Getting Past Writer’s Block – What to Write

Don’t you hate when you’re ready but the idea isn’t?  You’re in your armchair with your pen and paper but no words are coming out.  Or those modern folks: you’re at your desktop, fingers perched on top of the keyboard, but that text file is still blank!

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As long as there have been writers, I’m sure there has been writer’s block.  But to get through it sometimes it helps to try to write your way out.

Here are a few ideas.  I’m sure you’ve heard of some already, but maybe there’s one or two that can your creative motor back up and running.

• Start writing!  Anything, everything.  Get whatever you need and just start that stream of consciousness writing that everybody hates.  Getting those fingers moving may open your mind up and get the ball rolling.
• Finish something.  You like most writers probably have a dozen scribbled sheets with unfinished ideas.  Short stories that are just short and not finished stories.  Poems that consist of only one verse.  Tackle an old project and see if you can’t finish it up.  The end product might not be the best piece of work that you’ve created but the feeling of accomplishment may spur you to keep on writing.
• Write about your surroundings, and surround yourself with something new.  Try drawing inspiration from the things around you.  Your family, your pets, just the normal sounds in your house.  If none of that works, maybe add something new.  Put in a new CD, something you haven’t heard before and see where it takes you.
• Be A Character.  Been writing in the third person for too long?  Maybe you just need a fresh set of eyes, whether its for fiction or non-fiction.  Put yourself in somebody else’s shoes.  It can be somebody you know, or somebody you create.  Try writing that article from your wife/husband’s view.  Try telling that story about those Wester train robbers with their words and dialect.

These are just a few of the things I try to do, if I feel I’m in a slump.  Whether its nothing coming out of the tip of the pen or just garbage.  The main thing is to keep on writing and get through it.  If you need a break, take one.  But remember you’re going to have to sit down and write again sometime!