Writer’s block. It’s like having an axe through the skull, only more painful. You sit and stare, stare and sit, twiddle your thumbs, rearrange the photos on your desk, get up, stretch, make some coffee, sit back down and stare some more.
In an attempt to free that axe from your skull, I’ve accumulated a list of sites that I’ve found useful in “curing” writer’s block. Click the links for insights, ideas, and remedies.
Go ahead – flex that imagination muscle. Open yourself up to the world around you and story ideas will abound. What to write can be answered simply by observing your surroundings. Take notes. Lots of them. http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/7448/46382
Feelings are not facts. Trust in what you know you can do – what you have done dozens of times. If all else fails get up, move, read, sneak up on your muse by editing other works. http://www.writersbbs.com/html/FishEggs/5.98/3.html
Play with a full deck! This article illustrates how to use old business cards to get the creative juices flowing. Because this idea deals with random topics, it’s best used in a writer’s group. http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/15121/95656
Image to Words is a fun, pictorial exercise to tap into that hidden creative vein. Nothing like word association to get the synapses firing! It offers the same pictures, if you try and do it twice, but it is still enjoyable and at the end offers the best advice on the topic: To be a writer, all you have to do is write. http://test.bagus.org/serenity/writers_tool_kit/image_to_words/
Experiment! Don’t they say variety is the spice of life? Write at different times, in different places, with different writing instruments. And most importantly – relax – the more you worry, the more tense you become and the harder it is to create. http://leo.stcloudstate.edu/acadwrite/block.html
Writer’s block is a myth. The term suggests there is some sort of impairment, an actual illness or psychological condition. Never stare at a blank page, out a window or at a blinking cursor. Never. http://www.tallyshooter.com/WriteBlock/HenricksWritersBlock.html
If, after perusing these articles you are still feeling brain-dead and unsure of how to proceed, dust off an old story and send it to Writer Online for our “Last Chance Short Story Contest.” This will, at least, keep you in the writing loop, and there is tremendous satisfaction in that alone. Unless, of course, you enjoy sitting there with that axe in your head.
Originally published in Writer Online on 12/16/02 – many links disabled because after all, it has been over two decades. But, perhaps this can help with your writer’s block when it’s tormenting you.
Tricia Urlaub has published several speculative fiction stories both online and in print magazines. She resides in Upstate New York with her family, which include two little boys, a grownup one, and assorted animals. She is a lover of all things odd, quirky and haunting.
