Freakin Writer’s Block
From June 2018 through October 2022, I wrote (or revised) essentially nonstop. I drafted my first book in two and a half months, revised, queried. Rinse and repeat through six more books, and I am thrilled to say I landed an agent! But what came after?
I’ll tell you what came after…
ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. Blank pages. Quiet keyboards. A wedding. A house. A demanding (and fulfilling) day-job that, for better or worse, also entailed writing. Reader, I managed to scratch and claw my way through a few starts and stops during the first eight months of 2023, but not a single completed draft in sight.
Don’t get me wrong, I know that for a lot of people, taking a full year to draft a book is totally normal. Aspirational, even! But for me, it was agony, and all the well-meaning “give yourself some grace” sentiments from friends went hissing in one ear and bleeding straight out the other.
I missed writing. I missed creating. I missed watching characters come together and worlds unfurl on the page.
People say “refill the creative well,” but for me it wasn’t a problem with lack of ideas or passion. The inspiration was overflowing and soon I’d be drowning in the dang well if I didn’t find a way to start getting words on the page again.
So, I’ve made a list. A list of things that have worked for me in the past, and that I have to trust will work for me again.
I cut out tv. (I know, clearly my genius is unparalleled)
This seems obvious and I’m sorry, but I had to mention it. No Netflix, Hulu, HBO. These days I usually like to draft with some mindless rewatch of a true crime documentary or sitcom I’ve seen a hundred times in the background. But when I’m having trouble getting started…getting those first words down on the page to kick off a writing session…it’s time to cut out the background noise.
Sprint for my life! No wait…
Sprints are also a tried-and-true method. I know some people do thirty-minute sprints, or even an hour at a time, but I find that fifteen-minute bursts work best for me. It’s a short enough amount of time that it takes very little mental commitment to start a sprint session, and then I simply…keep going. Maybe I do two sprints, maybe I do six, but I always know I can simply stop after each fifteen-minute increment, and that removes a lot of the pressure.
Writing in a notebook, or: giving myself hand cramps!
Now hear me out. I’m not writing the entire thing by hand (although I considered it, briefly), but there’s something about ink on physical paper and the speed at which my brain comes up with words that seems to just flow. When the words won’t cooperate in Scrivener, it’s time for me to tag in the trusty old notebooks!
Panster vs Plotter: The Ultimate Showdown
Something I’m experimenting with is my pantser vs plotter balance. For anyone who doesn’t know, “pantser” is writer-speak for someone who writes their novels “by the seat of their pants.” No plans, no outline, just a hope and a prayer and a whole lot of vibes. A plotter, well, they plot! There’s a lot of middle-ground between these two categories. People who do a rough outline, or know the major beats but not much else, and folks who do scene-by-scene detailed outlines.
I started my writing life as a full pantser. Literally every single sentence was a complete surprise to me. Writing was like being the actual main character and just reacting to whatever the heck appeared on page next.
This was not super effective, once I learned about…you know…stakes and conflict and story structure (whoops). And so along the way I’ve struck a sort of balance where I generally know the inciting incident, mid-point, and how the story will end before I start writing.
But lately, my brain is clogged with decisions and different twisting plot avenues I could go down, and it’s made it hard to approach new drafts with any concrete points of reference to guide me.
So…what am I doing about it? BACK TO PANTSING, BABY!! Is this a good decision? A bad decision? Time will tell, but I’d argue that in first drafts, there are no bad decisions…only the ones that get you to the damn finish line.
And right now, the finish line is all that matters. It has to be all the matters, because if I let the distractions and the doubt keep clinging to me, I’m going to be working on the same 30k worth of words this time next year, and then, dear reader, you will probably hear me screaming through the internet (or more likely, on Tik Tok).
If anyone wants to share how they motivate (bribe….coerce…) themselves into finishing a draft when their brain just doesn’t want to cooperate, PLEASE do so, because I’d love to hear it. Or, failing that, to simply commiserate!
Stay magical, friends!
Roselyn