Getting rid of writer's block.

Writer's block is the most frustrating thing to ever happen to a writer. It's when inspiration floats away from you and you are left with a brick wall in the front of your mind with no way to climb over. This can bring a grinding halt to your project. But never fear, Livvy is here! I am here to tell you Writer's Block isn't an actual thing. It's something we writers have named to give ourselves an excuse to stop writing when things get tough. But if you want to become a professional author or writer in general, you will need to learn how to move the brick wall from inside your mind and tell it to come back another day - maybe on your day off. Writers Block is the same as when your exercising and you start puffing and you want to stop. What would happen if you stopped? You wouldn't really be improving, would you? When you exercise you push through that point telling yourself your mind gives up before your body does - to conserve energy and when you push past that point you find that you can actually keep going and have more energy than you thought. Writing is the same, it's exercise for our minds and when writer's block hits it's our mind saying we need to conserve energy. But we need to push past this point and tell ourselves it's just our brain trying to conserve energy. Here I am going to give you 5 ways to push past writer's block:

1) Go for a walk. Many famous author’s including Stephen King.. Okay I say many but I only know that Stephen King does this… go for a walk, go outside and get some fresh air. Smell the roses - but not if you get hay fever, if you get hay fever stay inside and walk around your house holding a picture of a tree with a squirrel in it - and watch the animals scatter as you walk past. Watch how the people move, do they look in a hurry? Do they look like they are waiting for someone? What’s their posture like? How are they dressed? And think up some back stories from the impression they give you, think about why they are there. You could also admire the clouds. Let your mind wonder and allow your mind to go into all the weird dark places it wants to go, let yourself get anxious, let yourself get sad, let yourself jump for joy and smile. Let your mind go where it goes and don’t go back to your desk until you have an idea! And don’t forget your pen and paper for when the idea strikes. If nothing comes, walk faster.

2) Talk aloud. Imagine someone is sitting across from you and tell them your story. Talk about your characters, their past, their present, their future. Talk about your life, talk about your imaginary writing partner’s life. Talk as if you were a character from your story and see where your mind goes. Wacky, dark, funny or sweet. See what your mind comes up with and write it down.

3) Do something completely different. Stand up from your desk or whatever writing space you use and do something you wouldn’t normally do. Cook something crazy; build something out of metal; walk into a hotel like you’re a guest there; wear your clothes inside out and go out in public. It doesn’t matter what you do as long as it’s something completely different to what you would normally do, and see what comes out of it. Then write it down.

4) Socialise. Go out for dinner with a friend; have a games night at your house; call a friend on the phone and just chat. Chat about your life, chat about their’s. Forget about writing, forget about your story, have a nice time and when you’re done write down anything interesting that came up in your conversation.

5) Just write. This one to me is the only cure for writer’s block. It’s the only one I use and it’s the most highly recommended. Sit down at your desk, get out your writing utensils, set a timer for ten minutes and write what ever comes to your head. Don’t lift your fingers from the keyboard or the pen from the paper until your timer goes off, if you don’t know what to write simply write ‘I don’t know what to write’ over and over until something comes, if the only thing that comes to your head is your character eats a piece of cake, great! Write that down and describe what kind of cake it is, are they eating it with their hands, how does it taste, how does it smell, are they sharing it with anyone? When the timer goes off you may take a one minute break and then repeat. Repeat this method until your writer’s block is cured or you have reached your writing goal for the day. I employ this method each and every time I get stuck in a story.

I use this a lot and it has taken me down some weird paths with my character’s doing some wacky things I would never have considered them doing before, not always good but that doesn’t matter that can always be fixed in the next draft. But also and undoubtedly this method has led to some absolute gems in my story, creating further depth to my characters, creating relationships where I wouldn’t have even thought. And I tend to create twists I didn’t even see coming. My favourite thing to do when I’m stuck is to shove two characters into a room together and see what happens. Usually nothing good, which is perfect.