I haven’t found much time to write today so today’s post will have to be a shortie. I’ve decided to share some of the tricks I use to overcome the Writer’s Block or being stuck in more general terms.
My foremost trick in overcoming Writer’s Block aka perfectionist streak is to always put square brackets around the passage that I’m writing. This is my method of tricking my brain into thinking that I’m writing a rough draft and then I will just write. Else my perfectionist streak always come to the fore and messes around with my head creating the impression that I have to put down the perfect wordings for a particular passage. Other people might prefer to use dot point lists, type using a different font, different colour etc. but you get the general idea there.
My second trick, used whenever the cause of the Writer’s Block isn’t my own perfectionist streak but rather some part of the story that is still in the nebulous of my mind aka not well defined yet, then I start asking questions of myself on particular points. Then ta-ta, the answers usually come straight after my typed question. Sometimes, I don’t get just one answer but a few alternative ones. Then I get to sift through them and pick one that I like more.
Sometimes I also find that if I close the Word doc that I’m working on and go to do a random writing exercise, then the Writer’s Block goes away by itself.
These are all the tricks that I’ve discovered so far. Others are welcome to leave comments about what other tricks that one could use to combat the Writer’s Block.
Moonlake's Fiction Space 