A Writer's Worst Nightmare: How to Combat Writer's Block

So---you're a writer. You're trying to get the disjointed ideas for a story out of your head and onto the page or MS Word document. Things were going great for a while, but now, you're sitting there chewing on your pencil or staring at that blinking cursor, and your head is empty. The ideas just will NOT come to you. You've caught the accursed writer's block!

So now the question becomes: how do you cure it? Well, don't fret, because there's actually a TON of ways to get yourself un-stuck. So to all my fellow writers out there, here--in no particular order--is my own handy-dandy guide for how to get the idea waterfall flowing again.

1.) "What are the scenes that MUST be there?"

This one comes courtesy of "How to Write for Animation" by Jeffrey Scott---a book I own that I HIGHLY recommend to every writer, no matter the genre. The advice he gives has saved me many a time, and I'll be quoting a few of them here. But the trick that I've personally employed the most is "what are the scenes that HAVE to be there?" Run your plot threads through a simple logic equation. For example: your heroes are trying to stop the main villain from taking over the world, and the villain is going to steal a super weapon to do it. So what absolutely HAS to happen? Well....

--the villain has to break into the high tech science lab to steal the device

--our heroes have to have a fight scene with him

--our heroes have to somehow know to be at the science lab to confront the big bad to begin with

--something has to happen during the fight that prevents our heroes from defeating the villain right away and allowing the villain to get away with the super weapon

--the heroes have to somehow find a clue that will lead them to where the villain's hideout is so they can track him down

Suddenly, that page isn't so blank now is it? If you just employ simple "point A to point B" logic, you'll find that you actually have a lot more raw material to work with than you thought.

2.) "Outline Your Entire Plot First"

I've seen this happen to so many people, it's not funny. Someone gets a cool idea for a story and just starts writing, with next to no clue where the plot is headed. And then, quite a ways in, they write themselves into a corner, realize that they'd have to go back and basically re-write the entire story to fix the plot holes, and then most likely freeze up and quit because they've already sunk so much time and effort into their story, they don't want to start all over again. This is where outlines come in. Jeffrey Scott also mentions this in his book, but it's a method I already employed before reading it, and ALWAYS employ. Very rarely does walking blindly down a path ever work out. If you're going on a hike, you better be as well prepared as you can beforehand and have a map ready. Try your best to know where your plot and characters are starting, and where and how they're going to be by the end. The "messy middle" is where you figure out how to get from start to finish. I always write a general summary of my plots akin to a 'Wikipedia' article first, from what happens in the story, to what emotional arcs the characters go through. If I happen to come up with any witty dialogue or cool descriptions of things, I'll slip it in here too so I don't forget. Then I read it all back to make sure that everything makes a general amount of sense before I even type out the first word. Voila! No more running down the wrong paths and getting lost.

3.) "What's Old is New Again"

Let's face it, there's nothing new under the sun. Even when we try our best to be as original as possible, there's always going to be some age-old tropes that slip in (this is "TVTropes.com" 's bread and butter). So rather than fight the tropes, embrace them or subvert them! As Jeffrey Scott puts it in his book: "old idea + change the time period or setting = new idea". "Ten Things I Hate About You" is essentially a modern remake of "The Taming of the Shrew". "West Side Story" takes the old "Romeo and Juliet" plot and turns it into a war between two street gangs. And on the subject of "Romeo and Juliet", the film "Warm Bodies" is also this, except our Romeo stand in is a zombie in love with a human girl. You don't have to get caught up in trying to re-invent the wheel. There's a reason these classic tales get told over and over again. In fact, I'm going to be using this very method to put a science fiction twist on an old fairy tale in a distant-future novel I'm starting to cobble together, so stay tuned for that.... ;)

4.) "Switch Your Point of View"

On the subject of taking old things and turning them into new things, another way to get ideas flowing is to simply take a pre-existing story, but re-tell it from another character's perspective. "Maleficent" and "Wicked" pull this off wonderfully by taking the classic stories of "Sleeping Beauty" and "The Wizard of Oz" respectively and telling them from the villain's angle instead. OR, even if you're not going down the "re-hash an old story" route, if your plot just isn't working out or seems a bit dull, it may pay to change who your main POV character is. This is why the "Twilight" series personally frustrates me so much because the rest of the Cullen family have WAY more interesting backstories for how they became vampires....yet Stephenie Meyer chose, arguably, the two dullest characters to focus on. But that's just me.

