Writer's Block: Curse or Myth?

Good evening, bloggers! Today's topic is writer's block, the plague to us all. We often blame out lack of a word count for days, weeks, or even months on this little disease. Some people say it's the death of writers while others believe it's only a state of mind.

It can be a lack of inspiration or just a lack of motivation. Personally, you can have no ideas for a certain story you're writing, but that doesn't necessarily mean that you have writer's block. If you lack ideas for one story you may very well have a surplus of ideas for another. Or, it can be that you have so many ideas for a story that they get jumbled in your brain and the excess amount of ideas just boggles you and seems too overwhelming to work on.

If you have a plot hole, I see it as more of an obstacle to overcome than a block. A block, to me, sounds permanent, while an obstacle sounds like something to work hard for and achieve. If you have no ideas for it, try working on something else and coming back to it later. I solve many of my plot holes just out of the blue, either getting ideas from school assignments or conversations with friends or during a shower. Inspiration just hits you like an oncoming train sometimes--fast, unexpected, and hard.

One thing I'm sure to do is that, no matter what time it is or where I am, I write down any ideas I have. Even though an idea might seem like nothing down, it will someday grow. You can be pondering over it later and it can turn into a full-fledged novel idea. At 3am when I awake from a dream, I always groan and get up to turn on a light to write down my story idea from my dream. If I'm in school I write it on the corner of my notes to remember it.

If you just get lazy, that's your own fault. Or if you're just so busy that you find it hard to write, start off small with a prompt or a poem. Try a short story or something else before going back to your work in progress. Perhaps your WIP is boring you and you need to spice it up. If it seems like you have such a long way to go, think of it in sections and just remember how happy and accomplished you'll feel when it's done.

Sometimes writer's block is just a menace that prevents the right words from being released from your ballpoint pen. If you can't get the words out, try an exercise to get the juices flowing, like being really descriptive with something (look at an object and describe it in great detail with all five senses). Learning some new vocab can help too; I get Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day. If I just need to reconnect with my characters, I write a short scene or some drabble with them. Sometimes I even wind up altering them and inserting them into my story!

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to email me at penelopepaige@rocketmail.com. Time to go sharpen that pencil..

Question: Do you believe in writer's block? Do you suffer from it often?

Retrace Your Steps--Don't Get Lost!

Good evening, writers! Picture this event in your head: You write a great story with a flowing storyline and a solid plot, then suddenly--BAM--your manuscript is read and pulled apart, the beta (or whomever) shedding light to the small plot hole that ruins your story. What you have to do then is go back and retrace your steps to change the plot while still producing the main result. Ever experience that? I have. I'm sure many of you have, too. That's why I'm going to share my advice on retracing your steps to edit your plot. Don't give up or get lost! If you don't go back and change it, you'll never finish it! :[ All that effort, forever wasted. You don't want that, do you? I'll provide some tips, plus some reasons to keep going.

1) Know how the story is going to end. Having a clear idea of how the story will end definitely will help you decide how to advance. If your character has to get from A to B, it helps narrow down the options.

2) Use the experience to your knowledge. The second time around, you know what went wrong and what went right, so not as much experimentation is needed. You have better knowledge of grammar than before (I would hope) and you know which things don't work in certain situations. It will be faster this time around.

3) You already know your characters! You know your characters a lot better since you have spent more time with them. You have their catchphrases and behaviors, plus you know how they would react in certain situations. This will help you think "Hmm, if So-and-So did this, then this would happen." Knowing you characters will help you greatly.

Plus, the best thing is, you're not starting all over. You have the majority of the story in your mind, from the ending to the characters to the setting. Even if it's a major change, you still have most of the learning already done. See? It won't be so hard. You can do it!

P.S. The Quill and Ink Forums (a forum I moderate) is having a Thanksgiving writing contest. Check out the forum for more details. In one contest, we are giving out Chris Baty's [i]No Plot? No Problem! A Low-Stress, High Velocity Guide to Writing a Novel in Thirty Days[/i], so check out the blog for more details.

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to email me at penelopepaige@rocketmail.com. Time to go sharpen that pencil...

Question: Have you ever hit a plot snag in your novel? Found a plot bunny hiding in the bushes? How did you fix it?

Start Your Horses!

On your mark, get set, go! Today is November 1st, the first day of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo).

Basically, for those who don't know what NaNoWriMo is, the main idea behind it is to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days (the month of November). One of the main objectives of NaNoWriMo is to get aspiring novelists to actually write their novel, but in 30 days. Why such a short time period? Well, in my opinion, if you gain the confidence of knowing you are fully capable of writing a 50,000 word novel (by finishing NaNoWriMo), you'll be able to more easily write your next novel (taking longer than thirty days of course). A major problem with to-be writers is that they lack confidence, thinking they'll never be able to finish, or lack discipline, not having the ability to just set time aside to their novel every day. With NaNo, you HAVE to budget your time or you'll never finish, so it teaches you time management. Once you finish a novel, you are free to gloat. Plus, after writing your novel and go back to revise it a few months later, you can learn about all of the errors you made and learn how to correct them.

A few tips to finishing your NaNoWriMo novel

1) Don't procrastinate. See how I posted this blog post? Yeah, try not to do that as much. That's time wasted that you could be writing your novel. I'm only posting this because I love you guys.

2) Don't edit. No matter how much you want to revise your previously-written chapters, don't look back. We both know they aren't you best, but don't reread them yet. That's for December.

3) Write the required 1667 words (or about) each day. It helps you keep a time line and not have to write all 50k in the last weekend of November. That's what I call stressful.

4) Calm down and have fun. Don't worry about if your writing is good or bad or about plot holes. Just write. It will all sort itself out. If it doesn't, that's what December's revisions are for.

I hope this helps! After all, I did use up valuable NaNoWriMo time typing it up. :] Best of luck to the participants! See you in December! If you have any questions or comments, feel free to email me at penelopepaige@rocketmail.com. Time to go sharpen that pencil...

Question: Have you decided to do NaNoWriMo this November? Why or why not? If so, what are you hoping to get from it?