Ultimate Guide To Overcoming The BLOCK!

I've noticed an abundance of talk recently about 'The Dreaded Writer's Block', which my co-author calls 'That Which Shall Remain Nameless', giving it the stigma and superstition is deserves. :)

But I have amassed a super cheat sheet sure to bring the words flowing back!

With Your WIP Open In Front of You:

• Write out of order - Who says you have to write scene by scene?
• Switch to a different POV - Maybe your story needs to be told by some other char.
• Slow down the action - Describe in slo-mo what exactly is going on
• Throw in supporting characters
• Write a deep dark secret -char's have skeleton's in their closets, don't they?
• Kill off a character - Your book doesn't need the dead weight
  
• Learn something new about your setting, background, or character's occupation - research!

With A Blank Page Staring You In The Face:

• Take a scene and re-imagine it as a different genre
• Create a new civilization
• Write a silly story - break the ice
• Write some poetry, or a song
• Write to incorporate a list of words - use 'word of the day' websites, or make some up
• Go back to your Writer's Notebook (You keep one, right? Please tell me you do!) look up something old you wrote ages ago and see it's potential now.

When Nothing Else Works:

• Look for a challenge or a prompt on a website (see list of my faves below)
• Get away from your desk! For goodness sakes, have your knees locked up?!
• Journal, Doodle, Freewrite - Wrote anything, even not story related, just to get the juices flowing and keep the habit alive!!
• Tell someone! You think your brain is the only out there worthy of generating a decent thought??! Bounce ideas off of someone else.
• Listen to music. As long as it doesn't completely derail you, like it sometimes does it me, great music can take your mind on a creative flight akin to dreaming.

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