  • Not feeling motivated.
What we do not want to do is lose ourselves in negative self-talk.

  • I don't have time to write - I have too many other responsibilities.
  • My writing isn't selling - maybe I am not a good writer.
  • My last book had reasonable sales - can I repeat that, or was it a fluke?
  • I have too many distractions. (Here, we need to fess up to allowing those distractions to go on,)
How can we get ourselves unblocked?

  • Take a break - walk away from our writing.
  • Work on another project for a while, then come back to the one we were blocked on.
  • Make some notes about why you are stuck.
  • Move on to the next chapter. You can come back to this part of your work later with fresh eyes,
  • Talk to your characters - all of them. Have a round-table discussion about how they feel about your writing, their characters, and the plot. Take their input seriously!
  • Come up with more than one ending, and see where your characters want to take it. 
When our writing flows, it flows. My feeling is that my characters are using me as a mechanism to get their thoughts and actions on paper (e-paper, in my case.) They all work well together - I just write it all down!

(c) May 2023 Bonnie Cehovet
Reproduction is prohibited without the author's consent.

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