Writing Through a Block

So you’re reaching the finish line of a fic you’ve been working on for days, and you find yourself with no earthly clue how to end it.

Or you find yourself staring at the start of a document, knowing that somewhere in that blank space is a kickass scene waiting to happen, but you have no earthly clue how to start it.

Or you’ve written one awesome scene and have the badassery that will follow all worked out, but you have no earthly cluel how to get from one scene to another.

Or you’ve got nothing, nothing at all, for this character you want to flesh out, or revisit, or jumpstart.

Some of us call it writer’s block.  Ila calls it Writer’s Blah.  Other variants on the theme are: dunwanna, Oh God ARGH, /headdesk, and My Muse is Off Boozing it Up in Jamaica Without Me WTF.

How do you get past it?  What are some ways to go snatch that pina colada out of your muse’s hand and get her back to churning out ideas?  (Okay, first thing to note, as we’ve learned from Neil Gaiman: capturing a muse is a bad idea.)

Warning: some of this advice might contradict itself here and there.  Some of it might not work for you.  The thing to keep in mind is that everyone has different writing styles.  What works for me might make you want to throw down your pen.  If you have suggestions, feel free to stick ‘em in the comments!

If you have something down on paper already…

Give it a reread.  ONE reread. What do you have down that you like?  Is there part of it that bogs down that’s getting you stuck?

If it gets slow at some point, or there’s a paragraph that keeps making you cringe, cut it out of there. That doesn’t mean highlight the paragraph and delete it permanently.  If I excise chunks of a story as I’m writing, I keep a second document open where I can dump the pieces I’m cutting in case I want to use them later.  Just because something doesn’t fit what I’m writing now doesn’t mean it won’t come in handy later on. But sometimes having the piece that has me stalling staring me in the face keeps me from being able to write past it.  Once it’s gone, I feel less like I have to make it work.

Now that the offending piece is gone, rethink what you have.  Can you take the story or the scene in a different direction?  If what you cut was dialogue that just didn’t flow, start from the beginning and play with the characters’ reactions.

Remember how I said to reread once?  That’s so you can stop tinkering with what’s already there. If you find yourself going back to the same section and moving words around over and over, you’re not accomplishing very much in the way of story progression.  Sure, you might end up with some beautifully crafted sentences early on.  You might have dialogue so moving your readers will be reaching for the tissues.  But if you don’t write what comes next, all that tweaking and perfecting are for naught.

Speaking of that, write what comes next. You’re stuck in one scene, no idea how to resolve it or wrap it up.  Set it aside for the time being and get working on the next scene.  Where do the characters go?  How has what came before affected them?  Sometimes looking at the aftermath of an action can help you figure out what needs to come before.

Check your POV — is the right character telling the story? In whose head are we tagging along for the scene?  Sure, Jack’s your main character, but would this work better from the point of view of someone else who’s with him? Try a scene break and let someone else be the narrator/POV character.  Does it work better?  I’m not a fan of switching POVs from one paragraph (or, shudder, sentence) to the next — it’s jarring.  So if  you’re going to try it, my suggestion is to try the whole scene from that new point of view, or insert a scene break and let the New Guy have his say for a while before going back into your hero’s brain after a new scene break.

If a different scene is clamoring for your attention, write it. If you keep putting off writing Random Scene of Badassery until you Finish Problem Story Goddammit, Problem Story’s going to feel like more and more of a chore.  Take a break from it.  Give yourself half an hour or so to play around with Random Scene of Badassery to get it out of your system, then go back to Problem Story.  If Problem Story starts feeling like the peas you have to eat before you can have dessert, those peas are going to get cold and nasty awfully quick.  Plus, sometimes writing something else can be a good kickstart.

Take a break from the keyboard. Get up.  Walk around.  Walk away from the story for a while and do something else.  Read a book, watch a movie, do something that lets you think about something else for a while.  Or do something that lets you think about the story without actually staring at the page.  Give your mind some freedom to wander.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve spent the day bashing my head off the scene in front of me, then figured out what needs to happen when I take ten minutes to go put my laundry in the washing machine, or how many times I’ve had a plot epiphany during the ten-minute walk to the train station.  (Of course, when those breakthroughs occur, make sure you write that shit down ASAP.)