5.) "The "recycle, reuse, renew" Method"

Remember that show or movie you were REALLY into when you were in middle school, so much so that you created a (probably) over-powered, Mary Sue, original character for it that you thought was SO cool? The kind you'd probably cringe at now? Wait! DON'T throw that old creation in the trash! You could take that "rough around the edges" character, polish them up with the knowledge and skills you have now, and remix them into something really good! This especially goes for any fan fiction writers out there. After all, E.L. James originally wrote a "Twilight" fan fic that took place in an alternate universe where Edward Cullen was a wealthy businessman with a secret dominant side, and Bella Swan was a naïve young woman nearing college age. Sound familiar? All the author had to do was change the names and tweak a few other things, and that's how we got "Fifty Shades of Grey".

6.) "Kill Someone"

I hope to God you don't take that literally. What I SHOULD'VE said was, if you have an ensemble cast, and one-or-more characters are essentially just sitting around with nothing to do and/or aren't serving a narrative purpose anymore, it may be time to give them the axe. Literally. As in, kill them off. This seems to be used on mentor characters the most, where the wise old sage teaches our hero whatever they can, and then it's up to said hero to utilize everything they've been taught when their teacher dies and/or is killed by the villain. This not only gives us more emotional pathos, but it also gives our hero more of a challenge now that they no longer have their friend to back them up.

7.) "The Rubber Duck Method"

This one comes courtesy of people who work in the tech industry. Oftentimes, when they run into a coding problem, the person is advised to talk to a rubber duck (or any toy, really) as though it were a person. And a fair amount of the time, they wind up talking themselves through the very solution they were trying to find. If you're stuck, try talking with a trusted friend and bounce ideas off of them. Or if a live person isn't handy, simply talking out loud to yourself can often get the gears grinding in your brain again.

8.) "The Stream of Consciousness" Method"

Word of advice: never try to write and edit at the same time. If you got a ton of ideas bouncing around, you have to catch them before you lose them. (This often happens in the shower for some reason.) Quickly jot down every idea that pops in your mind, no matter how dumb you think it sounds. There may actually be some buried treasure beneath all that dirt. You can always edit and cherry pick the best stuff later.

9.) "The Back Up and Turn Around Method"

Stuck on a certain scene? Your problem is probably a few lines or paragraphs (or even pages) back. If something sounds clunky, or doesn't make sense, or just isn't working, go backward through what led up to the roadblock. You'll often find that you just made a wrong turn somewhere.

10.) "If All Else Fails, Walk Away"

Exactly as it says. If absolutely NOTHING you try on this list helps, you're probably simply just burned out. Take a break. Go watch your favorite movie or show, or play your favorite video game for a while and take some inspiration from it. Go grab a snack. Sleep on it. Give your brain some rest. Never try to force an idea that just isn't working. You're only going to make yourself more miserable. Much like the seasons, our creativity juices often go into hibernation. But just like the spring and summer, your inspiration WILL wake up again.

Here's hoping any of this advice works for you. If you're a fellow writer and have any tips to add, feel free to share in the comments!

Things I Got Done This Week

--continued coloring the next "Jamie Jupiter" episode

--continued writing my next "Rini Boe" book

Do you want to see behind-the-scenes photos, short story previews, and commentary on all these projects? All of this is available in my totally free newsletter! The next one comes out September 30th!