Writer’s Block – A Practical Approach

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about writer’s block and how to be encouraged as you work your way through it. For today’s This-n-That Thursday, I thought I’d give you a few exercises to help you do just that.

If your writer’s block happens in the middle of a project:

1. Character diaries – Choose one of your characters and begin a diary. How does your character feel at this point of your story? What does he/she think is going to happen next?
2. Timeline – Make a timeline of the action leading up to this point, and then make tentative timelines that detail what could happen afterwards.
3. Brainstorm – Write down every single idea, regardless of how silly. (This is also a good way to silence that inner editor.)

If you have writer’s block at the beginning of a project:

1. Research Trip – Go somewhere to do research on your project. If you are writing a historical, go to a local museum or library. If you write mysteries, interview a private investigator. Take lots of notes and see if you can get inspired.
2. Committee – Form a committee of your writing buddies and ask them to help you bounce around ideas. You can do this virtually by using Skype or some other video conferencing program.
3. Free write – Just open a blank document and start writing. Sometimes the blank page is so imposing to a writer. Getting something down on the page cuts down on the pressure. Titles – Brainstorm prospective titles for your next project. (Remember, “brainstorm” means write down everything.)

If you’d like more exercises to help you combat writer’s block, here are a few websites:

The Writer’s Block

Overcoming Writer’s Block

Hack Your Way Out of Writer’s Block

I’d love to hear from you as well. Have you ever had writer’s block? How long did it last? How did you finally break it?

~ Angie

Ask O: A Season for Every Occasion

Happy Ask O Wednesday! This week’s question deals with those finishing touches that make a novel rich and layered: How do you pick which seasons to use for your story? Does it matter?

I don’t know about you, but I really get into symbolism. I think the four seasons provide us with great opportunities to set a mood, hint at plot, and even show characterization.

A Symbol for All Seasons

Nothing good happens in winter. Okay, in real life I can think of a few things. But in fiction, winter often brings to mind malevolence, cold-heartedness, the death of goodness, and so on.

In fact, each season has its own connotations. For instance,

That time of year thou mayst in me behold
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold:
Bare, ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.
Shakespeare’s Sonnet 73

Shakespeare compares growing older to the yellow leaves of fall. Fall lends itself to this. In contrast to these midlife blues, look at another quote from the bard, “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate.” Brings a picture of a bright, young love, doesn’t it?

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe has a perfect example of this. When the White Witch controls Narnia, it’s “always winter and never Christmas.” Then when Aslan is “on the move,” not only does Father Christmas finally arrive, snow begins to melt. By the time the children make it to the stone table, bees are buzzing, flowers blooming. Lewis’s use of changing seasons—going from winter to spring in one afternoon—is a beautiful picture of how Christ transfers us from the winter of our sin to the spring of new life.

Cool, huh?

Try It, You’ll Like It
As you revise your story, try intentionally focusing on the season. Just a few simple references can transform a scene from lifeless to powerful.

Don’t forget to leave me a question about writing, either here or on my website ocieanna.com.

Happy writing!
Ocieanna

Doing Life and Writing, Too by Marie Wells Coutu

Does life get in the way of your writing? Marie Wells Coutu shares with us today some practical ways to get in our writing time. Be sure to check out Marie's new website, Mended Vessels for more encouragement. ~ Angie

Doing Life and Writing, Too

 by Marie Wells Coutu

If you’re like me, you become so engrossed in the stories you want to tell that you could spend all your so-called “spare time” writing. That means the dishes, the laundry, the grocery shopping, the kids, and, oh, yes, the spouse could get ignored.

But, of course, those other activities are important. You don’t want to become the crazy hermit on the block who lives in a “garbage” house. And you do need clean clothes to wear to work.

More importantly, your family and friends really do mean more to you than the characters that come to life on your computer screen. So you take time to nourish those relationships and try not to show that you’re making up scenes in your head even as you spend time with your significant other.

