wriWriting is a funny fish. Sometimes it’s like pushing dirt uphill (wear your goggles and breathing mask), and sometimes it’s like nudging a boulder, and you say, “well looky there…” as it starts an avalanche and covers that despicable little town you didn’t like anyway.
How will you know when it will be what? To answer that… you won’t.
SOooo… what to do when you start to feel the grit between your teeth?
Everyone is different in what makes them tick, so there is no flat recipe, but some things that might help are…
1) Revisit the last scene that was awesome, see if you can identify what made it tick.
2) Take a break, not like a jog or to grab a vanilla latte with extra sprinkles (what the hell… do that too) but move to something else, something that inspires your thought process at the moment.
3) Take your prose somewhere it shouldn’t go. That’s right, take it to that forbidden zone totally realizing you’ll delete it later. You’ll be surprised how it might loosen up the creative gears to get back to it when you hit the delete button and think, ‘whew! That was close…’
4) Stop writing before the scene goes cold. Sometimes it’s easier to pick it up with momentum the next day when there’s still some juice in the can.
5) Do something else creative. Paint, compose music, do body art on yourself, cook, anything to satisfy the need and release the inhibitions.
Most importantly, remember that writer’s block is only as real as you let it be. If you are penning a recipe, you don’t have it. Let some time go by, baby that creative genius until it graduates to it’s big boy and girl diapeys, and for hell’s sake, squish that imaginary monster before it’s moved into your spare bedroom.
And if all else fails, there’s always vodka…
“Writer’s block…when even your imaginary friends won’t talk to you.”