When you’ve got a whole lot o’nothin’…

One of the hardest blocks can be when you’re just not feeling the character or the story.  If that’s the case, it might require looking at the bigger picture.  Is it just this particular story you’re not excited about telling?  Or are you not interested in playing/writing for/developing that particular character at the moment?

If it’s the former, move on to a different story.  Write about a different point in the character’s life.  Change the setting, change the theme, change the mood.  Write about something that happened when they were younger, or project yourself into their far future.  If you’re stuck on a swashbuckling adventure scene for them, switch gears and write about something more low-key.

If it’s the latter, that’s okay, too.  Sometimes you just plain aren’t feeling the character. Ask yourself why that is.  Sometimes an alt might have more of your attention.  Focus on that alt for a while.

Sometimes you’ve just finished putting the character through the wringer — if he’s going through a rough time, consider giving him something lighter to focus on.  Even though it can be all kinds of fun to do awful things to our characters, they need to have a win sometimes, too.  Let them.

If it’s a bigger problem than just a bump their current story, take a step back.  What made playing the character fun for you?  Has that changed?  Maybe the pendulum has swung to the other extreme from where the character started — how can you swing it back?

Outside factors

When you’re writing, are you also twittering, checking your blogroll, looking up phat lewtz that you want to collect, posting on forums and clicking around the interwebz in general?  While you’re catching up on your favorite series on TV? Get rid of your distractions. No, seriously.  Yes, even people-distractions. Shut off the TV.  Close your browser.  If you can’t help it and reopen the browser every few minutes “just for a second,” then reach over and unplug your ethernet cable or disconnect from your wireless network while you’re writing.  Because you’re not getting anything done, or at least not as much as you were if you devoted your full attention to the story.

Some distractions are harder to avoid — if you’re a parent, you can’t always close your office door on your kids, especially when they’re small.  But if they’re old enough to entertain themselves for a little while (or you have someone else home with you to keep an eye on them), ask for some time to yourself.  During the summer, my parents occasionally come over to swim in our pool on weekends.  It’s in my upbringing that you don’t ignore houseguests, ever. So at first, I’d find myself outside chatting with them, no matter how many times they insisted I didn’t have to play hostess.  I finally decided to take them up on that, though, letting them know “Hey, I’m writing right now, so I’ll come out and visit later, but right now I’m going to keep my door closed.”

And you know what?  They’re fine with it.

Ask someone else to take a look. Google docs is great for this, allowing you to share the doc with other people as readers or editors.  See where they think it bogs down.  Let them know where you’d like to go with the story and bounce ideas back and forth.  Sometimes all it takes is a fresh pair of eyes saying “What if this happened?” to spark you back into creativity.

Write in manageable chunks. Declare a ten-or-fifteen minute period to writing whatever comes to mind.  Spread it out over a day.

Have a writing partner. Are you more productive when someone else is counting on you?  Find someone with whom you can say “Okay, we’re writing between 6 and 6:30.  GO.”  Then when time’s up, share with each other and, if you want, give one another feedback.  Remember, it’s not a word count race, it’s a way to help each other to get things done.

Work with someone. Write the story with a partner.  If you each have characters in a scene, write a few paragraphs at a time, then bounce it back to the other person.  Try to set a response time — a day or two, or if you’re both having a lazy Saturday, every couple of hours.

—

The most important thing is to enjoy what you’re writing.  As soon as it feels like a chore, chances are you’re going to want to do it less and less and all your stories will suffer for it.  Talk it out with other writers, take a break when you need to, but don’t let the break extend so long that you never go back to it.

Are there times when a story just isn’t working?  Absolutely.  Every now and then, you might find yourself putting a story on the shelf or abandoning it altogether.  That’s okay; it happens.  It doesn’t make you a bad writer.  Put the story that’s not working away and start on something new.  If you’re not interested in what you’re writing, your audience will feel it and that’s no fun for anyone.

Okay, writers, what have I missed?  How do you power through those times when no matter how hard you try, the words just won’t come?

(Thanks to Bricu for the blogging prompt!)

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