We have one hundred sixty-eight hours each week. After work, commuting, eating and sleeping, church and Bible study, time with my husband, working on my social media efforts, learning how to improve my writing, and various household responsibilities, I may have fifteen hours left in a week for writing. If I’m lucky and get to write on the weekend. Many weeks it’s far less.

Here are a few thoughts that have helped me to maximize my writing efforts:

1.    Make writing a priority. I have had to designate certain times as my “writing time.” My husband encouraged me at the beginning by saying, “Take Tuesday night and make that your writing night.” Now, I try to work on my book at least three nights a week and on Saturday if we don’t have something else going on.

2.   Set goals. If you can’t write every day, set a minimum number of days or hours each week for writing. For me, this works better than setting a word-count goal, since I don’t have the luxury of extending my writing time until I reach that goal.

3.   Write fast, edit later. My first full manuscript took five years, partly because I kept revising and rewriting before I had worked all the way to the end, changing the plot along the way. I discovered that I am am not a “seat-of-the-pantser,” that I am more efficient if I plot first. So now I plot and develop character sketches upfront, using Randy Ingermanson’s Snowflake method. Then I write a really bad first draft without worrying about perfection. When I write a passage that I know is really, really bad, I mark it with an asterisk. Since I’m going to revise and rewrite after I finish the full story, I am free to put down the first words that come to mind. And to keep writing.

4.   Use your “writing time” for writing. If you’re travelling, or dealing with serious issues that block your creativity, and can’t work on your novel, write something else during your reserved writing time. Perhaps you’ll blog or journal about what you’re going through. Use details of setting, people, and emotions so that you are exercising your fiction-writing skills at the same time. Ann Lamott says, “You begin to string words together like beads to tell a story. You are desperate to communicate, to edify or entertain, to preserve moments of grace or joy or transcendence, to make real or imagined events come alive….It is a matter of persistence and faith and hard work. So you might as well just go ahead and get started.”

Because I came to fiction writing later in life than many people, I look forward to increasing my writing time after I retire in a few years. In the meantime, these tips have helped me to increase my output. And instead of saying, “I want to write a book,” I can honestly say, “I am working on my second novel.”

Getting to Know Your Characters by Jeannie Campbell, Part Three

Thanks for joining me at Seriously Write. If you missed the previous two posts in this series, you can click here for Question one and here for Question two. I’ll jump right in to the next question. Let's dive into question three. 

Getting to Know Your Characters, Part Three

by Jeannie Campbell

Question Three: What is your biggest regret?

The answer to this question truly reveals a goldmine of information about someone, on at least two layers that I’ll explore further here.

If a character’s regret centers around themselves, how they were unable to get a big promotion or marry the right person, that’s revealing in and of itself. If it centers on how someone else was mistreated or abused or harmed in some way, that gives information. Even more so, if the character’s regret centers on something they said or did in the past that harmed someone else.

As your character answers this question (I suggest you write out the answers in your character’s voice, just as I have authors do on my intake form), look for the underlying emotion(s) he or she feels. Once you determine what truly motivates their regret, you’ll understand an additional layer about your character.

If a person feels shame or guilt about something they did in their past or something they are currently doing, this gives a glimpse into their internal values and moral code. To feel either means that person knows they were in the wrong, either through action or inaction.

But if a person is embarrassed or annoyance about what happened, that’s a feeling about a feeling, called meta emotion. It glosses over the actual event or the actual hurt or rejection, which is revealing. This type of character could be narcissist or too concerned about self-image to care about others.

Either way, a regret can be a huge motivation. On my intake form, I look at this question in relation to the character’s internal or external motivation in the book. I like to see how much of their psychological distress causes them to act.

Join me next week as we conclude this series on getting to know your main character!

~~~~

Jeannie Campbell is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (MFC # 45366) in the state of California. She is Head of Clinical Services for a large non-profit in Humboldt County, and enjoys working mainly with children and parents. Two of her “therapeutic romance” manuscripts have garnered the high praise of being finalists in the Genesis Contest for unpublished writers, sponsored by the American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW), of which she is an active member. She writes a popular monthly column for Christian Fiction Online Magazine and has been featured in many other e-zines, newspapers, and blogs.