Writing about Writer's Block....

"Writing about writer's block is better than not writing at all."  - Charles Bukowski

Good Monday my friends!  I hope y'all had an interesting weekend like I did!  Okay, maybe not exactly like mine, but enjoyable nonetheless.  Mine involved a wedding, a birthday, and bonding between friends!  It was just the type of weekend I needed.  Why?  Easy.  I was able to have cake for breakfast this morning!  Kidding, not really, but the really reason is because I've been stuck on the dreaded writer's block for a looong time now and, finally, I was able to kick start my mind.  While I may have plenty of sources for inspiration (music, books, Google, etc.) I don't always pull anything useful from them.  But alas!  Inspiration stuck yesterday in church of all places.

Normally, I would prefer a smaller group setting such as some friends gathering for dinner or helping with the young people (junior high and high school students) because that is where I am most comfortable.  But occasionally, I go to church.  Usually I'm all for sleeping in since I'm terrible with mornings, but I felt the strangest need to go yesterday, so I did.  Mid-hymn, I stopped singing, which I'm awful at by the way, and simply stared at the page while images popped into my head.  A few words had crept into my mind and I saw some of my characters start moving.  It started with a possible death scene for the main character of my Lost Gun series, two different versions to be exact.  Then I shook my head and focused on church since we were changing songs and someone asked me what number we were going to.  Cue story number two.  I have a little side project that is more of a toy that future book and a conflict between the two main characters began to take make progress.  There was a glimpse into a third project of mine, but that failed to build into anything useful.  Since, my ideas, however, have mostly slipped through my fingers because of one small thing: I neglected to write them down.  The death scene was ingrained, thankfully, but everything else has become grainy.  Now, if you were to open my purse, the first thing you are likely to see is my notebook.  I always carry it with me in case of writer emergencies.  It's pages are filling with ideas, outlines, quotes, sources of inspiration, and a couple shopping lists.  I believe I'm on my third notebook since I started carrying them around about two years ago.

Writer's block is my curse.  I'm certain I'm not the only one to deal with this, but at the same time, with a burning desire to write and being unable to is perhaps one of the most frustrating feelings for any writer to experience.  Sometimes, in my attempts to break my block, I do the inevitable, turn to Google.  The first five results for "combating writer's block" are: 10 Ways to Combat Writer's Block, 7 Ways to Overcome Writer's Block, How to Overcome Writer's Block: 14 Tricks That Work, Writer's Block: 27 Ways to Crush It Forever, How to Beat Writer's Block.  Okay, those sound helpful, but when I open them what I find is lists.  Lots and lots of lists.  Well, the last one of those had no list, but was an article that tells us of Edmund Bergler, a psychiatrist who not only coined the term "writer's block," but had studied for two decades the "neurotic inhibitions of productivity" that writer's seemed to suffer.  (I'll do some more research and do a more in depth post about Bergler at a later date for those interested.)  I'll catch myself before I fall too far off topic and remain on combating writer's block.  Every writer has their methods to writing freedom, but in order to get there, here are a few from my list that I use frequently:

1. Get out of the house, go for a walk or museum, just get out!  
2. Music, keep listening, change your playlist every other day.  
3. What about that book you've been wanting to start?  Get reading!  
4. Play a game on your phone for a little while.
5. Spend time with friends.
6. Watch some TV, I know there's an anime you've been dying to see. (For some reason, anime helps me more than reality TV)
7. Go somewhere new to write, like a coffee shop!
8. Take five minutes and make another cup of tea, you know you want one!

Now, after reading through the mentioned above articles, I've noticed that these activities were the most recommended:

1. Take a break, go back to it later
2. Write in a new place
3. Write something else
4. Get up ands move
5. Read a book

Hmm.... Personally, I think those sound a lot like mine.  Well, why fix what's not broken?  If they work, they work!  Yes, I know these don't work for everybody, but can they be a stepping stone in order to find something that works for you?  My 6 and 7 are tied together because of that.  I kept going to a Panera or Starbucks then one day I decided to save ten dollars, stayed home, and made my own cup of tea.  That was the start of me making tea as a break.  Sometimes those five minutes of not writing make me write more!  To help me with my point, I did get up to make myself another cup and by the time I sat back down at my computer, I had a couple new ideas for blog posts.  More reading, yay!  What I'm extremely curious about is what other writers do to get over their block.  You have a routine or habit that works?

However, if you prefer to read an article, the one that I found most helpful was How to Overcome Writer's Block: 14 Tricks That Work.  This article had the most information that not only provided ways around writer's block, but common causes and what not to do.  I strongly recommend this article if you want better insight to writer's block.  If reading it is a turn-off, I promise that it is on the shorter side, five minute read at most.

Don't worry, you and I aren't the only ones to have writer's block!  Every writer experiences this dread.  Below, from 8 Quotes to Combat Writer's Block are quotes from a few well-established authors that may help you.

"One of the most difficult things is the first paragraph.  I have spent many months on a first paragraph, and once I get it, the rest just comes out very easily."  - Gabriel Gracia Marquez

"The secret to getting ahead is getting started.  The secret to getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then staring on the first one."  - Mark Twain

"I've often said that there's no such thing as writer's block; the problem is idea block.  When I find myself frozen - whether I'm working on a brief passage in a novel or brainstorming about an entire book - it's usually because I'm trying to shoehorn an idea into the passage or story where it has no place."  - Jeffrey Deaver

"If I waited for perfection, I would never write."  - Margaret Atwood

"What I try to do is write.  I may write for two weeks 'the cat sat on the mat, that is that, not a rat.' And it might be just the most boring and awful stuff.  But I try.  When I'm writing, I write.  And then it's as if the muse is convinced that I'm serious and says, 'Okay.  Okay.  I'll come.'"  - Maya Angelou

"I think writer's block is simply the dread that you are going to write something horrible.  But as a writer, I believe that if you sit down at the keys long enough, sooner or later something will come out."  - Roy Blount Jr.

"Close the door.  Write with no one looking over your shoulder.  Don't try to figure out what other people want to hear from you; figure out what you have to say.  It's the one and only thing you have to offer."  - Barbara Kingsolver

"Writing is 90 percent procrastination: reading magazines, eating cereal out of the box, watching infomercials.  It's a matter of doing everything you can to avoid writing, until it is about four in the morning and you reach the point where you have to write."  - Paul Rudnick