Writer's block

Get over it!

Have you ever looked at a blank page with its beautiful chapter title and thought... any moment now I shall hace a flash of brilliance and it will just work.

Carefully you look at the clock, not to worry, it has only been five minutes, perhaps a cup of coffee will help? When grabbing the milk out of the fridge for your coffee you spy a slice of cake.. energy you rationalise.. music might help? Of course, you're going to have to rearrange your favour playlist.. the current one is so last week!

So you sit down to write, with your coffee, evidence of a few cake crumbs and your favourite beats playing. Your page is still blank! Not to worry, it has only been an hour now.. 

Every time. Ask my writer friends how to get past writer's block, I get varied generic responses. Don't they know I want exact precise instructions that come with a guarantee? 

There seem to be two main schools of thought, essentially free write and put down everything in your head. That might work for you creative types. For me I find that I tend to end up scrapping it all. With that said, there is a sense of accomplishment in at least having something written! You can also use this to determine what you don't want. 

For me, writer's block mostly happens when something isn't quite sitting right, it doesn't flow, it doesn't fit; something! I tend to be a list person, so I need to bullet point what I am trying to achieve,  the purpose, write about character or make notes on how this section fits with other work. 

This practical solution to a creative process also has its pitfalls. I can spend an hour or more doing this and still not have started writing my original piece :'(

Are there other ways to help get past the dreaded block of writers? And is anyone willing to offer me a guarantee with it?

Anyone can write a book..

This is something I hear a lot.. worse still is the unspoken implication from people that this is something that everyone can do.. they just haven't yet.

For someone who a putting a genuine effort into making it part of their career path, such claims do not come across quite right. (I confess I really love midwifery and am yet to work out how to meld or share time between both.)

To me it is like watching a sports star or your favourite musician and announcing you could totally do that, IF you wanted to!

Writing is like many things, some people have more natural talent for it but a lot of it can be learned. This often happens through trial and error and establishing what doesn't work. The other thing it takes is a lot of time, effort and research. Oh, and a lot of revision.

Buddy and I have written our book together. Writing with someone else has certainly been a challenge. It means negative feedback can't be ignored and we've had more than one heated discussion about whether or not something has a place in our book. We've gone out of our way to avoid a lot of tropes; I can assure that there is a reason young adult books kill off the parents. That would have been so much easier! However critical review of these aspects has hopefully resulted in a better overall plot that gives us a stronger dynamic between characters in this book and for the rest of the series.

I wonder if other people have things that they are proud of that other people wave off as 'easy'. Do other writers feel this way when people dismiss their efforts?