We’ve all been there. The head-to-desk days when writing something — anything — is almost Herculean.
There are lots of reasons writer’s block occurs. For me personally, I usually avoid writing when I know what I type is going to touch on something personal. Which, much of my fiction is based in personal experience so writer’s block happens to me a lot. Actually, in my house writer’s block is usually called Top Chef or Dancing with the Stars, because I’ll often turn to the television to keep a manuscript at bay.
Eventually, though, I suck it up and go back. It might take me a while, but I do it.
About.com offers these ten awesome tips for overcoming writer’s block. Number six on the list deals with what I talked about above: the personal reasons you stay away from writing.
I’d love to hear form you: What do YOU do to overcome writer’s block?
[Image source: Chicagonow.com]
2 Comments
Steven Speielberg had a trick to avoid writer’s block: he kept an inspirational image above his desk. From the NY Times:
“Mr. Spielberg bought his first Rockwell, a stirring painting that was commissioned in 1923 as an advertisement for Underwood typewriters. It shows a young writer hunched at his cluttered desk as Daniel Boone floats above on puffy clouds, a figure of glamorous virility who provides the boy with both a subject for his literary efforts and a painful reminder of his limitations.
‘I hung the painting over my desk,’ Mr. Spielberg recalled. ‘It was my deblocker. Whenever I hit a wall or couldn’t figure out where a story was going, I just looked up at that painting.’”
Images are powerful. 1000 words of encouragement in one glance.
I love your comment, Teebs! I think this idea should be an entire post. Hmmm …