"I Just Wondered How You Got Started Writing? Tips in Your Pursuit of a Writing Career The Art of Writing-part two

You are making progress in your writing career when “bam!” out of nowhere falls a giant block of stone in front of you, impeding your journey.  You cannot go forward no matter what for the words will not come. This is the dreaded ailment known as writer’s block.

Perhaps like me you suffer from a partial case of writer’s block from time to time.  Not a total stoppage of writing but the inability to write much or often for a period of time.  The paragraph below is how I described a recent bout of this:

     This has truly been the oddest thing, this case of writer’s block that I am dealing with.  According to Encarta Dictionary this is a situation when writers cannot write.  It is an inability on the part of a writer to start a new piece of writing or continue an existing one.  I have been in a writing frenzy on building and cleaning up a promotional package for a literary agency on my newest novel.  Two weeks of solid work has left me physically and mentally exhausted.  So I took the weekend off to recuperate and then planned a light Monday and then back to work.  It is now Thursday and I have done little writing with a brain that doesn’t seem to want to work anymore. I thought it might be helpful just to write these thoughts down and tomorrow I will try to once again turn back to my newly founded career…

What do you do when the words will not flow?  How about those times when you just cannot face the computer anymore?  Let’s take these two questions and see if we can find a cure for our ailment.

What do you do when the words will not flow?  Writer’s go through these stages where we cannot put our thoughts into words, not understandable ones anyway.  There are several ways that I try to break that block of stone…

(1)        Just write anything for the sake of writing.  Even if you are copying pages from a book, your mind is interacting and it might spark something in your own imagination.  When writing Christian articles, I often start with a scripture at the beginning to jump start my thoughts.

(2)        Switch from fiction to non-fiction or vice-versa.  Sometimes I get bogged down in article writing and it is a breath of fresh air to write a short story or work on my novel series.  Fiction writing can be imagination stretching at times so I can stop and write an article or edit a piece of work.  Switching from right to left brain and back can help.

(3)        Talk it out with a friend.  A good conversation with a friend who is a “sounding board” many times gets the ideas flowing.  I can then go right to the computer to put the thoughts down.

(4)        Set a goal.  Sometimes we overly pace ourselves and need to slow for a time.  Instead of writing six articles in a day, I could make the goal of one article and two paragraphs to develop a short story idea.

Our second question is about the times when you cannot face that computer.  You find yourself doing everything except writing.  You do fun things like trimming your dog’s nail, dusting your record collection from the seventies and wandering aimlessly around your house, stopping at the refrigerator each time you pass through the kitchen.  What can you do? 

This is such a struggle for me at time but there are positive steps to take if this is a continual problem:

(1)     Set small goals each day.  If I know I need to check email and write three articles in the morning, then I can pace myself.  Any breaks I take will be with my goals in mind.

(2)     Plan breaks and times of enjoyment so the computer does not become your enemy.  Taking time to get some coffee, paint your fingernails or even do some housework can give your brain a break and ready to get back to writing.

(3)     Change where you are writing at.  If you have a laptop, the possibilities are endless.  Go to the park, coffee house or your own back yard for new inspiration.  Maybe like me you would rather take a journal and pencil and do some long hand writing for a while.  You will appreciate your computer more after a few pages of hand-written notes…

There are many ways of dealing with writer’s block but these are some that work for me.  I need to print this article off and set it on my desk as a reminder when I begin to see the symptoms appearing.  Next week we will discuss our third topic concerning the art of writing...Details: How much is too much?  Until then, keep writing.