How To Defeat Writer’s Block

We’ve all been there. The Battle of the Word rages on, your army slowly forcing back the enemies of the Unwritten Story. You break past the boundaries, restoring a sense of justice to the Cosmos and then… suddenly… it strikes! The greatest enemy of all. Lethargy.

It happened to me recently. I was sat at my keyboard, a scene crucial to the plot ready to be written, and boom! Everything in the world seemed exciting, or at least a lot more exciting than my story. Had I alphabetized the spice rack by country of origin? Had I flicked through all 900 television channels only to decide I’d prefer a DVD and spend the next four hours trying to choose which one.

Call it Scribes’ Fever, Literary Anxiety or even plain old Writer’s Block, we’ve all suffered from that horrible feeling of being unable to get words on paper like we usually do. But how to shake that monstrous tentacle of inspiration sucking evil? Here are my tips learnt, I’m afraid to say, the hard way.

Free Write

Yep, that’s right. Grab a piece of paper and a pen and jus scrawl nonsense for a bit. It might not make sense, it might be incredibly profound but who cares? I’ve been doing it on this article so far and it seems to have worked out!

Freewriting is a great way to kickstart your imagination. By just letting your ideas flow, you can get in touch with your inner creativity and come up with words and phrases strange, magical and brilliantly different enough to get you inspired.

People Spotting 

I think this is my personal favourite, and fun to do regardless of your imaginative state. I like to do it in a cafe because I can get a delicious milkshake whilst I’m flexing my creative muscles but all you need is a public place. Go sit down, look around and come up with amazing stories about the people you see.

It may be difficult at first but when you get into the swing of things, I promise your imagination will be firing on all pistons! If you’ve done it before, why not let us know your observations in the comments?

Bonus Point: It’s a great way to meet other writers if you’re brave enough to try and engage someone in public.

Read

Woah. I am a maverick. Imagine that, telling visitors to Books Rock My World to read! Crazy!

 I would explain why but I think this one is kind of self-explanatory. The Earth has seen countless generations of writers who have probably been in the same situation as you and, despite that, gone on to be incredible! If they can be awesome, why can’t you?

Look at George R.R. Martin, for example. He spends more time suffering Writers’ Block than he does actually writing yet it didn’t stop him from crafting the incredibly rich worlds of ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’ and ‘Wildcards.’

Replot / Think About The Reader

 If you find the scene boring, how is your reader going to feel? Have a quick tinker with the plot, see if you can make it a little livelier? You’ve got to entertain a reader but you’ve also got to entertain yourself!

 I’d recommend maybe drawing out a diagram plot if you’re the type to plan ahead. If there are any major incidents that you’re just putting off, trying to bide time to maybe increase the word count (I am so guilty for this, I think the Literary Police would arrest me) then why not bring those events forwards?

Alternatively, if you’re having troubles with exposition, why don’t you put in an amusing conversation where pieces of information are given to the reader in-jokes and sarcastic remarks? They’re always fun to write.

Remember, you’re the writer here. You can do anything you want.

If all that fails, however, you could always try the brute force method. What is this, you may ask? Well, it’s the writing equivalent of throwing yourself into a brick wall until it breaks down. Just sit at your keyboard, flex your fingers and, remembering that you can edit and redo anything you want,