I made an offhand comment last month that I’d list a few methods for curing writer’s block that don’t work. I started to have second thoughts when I sat down to do that. Why would I write about things that aren’t helpful? That sounds very… not helpful.
Then I remembered that quote about not failing 100 times but finding 100 ways not to do something. Maybe my list can shorten the number of times someone else doesn’t fail.
1) I already covered freewriting.
2) Trying to write in a new environment has been suggested. Think about this for a minute. This advice basically says, if you’re having trouble concentrating on your project, go look for distractions. If your familiar quiet room isn’t working for you, try to write at a restaurant where people will be banging and chattering in the kitchen, or at a public park where strangers will think the fact that you’re staring at a notebook means you’d like to talk about the weather. That’s wonderful for concentration.
3) I’ve seen more than one list of ideas that includes drinking coffee. There are two types of people in the world: those who don’t drink coffee and those who already drink too much. More coffee is unlikely to make a difference for the latter and sounds like a hassle to the former, who don’t have it in the house and probably don’t like it anyway. Unless you want to write authentically about following bad advice, skip the coffee solution.
4) Some people say writing prompts are a good idea. I don’t completely disagree. These can be useful in a general sense. Trying to write about different settings, emotions and actions can help stretch and strengthen the writing muscles. But it doesn’t help when a specific part of your story isn’t working. You can think of ten different ways someone might react to a bad Christmas present, and none of them will get your spaceship off the ground.
5) One of my favorite pieces of advice is to try to think out loud. This goes back to the coffee thing where there are only two types of people. There are normal people, and there are people who don’t need this suggestion. Anyone who hasn’t figured out that talking to yourself is a great way to accomplish many tasks, including sorting out the dialog or direction of a story, is unlikely to be convinced by some random person putting it on a list.
I guess this random person probably shouldn’t be making lists either. I’ll go back to talking to myself. I mean, I’ll go back to writing a story.
