To my fellow writers:

How do you handle writers block!

Have not had it in a while. But the thought of it striking scares the heck out of me

Share how you handle it

Tammy

"stream of consciousness" writing techniques

put on paper everything your mind sees/thinks......it may begin with something like.....


I don't know what to write
My mind is empty
I love gardenias ......
etc. etc.


Eventually, something of value "spills" out.....

I will type what I am thinking about even if it is a grocery list. I keep it up until something new happens. It works for me....

Don't be scared....that may be the problem, fear.

"Fear is the path to the Dark Side. Fear leads to anger; anger leads to hate; hate leads to suffering."

Yoda

These are all good ideas
I'm due soon... I feel it

That is how I manage it also.
Just write a thousand plus words everyday whether in a rut or not.

I have an editor, it drives her bonkers when I submit my weeks work and it was six days of crap with only one page of story.

I have anxiety about research papers over 10 pages, because of my research over last summer (long story)!

So I absolutely dread writing them. But once I get started I am okay. I totally need to get over it because it is just a lingering reaction from a near panic attack.

Like others said.... just right something anything and it doesn't have to make sense. Eventually things will start flowing and it will be all good!

Sometimes it is good to take breaks from writing. When a story cannot continue put it away and let it marinade.

In those months jot down ideas on what you can change or add to your story. Little scribbly notes so to say.

Sometimes just watching television, reading up on other authors, or doing activities will help spark ideas to write again.

Writing is at its best when one can create stories that reflect on your personal experiences and if you don't have many great experiences then read biographies to spark ideas.

Writing should be fun and relaxing. It shouldn't be a Mcdonald's drive thru!

My last novel of 227 pages took me 2 years to write! It also had taken me an additional year to have it flowing. What I mean by that is to work on the sentence structures, useage, and consistency so it will entice the reader to read each chapter with much anticipation to not want to put it down 4 in the morning.

Also a good way to get ideas is to create a bookclub. I did this a few years ago. One of my favorite authors are Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. They are brilliant writers who have many bestselling books. I had 16 people in my bookclub. We where hooked on Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child's articulate writings. What I like about these authors is that they also will reply to your emails. I almost had them come to Miami and visit us. That would have been a thrill.

After the bookclub session we stayed together and talk about everything. Many of us were writers so we would help each other out on how to continue a story or give good suggestions. Sometimes we would share our stories to see the reactions.

So yes creativity and enthusiasm does help in beating writer's block.

I found tarot cards to be really great for writer's block.

I actaully did this quite by accident just from studying tarot. There's no need to believe in "Divine Divination", although if you're into that I won't hurt.

However, the main thing with learning Tarot is that you need to learn how to 'make up a story' for each dealing of the cards. Of course, you make up the story based on which cards were dealt out. The idea being that the story is supposed to be "Divinely Inspiried" by the cards.

Was I just happened to be writing a novel at the time I got interested in Tarot. And even though I wasn't having writer's block, I quickly realized as I dealt out the cards I would get new ideas for my story.

So now I'm thinking this would be a great place to turn when writer's block sets in. Or even just to use when you're not having writer's block.

The first thing you need to do is get a deck of Tarot cards. Here's a sight that shows samples from just about every deck available.

http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/list.shtml

Just pick a deck that you find inspirational.

I currently have 6 different Tarot decks and I find that they all inspire me in different ways. So picking up multiple decks can be a good idea for Writer's block. Sometimes you can find them cheap at yard sales, flea markets, or thrift shops.

You can make up you own way to deal out the cards for this purpose. Or you can use one of the many tarot spreads that have already been defined.

In fact, here's a site that deals and lays out various Tarot spreads right online. It also has quite a few decks to chose from.

http://www.facade.com/tarot/

Once you become familiar with the spreads you no longer need to read the descriptions you can start making up your own stories (that's the part that helps with the writer's block. In fact, you can even imagine that you are reading the tarot for the various characters in your stories. Then get ideas from this as to what they're future might hold.

I wasn't even using tarot originally for this purpose, I just happened to notice that whilst I was studying tarot I was being flooded with new ideas that made me want to go write on my novel.

Finally, here's a great sight for learning about Tarot. In order to truly benefit from using Tarot you'll need to have some idea of what it's all about. But it's not as daunting as it may seem. It actually becomes quite intuitive rather quickly.

This story of the jouney of the fool is a must read I feel. This is the very basis of the whole idea behind tarot. So it's well worth understanding this story. Also keep in mind that this story applies to every little drama within life, as well as life overall. Every little goal is like a miniature story of the fool's journey, or at least contains significant elements from this story. So this story is well worth the time to study it. It's a short story and easy to study.

http://www.learntarot.com/journey.htm

This same site also has a free 'course' on learning how to use tarot.

http://www.learntarot.com/course.htm

And it also has one of the best descriptions of the meanings of the individual tarot cards. I actually printed all of these descriptions out and placed them into a 3-ring binder.

http://www.learntarot.com/cards.htm

Although you can also buy this entire web site in Book Form!

Learning the Tarot, by Joan Bunning

So next time you feel that you have writer's block just drop what you're doing and study Tarot. Don't even think about writing on your book. Just study Tarot and I'll bet that before long you'll be chomping at the bit to get back to writing on your book with brand new fresh ideas!

I lay on the ground with my daughter and look at the clouds and try to see through her eyes as she describes every shape that passes by. Most the time taking myself to this place will open a small part of my brain and the walls soon crumble along with the rest of the block