The Bane of My Existence: 5 Tried and Proven Block Busters

What is the bane of my existence?

Picture from A Blog to Watch
Seeing as I'm not Batman (or am I?), not this Bane.

What is the bane of any writer's existence?

Picture from WikipediaWell, now you're just being mean. 

Writer's block, kids. I'm talking about writer's block.

It can kill progress, it can promote procrastination, and is one of the most frustrating thing that can happen to any author. Advice for busting writer's block is probably the #1 or #2 thing that writers ask, especially those who are just getting started.

Here is a list of things that I've use (or heard from other writers) to smash that writer's block into gravel that will look lovely on the country road in your next story.

#1 Take a Breather

Probably the last thing you want to do when you are confronted with the inability to advance your story is to walk away from it, but sometimes space is the best thing for you and your story. Staring at your computer or notebook is not going to make the words come, you might as well do something else until they do. Go clean the kitchen, mow the yard, watch a movie, check Facebook, or take a walk.

But I must warn you, Alice, don't let these short breaks become rabbit holes that take you days or even months to climb out of.

It took me 6 years to finish my first novel because I had bouts of writer's block 6+ months long. I also didn't know I wanted to be a writer at the time and didn't know the first thing about working through writer's block, which probably contributed to the extensive hiatuses.

#2 Power Through

This may seem contradictory to the first tip, and it is, but it isn't.

Roadblocks in a story can be stubborn, but you can be more stubborn. Write a different scene, go back and do some light editing, add more detail to your outline. As long as you're working on your story in some capacity, the writer's block won't win. Eventually, you break through and you'll already have all of this other work done.

The glory of what we do is, even if we write absolute shyte while trying to overcome a block, we can go back and fix it or delete it. Nobody is looking over our shoulder judging us for the bad stuff we write. They can only see the good stuff we put out there. 

But if somebody is looking over your shoulder judging you, elbow them in the stomach and tell them to go do something more constructive, like making you a sandwich.

#3 Move On

This doesn't mean give up on the story.

Let me repeat this for the people in the back: 

THIS DOESN'T MEAN GIVE UP ON THE STORY!

This is kind of like #1 but instead of taking a breather from writing, you're just taking a breather from the story that you are blocked on.

Start a short story out of your genre and comfort zone. Write a children's book. Give a favorite fairy tale a new ending.

This helped me so much when I was blocked on a novel a couple of years ago. I had been staring at the page for days with nothing new coming. I decided to open a new Word document and just start typing, no thought involved. I ended up with the beginning of  an interesting fantasy story. I don't know if I'll ever finish it, but it helped me get back to my original story.

#4 Change It Up

This bit of advice actually came from a writing friend a few months ago and she heard it at a workshop I believe. 

They said if you are stuck in a story, not sure where to go or how to continue, pick a side character and write a scene from their point of view. 

It's not anything you have to include in the book, but it might help you understand that character a little better and help you find the next path for your story.

Along these lines, you can follow in the footsteps of the great J.K. Rowling (our queen) and write colorful and complete backgrounds for your minor characters. I don't know if she actually used this for block-busting, but she is famous for feeding us little tidbits about her beloved characters that she didn't tell us in the books.

#5 Find Your Peeps

Almost a year ago, I was suffering from pretty intense writer's block. Not only could I not write, but everything I had ever written began looking like absolute crap. Even the stuff I loved and was proud of started looking like something E.L. James scraped off the bottom of her shoe. It was definitely a low point in my writing career.

Then, I made it to my very first writer's group meeting.

Talk about enlightening.

Here was a group of people who knew what I was going through and could commiserate, they could offer advice, and could distract me with ideas for other aspects of my writing and self-publishing. I don't know if the group I joined is special or if it is pretty much the same with other writer's groups, but everybody is so encouraging, understanding, and energetic. They are a talented group of people and I am glad to be a part of them.

If you have any other tips for bashing writer's block, feel free to share. I am always stoked to find new writing tips because I'm kind of fond of my computer. I would hate to see it smashed against the wall in a writer's block-induced fit of literary rage.