Cures for Writer's Block

Writer’s Block is like an ice cream headache for writers that never goes away until you find an answer to your writing problem.  There are two kinds of these headaches.  The first one is finding a topic to write about.  This is the more difficult of the writing problems.  You have no point of reference to reflect on at all.  So you sit there in front of the monitor with the blank screen and the cursor blinking over and over again.  It feels like the cursor is rubbing in the fact that you have no idea what you are going to write about.  You go get a beverage or a snack.  The cursor is still waiting for you upon your return and making you angrier.  Let’s say it’s a paper for school.  They usually give you criteria for the paper.  Take that blueprint and inject your own style into the paper.  You have your own flare.  Everyone does.  Tell the story the way you want to and it will flow like a river from your fingers.  Perhaps you’re writing a story and have no idea what to write about on the page.  Think deeply about things you know.  Think off topics that interest you.  If you’re writing fiction take one idea you think is cool and extrapolate on it.  Maybe someone’s done you wrong and you want to write about a cruel double-cross.  Write that on a sheet of paper.  Then write the next thing that comes to mind.  Maybe one girl steels another girl’s boyfriend.  Wrire that down.  Maybe they were childhood friends but it changed in high school when the girl doing the steeling got into drugs.  Write that down.  Hey, I have a pretty good book started!  After you are done take your page and place numbers in pencil by each one in the order they happen.  I say pencil because you’re likely to change the order.  You now have the layout of your story. If you come up against something you don’t know about, research it!  There are bound to be experts on the subject who read your work and you don’t want to look like a phony.

That’s the first kind of Writer’s Block.  The second kind happens when you’re in the middle of your story and you hit a dead end.   First try going back over what you’ve written and try to pick up the story.  Sometimes it’s just that simple.  You can change the story so long as the change doesn’t affect the main storyline.  Then there is the last resort.  Treat the story like a rope and fray the ends.  Pick apart the last part you have written and find a thread to weave a new storyline in so the rest of the story can go on while you discard the frayed ends.  That’s my advice and it works for me.  Good luck and good writing.