Writer's Block

How to Beat Writer’s Block (article) - B. McKenzie

Writer’s block.

You sit down to write the next awesome part of your story and… nothing.

It sucks but writer’s block is something everyone struggles with eventually.

Here are a few techniques I’ve used to try and get myself back into the flow of things:

• Review your story’s purpose. Think back to the entire point of your story. What are your main goals? How can you make the part of your story you’re stuck on to reflect those goals? Check out the section on understanding your purpose if you haven’t already.

• Take a break. Sometimes you’re just burnt out and need to give your brain a rest. Go for a walk, play some video games, work on another story you’re writing, do a light workout. By getting some physical activity or simply shutting your brain off for a while, you can give yourself the time you need to recharge. And yeah, breaks ARE allowed. I take them too. Just make sure you don’t get too distracted to the point of becoming unproductive.

• Work somewhere other than your regular work place. Sometimes working in exactly the same place can get you into a funk. Try going to a coffee shop, library or even just a different room in your house. The change of scenery might be just what you need to get the ideas flowing.

• Write what wouldn’t happen. Thinking about what won’t or can’t happen in a scene is a good way of helping your brain figure out what CAN happen. Also, once you figure out what to do in a scene, make sure not to throw out all the “won’t work” ideas you have. You never know if they’ll work somewhere else in your story later. That brings me to…

• Review what you’ve previously cut from the story. Just because you had to cut something from the story earlier, doesn’t mean it’ll never work. Maybe you’ve changed something else in the story that suddenly makes that cut thing work perfectly. This is why it’s important to keep notes of everything you write, even if it doesn’t fit at that point in time!