Writer’s block is something that every seasoned writer has experienced and every novice writer has to look forward to. While there is no general cure for the mental affliction, I can share what usually works for me when my mind draws blanks on a current project. What I tend to do is switch what I’m working on.
As a fiction writer I am always imagining ideas for book or short story plots. In the middle of novel writing, when the block sets in, I instantly move into a totally different story line. I do that because writer’s block, to me, feels like I’m stuck…limited so to speak. So by transitioning to a different script, I liberate my mind to think beyond the realm of what I was originally writing when writer’s block hit me.
Eventually, as I work on an alternate piece, something will come to mind concerning my previous endeavor and I will be able to apply it. At that point I’ve not only overcome writer’s block, but I’ve also started or continued progress on something else. This means that there’s never any unproductive downtime spent wracking a brain that temporarily doesn’t have any more ideas in it.
Of course when you are on a deadline this tactic may not be the best one, however for those who write fiction continuously this hint may be the best approach to defeating the nemesis known as writer’s block.
