“You don’t actually have to write anything until you’ve thought it out. This is an enormous relief, and you can sit there searching for the point at which the story becomes a toboggan and starts to slide.”—Marie de Nervaud
Anybody who writes knows about occasional writer’s block. For me, the best way to handle it is to take a break and recharge by doing something else for an hour or two or even a day or two. But sometimes, when the break is over and I know I need to get back to work, I become the proverbial writer sitting in front of a blank piece of paper (or a blank computer screen) unable to type a word.
What can help me get going again is realizing that putting down words is only half of getting some writing done. The other half is just thinking. Not putting words on paper...just thinking. In Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott calls it staring “into the middle distance.” So when I’m staring at a blank page, I try to sit back and stare into the world of my story instead.
I’m suggesting that when you’re stuck, you forget, for the moment, about coming up with a bunch of words. Rather, visit the world you’ve created, hang out with your characters, and let your thoughts linger in that place for a while. Those thoughts don’t have to be profound. They can be about anything, large or small, as long as they involve the story’s world and characters, wherever that might be in time and space.
Quite often, “just thinking,” without any pressure to “produce,” puts me in the right frame of mind to face the blank page. And of course, if resonant words or ideas do suddenly come to me while I’m just thinking, I get them down on the page as quickly as I can, in service to the other half of “getting some writing done.”
I welcome any and all suggestions for coping with writer’s block.