From: Mike Barker Subject: Re: Blocked! Some scattered thoughts on the dreaded Writer's Block 1. No one ever suggests that a pregnant woman is doing something wrong, but she sure spends a while gestating that rascal before producing something for the world to see. Don't get frantic when it pauses, sometimes the unconscious is gestating... 2. Time to work on some of the boring stuff that makes up the business of writing - setting up files, reading market lists, getting sample copies, etc. 3. What a wonderful chance to review (or read for the first time) some of those books and other resources that are "on hold!" Naturally, you'll want to summarize them, perhaps even posting some of the "nuggets of gold" (whether fool's or real is somebody else's problem) to friends on writers. 4. Good time to lay in some "firewood" for future blazes - sketches, plot outlines, topic lists, etc. 5. Play some games - round robin, jokes, etc. Sit down with a dictionary and stretch those words - try out some new ones for fun. 6. Do some "little" pieces - an intro FAQ, for example (hint!), maybe some non-fiction (how DO you put on eye makeup, anyway?), etc. Heck, watch the boob tube and write your crazy friend in Japan to tell him about some of the stuff happening there - what is ST:TNG or Deep Space Nine? What's a Capio commercial? 7. Personalize that block - it's yours, right? Well, what kind of monster is it? Is it more than one? Is there a comma-lion, gleefully adding commas where they aren't needed with one slashing paw and wiping away needed commas with the other? Or a grey word muck, sucking your words into the dank boredom? Or maybe it's a wild hedge of thorny options, blocking your path with too many choices to make? How about the shining statues of great writers, sitting on their white pillars so far above you that you don't dare smudge their pristine bases with your little mudpies? Personalize it, then (at least on paper) wage war with it! What is the worst possible result of being rejected by the blob known as the "nasty editor?" Suppose the windmills of the great writers do blow your writing away? And so forth, and so on... 8. Change media - artists often do this, and I think it will help writers, too. If you use a computer, switch to pen and paper for a while, or vice versa. Try pencil and paper, too (my personal preference for thinking times - somehow, crossing out, copying over again, and so forth "feel different" from the simplicity of the computer.) You also may want to shift subjects - if you write fiction, try poetry (we should have a class going soon, I hope) or non-fiction. If you write fantasy, try doing a hard-boiled private eye. Do some description, some dialogue. Shift from first person to third, or vice versa. 9. Take in some new sights, watch some of those funny art movies, take a walk through the local art museum (you should do that anyway sometimes), talk to the news stand operator about the "regulars" that drop by there, wander through a toy store, take a walk through the aisles of the library that you don't ordinarily visit. Don't worry about writing all this down, you are "laying in firewood" that will pop up later to feed the raging blazes... 10. One that I use sometimes (Step 1. I am a procrastinator) - suppose a truck (or pick your accident) made sure that what you are doing NOW was the last thing you did. Take a moment and think about what you would like that to be - then write that letter to your father, or give your friends on writers a piece of your mind, or whatever, but do it! 11. If you haven't read it, read One Minute For Myself (part of the series that started with The One-Minute Manager). 12. Look around. Sometimes (dreadful as it may seem to say) there are other things in life besides your writing, and your unconscious may be trying to tell you that if you don't talk to your significant other, the rope around their throat will cause some damage. Take a walk, smell some flowers, bang that basketball through the hoop, see what the world looks like from the top of the rocks, learn that rolling naked in nettles is a really bad idea. Sometimes I think it is not so much that I am blocked as that I am pushing too hard, expecting the muse (unconscious, my pet tink[erbelle], whatever you call it) to come when I say, and that makes the fluttery dear nervous and shy. Sit back, watch the clouds for a moment, and .. don't jump when the winged fairy lands on your knee, just gently enjoy their company... Block? This may be the busiest time of your life, if you listen to me... hopefully, something in this list may help tink =========================================================================