Writers Blocked, now What?

     I personally do not think that there is anything more frustrating than when you sit down and you blaze through several pages of a fresh story idea, only to return after taking a break or getting distracted and you do nothing but stare at the blinking cursor for hours on end because you cannot think of what to do with the story. Or you stop at a good stopping point with the idea and you come back several days later or even weeks later and you can’t seem to get onto the same page as your characters. It feels like you are meeting them all again for the very first time and you are scratching your head as they are looking at you heavily confused and even are offering up hugs because they think you’ve totally lost it and gone off the deep end. Your characters will only understand the initial intentions of where you wanted to take them, they can’t or won’t understand why you have de-railed and will begin to fight you even with the intentions of where you began to take them. You are now officially ‘Writers blocked’ and probably are frustrated beyond hell of what you want to do with the idea. I still continue to get that way. But after offering up some advice today for a friend of mine it got me to thinking, and I wanted to blog the advice in case anyone else out there maybe feels the same way.


Environment-  It always seems to me, in my experience that characters come to you during the worst possible time. They always want to talk to you while you are predisposed with something else or you are working on another character for them to interact with later on in the story line. Just like a big game predator you have to feel the top of your game and comfortable in your environment. I’ve become the biggest stickler for being comfortable and being able to write. The muse however, is pickier than I am and I will address that little minx later on in the blog. You have to be able to relax and find a comfortable place to write. I often times will struggle if I am in the same environment so many times, that everything about it begins to feel blah and the muse won’t talk to me or I can’t get comfortable enough to write. So I would suggest attempting to change up your environment. So if you are used to writing in the same kind of living room, bedroom, or kitchen arrangement, I would suggest trying to switch it up. Sometimes the change will prompt the muse to become more intuitive and courteous with your needs! Car trips, overnight stays out of town, walks, or just the quietness of the mountains will usually prompt her enough to pay attention and ideas become more fluid.      ALWAYS keep a pad and paper nearby for side notes, or possible plot lines. Sometimes characters won’t necessarily talk to you. Sometimes it’s the action of the scene or the setting that comes through the loudest. The only thing I’m ever only been able to see is black figures with no faces acting out the scene.
After some careful thought on it, then that’s when it becomes clearer and exactly to what characters I am looking at. But it never fails that the best ideas come when I have no pad or paper to write them down. That’s why I heavily believe in always being surrounded by some kind of pad and paper for ideas.


A Musical Sensation- Now with this prompt, I’m not suggesting to go out and write a musical number or a song (unless that is indeed something that you do!) but sometimes finding the right kind of music genre could play a big part into getting that mojo flowing and get the muse dancing. When I get ready to write a particular scene that seems to be particular tough I will turn to music. I think that every writer knows what I am talking about. The one scene that you’ve been dwelling on for days, weeks, or even in some cases months. It’s finally come to fruition and all you can do is look at a blinking cursor. I recently just had that happen on my most current project that I am writing on. I got to the scene that I’ve wanted to write and the muse just clams up. The characters’ clam up and all I’m staring at is a blank setting with nothing there. It helps to venture into Youtube, or into a playlist that you may have created or need to create and listen to music that could inspire that particular scene. In one of the books that I’ve written I had a situation with a shootout. I got to that scene, and nothing I could put down on paper was making it sound right. 

     I tried over, and over, and over again trying to word it right and nothing I could do was helping the situation. I got into Youtube and listened to a few various types of music (Most of it was very hard metal). Listening to it, I began to get more motivated for the scene, the muse was throwing her hand up and she was head banging right alongside me. I had the music, I had my muse on board, and now I could write the scene. The words flowed over the page and by time I got done writing the situation, it was how I had envisioned it with a little musical help in the background. I’d also used various Celtic singers, performers when I was in the process of writing ‘In With The Pack’. The music helped square the mood, and the feeling and my wolves came alive! When the tough get going, the tough surely get musical! I’ve always found that finding music to write those difficult scenes have always helped me. I used to be able to listen to the music while I wrote, sometimes that sparked the emotion needed to complete a scene. Now I can’t do that, it de-rails my train of thought way too bad. So the next thing I would like to suggest is white noise!


White Noise- So for paranormal buffs out there, that might be thinking that I’m referring to ‘White Noise’ as in doing a E.V.P. (Electronic Voice Phenomena) session this isn’t quite what I’m meaning. What I’m referring to is ‘White Noise’ as defined as noise containing many frequencies with equal intensities. I will often use white noise either before starting a fresh chapter on a book, or I will use it as a kind of decompressing after I finish writing what I wanted accomplished for the day. There are several methods of meditation; introducing ‘White Noise’ is only one of them. Most people are meditation with the stereotypes of people sitting cross legged, elbows on their knees, with their fingers clinched as if they are grabbing a dinner fork and saying “uuuuuuuuummmmmm.” Over and over again. But meditation can take several different forms including the type that was mentioned above. Meditation can be writing, it can be listening to music, or it can be used as ‘White Noise’. 

     Examples I can give that I’ve used for white noise is natural earth sounds (Rain on a tin roof, Wind blowing in the mountains, trickling streams, camp fires, etc.) Even when I was stressed out, and just couldn’t put anything on paper I turned to these various types to help calm my nerves down so I could establish something for the scene and to help the plot along. Even if it was only for a chapter or I muscled by an incredibly hard event this noise put my mind at ease. Like I mentioned above, the muse may talk stronger if I am writing something nature related and that white noise may help the circumstances.

Jealousy- When all else fails? Sometimes it’s best to go ahead and write on another project, or even if it’s some short-hand writing long-hand writing. You can ALWAYS go back to the work that you had started before. Sometimes, it takes brain storming and different ideas, locations, and times to really get the creative juices flowing. Sometimes the muse gets fussy, and gets tired of the same ole, same ole. It would be comparable I suppose to eating the same meal night after night after night. What I have found is that sometimes just letting the pen wander and the muse dance is the best for all situations. Sometimes, an idea or a particular situation with one character may work for the character in the project that you are working on currently. Or, sometimes characters will get jealous of each other and the original character that you were writing with may speak more loudly and more willing to assist you. The point I’m trying to drive home here is WRITE, WRITE, AND WRITE SOME MORE. You won’t be able to gain any headway on any project if you don’t write regardless of the subject.

     I realize that some of this might work for you, or it won’t work at all. Some will be able to piece parts of this together and make it work, and others will completely disregard this. That’s ok! I hope though that I’ll be able to help some through this blog and give some ideas, and thoughts into ways that you can get around writer’s block. Not all of these work for me all of the time, but at times it helps me clear six or seven pages in a day. You just got to be in tune with your muse, your characters, and making sure that your carrying a notepad and a pen because you never know when inspiration is going to strike!