There must be as many ways to fight writer’s block as there are writers. Since I’d never really experienced it before, I’ve been searching for my way. Some ‘experts’ say the first thing is to schedule writing the same as you do any other kind of job. Sit down at the same time, in the same place every day, get rid of all distractions, and write something, anything. It doesn’t have to be great, it doesn’t even have to be good. Just get the words down. Eventually, things will begin to flow.
Others say: shake things up, get out of your comfort zone, turn on some music, or read things in the same genre as you intend to write. In my search, I ran across this article from Jeff Goins. He says there is no right answer. It’s different for everyone. He does give a definite list of what NOT to do.
My first step in the process has been to force myself to sit down in front of the screen, sign into one of my blogs, and write a post. For me, writing a post is easier. It’s kind of like a research paper. You just have to come up with a title and expand on it. Creative non-fiction, I guess, with the goal being to find a path from there to full fiction.
The second step has been to use my old friends at Friday Fictioneers as a jump off point. It had been a long time since I dropped in on them. The first few weeks, the prompts produced nothing. Then, even though I wasn’t feeling very inspired, I decided I had to do something and started to write. I found a toehold and made the jump. After that first time, it was easier. As I thought about it, I wondered if I could find more prompts, maybe even enough to fill a week. So, I went searching. Here’s some of what I found>
The last one actually has several prompt ideas. I am also planning to join Writers.com which is a writing community that provides prompts as part of its menu of interactions. Their membership levels range from free to expensive, adding perks along the way. I’m not sure, at the moment, how much I want to be involved so I’m starting out as free. I’m just afraid that it might provide an avenue of procrastination instead of a path to writing improvement. We’ll see what happens.
I’d be interested in hearing what others do to overcome writing blocks. I know that the main reason for mine is the fact that I’ve let my writing muscles atrophy over the past few years. I hope that simply exercising them again will fix the problem, but I’m willing to entertain all possibilities.
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