So you have writer's block? Literary constipation? In need of a cerebral enema? Creative erectile dysfunction?

I know. It is frustrating, maddening and scary when the words just won't come. Even worse is when the ideas are there, but they just won't make the translation to the page.

First of all, relax. It happens to all writers. Writer's block is seldom, if ever, a terminal condition.

Second of all, consider that you may not be actually blocked. Words and ideas are like babies, they need time to gestate, incubate. You may be writing, just not typing yet.

When it happens to me, several of the things that work have one common theme: do something different. Sometimes the gray matter needs some shaking up.

  • Do something in the way you physically write. If you normally compose directly on the keyboard, sit down with pen and paper. If you normally start out on paper, compose directly on the keyboard. Dictate into a tape recorder. Use a pencil instead of a pen. Yellow paper instead of white.
  • Work on something different. If it is a work in progress, start something completely new. If you normally write in one genre, spend a little time in another. If you normally write in first person, try writing in third.
  • Change your approach. If your normally focus on plot to start, begin a piece with character development work.
  • Change where you write. Go sit in a coffee shop or IHOP. Move from the kitchen table to the patio table. Take your laptop or paper to a park bench.
Other interesting exercises that can jumpstart the process:

  • Sit or wander in a public place or get on public transportation and listen to snippets of conversation. Develop in your mind a backstory for them and find where you think it would go.
  • Watch people and speculate on their backstories. Where is that woman in the sundress and sandals going and what will happen to her when she gets there? What about that man in the bermuda shorts with the camera? That couple holding hands at the cafe, how did they meet?
  • Read, read, read. It is terrible of me, but i know a few sites that have the worst written porn in the history of written language. i read there and know i can do better. Sometimes, if i am really blocked, i take one of the bad stories and rewrite it. Primes the pump, so to speak.
Again, i say, RELAX. You will get past this. Your muse may wander away for a while, but she will always come home.