The major holidays are over, and their related distraction, too, is behind you. Supposedly. Except, you, the writer, continue staring at a blank page or screen. The Muse is still on vacation: stuffed with holiday treats and bingeing on this and that and everything else. She (or He) is not in the mood … and File-13 is filling fast.
And, sadly, it doesn’t have to be the Thanksgiving-Hanukah-Christmas-Kwanzaa season, either, for Muse to not be in the mood. Muse can turn tail on you just as readily after … Flag Day.
Writer’s block is often considered ‘writing not,’ but it can be much more than that. It can last a day or many, many (painful) days, possibly months, some have cited years. But ‘writing not’ is just a surface symptom. Writer’s block is sometimes the result of the mind needing to work something else out first, and so, the pen (or keyboard) grows silent—or, at the very least, writer expresses deep malcontent with whatever’s left on the page.
When we as writers have some other stuff going on in the subconscious, Ms./Mr. Muse packs up and leaves: she/he refuses to share space with … nasty distractions. Muse will return after we ‘clean’ our mental-house and get our affairs of distraction in order.
So, how to maintain productivity while waiting for resolution of those underlying issues?
Here are nine approaches I’ve tried (with varying degrees of success) for getting back in Muse’s good graces:
- Keep the DREAM in focus. Sometimes we’re zeroed-in on meeting daily word-count goals or other concrete measures of productivity. Go abstract. Imagine achieving the goal of your book, whatever it is. Meditate daily on the who and why of your book.
- Change the setting. Perhaps you’re an office-desk writer, or a window-seat writer. Some write in cafés, coffee shops, or bistros. Many of us set a time for writing. Whichever way you’re used to writing, break the routine and write in a new place or at a different time than ‘normal.’
- Lower that daily word count. Shorten the daily goal and write a little instead of forcing a lot. When in the zone, pages fly by, and we’re irritated by the mere suggestion of stopping. But times when it’s harder to even get a sentence down—let that sentence be the goal for the day. Trying for anything more leads to frustration and compounding the issue.
- Forge ahead. In line with #3, write anyway—even a little is something and a lot of a little ends up being, well, a lot. It’s probably junk. Okay. Whatever. That’s what editing is for. But there’s something satisfying about seeing words fill the page; it’s motivation derived from sense of accomplishment.
- Jam! Put on some music in a category unfamiliar to you, and let the music stimulate new inspiration. Used to Pop? Try the melodic stories of Country music for an inspirational change of pace.
- Reminisce. Flush the doubt out and remember when you wrote your butt off—and it felt good. Because you can and will get to that place again.
- Walk away. In complete opposition of #4, step away from writing for a bit. The passion will bring you back. If you’re ‘blocked,’ be blocked (cue jokes about constipation, here). Focus on family and friends or read like the dickens (you can start with Charles Dickens).
- Write something different. Try timed exercises writing something out of your comfort zone. Put that educational/informational blog down and write a romance scene for 15-30 minutes. Enough with that memoir for right now, try writing the opening scene for a Sci-Fi fantasy. Continue this route until your true writing focus returns. You can even try writing down a brainstorm of possible ‘underlying’ issues inhibiting your writing flow. Who knows, this private confessional may be the ticket to wooing Muse back.
- Blow bubbles. Silly, right? It’s a tension reliever, and apathy is a form of tension. Just try it!
It sounds crazy, but continued writing aids conquering writer’s lethargy. For artists, continuing to do the thing we love while it’s driving us frustratingly mad, is therapeutic for getting over that creativity hump. Photographers hate their shots but continue clicking away. Painters reuse canvases or rip them to shreds before seeking another blank space needing to be filled with color. Writers backspace like crazy or scratch out words or highlight and delete entire paragraphs before reaching for the thesaurus and starting again. Music composers have trashcans full of pages with breves and semibreves and quavers and semiquavers—all deemed unworthy—until they begin piecing parts of those discarded pages together …
I’m starting book number four in the Dr. Naomi Alexander series while book three is under review and editing. And while chapter one began with a dervish of writing fun, Muse left a ‘Dear S.F.’ note on my desk as I ventured toward chapter close. Something about feeling like a third-wheel, that it wasn’t me it was her. But we’ve all heard that song-and-dance before. Guess I’d better blow some bubbles while listening to some heavy metal and writing the intro to a historical thriller at four in the afternoon …
Not sure how that historical thriller will pan out, so check out more from my ‘comfort zone’ with the Dr. Alexander series (contemporary mainstream fiction with recurring characters) here.
