Overcoming Writer’s Block

I have recently been smacked across the head by writer’s block and have struggled getting my way through it. As a writer, I think that writer’s block is possibly the most crippling thing I could go through. It makes my love for writing seem like a chore when most days it is an escape. Writing, for me, is the same as pulling warm socks over cold feet or sliding under the softest of sheets. It’s a comfort, a release, a breath of air in stail lungs. So why the writers block? I literally will pull up a  blank page and feel myself completely void of all the whispers that swirl around in my head needing to come out and be placed on paper. 

Contrary to what it implies, my mind tends to be the busiest when I have writer’s block. I will look at the blank page on my computer screen and think about how I should try writing pen on paper. Then it goes something like this: Did I buy more pens? I know I was low on pens. Maybe I can pick some up when I pick up laundry soap. I quickly see where this is going and tell myself gently but firmly to stop. I will then hang my head and breathe deep trying to clear my mind from wandering too far down that lane. But while my head is dangling, my eyes downcast,  I notice my split ends and think I should probably schedule a haircut. Maybe I can make a day of it and get my hair cut, buy pens and laundry soap and maybe swing by the library. If I order books ahead of time I can probably swing through and pick them up real quick. I’ll take a look at my to-be-read list or google what new releases are out there… Again, I have to pull myself together and have to regroup. 

What finally and eventually sets me in an actual productive direction is to pick a scene in my work of progress that isn’t flowing. A scene that just doesn’t feel like it fits. Then I stare at my nails, look out the window for a bit, close my eyes, and try to see the scene in my mind. What is it telling me? What does it look like, taste like, feel like? What are the characters trying to say or do? What if something completely random happens, such as a tiny alien falling through the sky and landing on the concrete with a smile on his face and a cowboy hat on his head, how would my characters react? And I will write about it. So what if it doesn’t fit into my romance novel, nobody will see it unless I want them to, that’s not the point. I. Am. Writing.

Sometimes I have to relive this process several times, like I did this week, but I always push to get something down. Anything. Sometimes you have to write the bad, the ugly, the random to eventually get to the good stuff because what is worse than writer’s block? Not writing at all. 

Tell me, friend, how do you overcome writer’s block?

Photo by Ryan Snaadt on Unsplash

Hilary Linnertz