The thing you do to be sane and happy should besomething you can control.
-Cory Doctorow
How to fight writer’s block? Well, we identified it as a mood, so what causes the mood?
Boredom with the project? More advice from Cory (and I was chuffed when he gave it because I already did this): leave off writing in the middle of a sentence or paragraph – leave yourself something to start with.
Another thing I do is stop and think “Well, I hate writing this scene, what scene do I really WANT to write?” I skip to that scene, and nine times out of ten, the finished project doesn’t have the scene I didn’t want to write in it, anyway.
Tired? There are two kinds of tired – physical and mental. For physical tired, you pretty much gotta sleep.
For mental tired, DON’T. Contrary to logic, napping doesn’t help – exercise does. The more I feel exhausted, the more I need to hop on the elliptical for a few minutes. Plus, physical exercise clears the mind.
Depressed? This is the big one for me. I guess the only thing to do is identify what is depressing you and find something you can do about that, first. I’m going to sound like a one-trick Pony here, but I find exercise is also my easiest fix to depression.
In general, if there’s something non-writing that’s stopping you, figure out what it is and deal with it. Pain from a torn shoulder? Ice and ibuprofen. Hung over? Tomato juice and aspirin. Listen to your body and take care of yourself.
Frustrated? Can’t decide where the story is going/ how to end it / how to start it? Maybe what you need is quiet time – do something that engages your body but not your mind – laundry, dishes – drive somewhere. Give yourself the time you need to let your thoughts wander. Remember what started you writing the story in the first place, what it really was you started out wanting to say.
None of this is guaranteed to work. Heck, I can’t get up and exercise just to get up to exercise – you want me to do it when I’m in a bad mood? Have you never played The Sims?
I’m just not *sigh* in the mood. Person up treat it like a job. I have never in my life been in the mood to get up at 7am and scrape ice off my windshield so I can drive to an office building and deal with other people’s computer problems all day, but I manage to do so with appalling regularity.
