When in Doubt, Blow Something Up

Sometimes, despite our best efforts, we hit a point in our novel where we don’t know what to do next or we find our enthusiasm waning or any of the myriad of things that can happen to slow down our word count. These are the moments where you sit there and stare at the page in horror as the minutes tick by.

So what do you do when you are blocked? When the words just won’t come?

The same solution won’t work for everyone, or even every time, but to help you out here are some of the things that I and others have done to help us get those words going again.

Keep moving. And not just the words. Get up and go for a walk or run. Do any activity that allows your mind to wander. Do the dishes, bake the cookies. Yeah, it may seem like procrastination, but sometimes not thinking about your story is when you do your best thinking. Your brain can just try to work on it in the background without your own thoughts interrupting it.

Or just take a break. You are not a machine. Take a break. Have a bubble bath. Take a shower. Give in to your need for that nap. Sometimes, sometimes all you need is to step away from your story and give your brain a break. After all, you’ve been working really hard.  

Change the view. If you can, take your computer to a new location. I often find that when I write at home, I will write less than if I went to a coffee shop or during my lunch break at the office. Sometimes all you need to do is go somewhere different to get the gears moving again. Not to mention that the people and things in your environment can be added to your story. Snippets of conversation can inspire a page of dialogue.

Blow it up. Not literally. There will always be times when you have no idea what you are going to do next in your story. Something needs to happen, but you don’t know what. If it works with your story, blow something up. Have ninjas or pirates attack or just simply ask yourself ‘what is the worst possible thing that could happen in my story right now?’ and write it. If something needs to happen then make something happen. If need be, kill someone (not literally* - just in your story).

Free write. Just write a whole new scene. It doesn’t have to be a part of your novel. Change the text colour to red or white, but leave it as part of your word count. Free writing is just letting the words flow out of you - they don’t have to be about your story at all. Just start rambling away in text until something pops up and you scream “EUREKA!” because you have finally figured out what you need to write. Or stick your protagonist and antagonist in a room and see what happens. Just get some words out and sometimes you’ll be surprised at what shows up when you aren’t trying to control the flow of your story.

Talk it out. Find a good friend or a family member or another writer and just start talking about your story. Talk about what you want to write next. Talk about how you want the story to end. Talk about that one thing (or more!) that’s really been bothering you about your plot or your characters or anything. Just let it and one of two things will most likely happen - you suddenly realize what you need to do or the person you are talking to will ask you that one question or state that one thing that brings it all together for you.
And if you have no one to talk to? Then write out the conversation. Ask yourself the hard questions. Why did it have to happen this way? What if….?

I am sure there is way more that I could write here, but these are the ones that I find tend to work for most people from published authors to first time writers. Find the ones that work for you and use them. And, of course, if you have a great writer’s block breaking technique that works for you, share it!

*unless you can get away with it, but don't blame me if you get caught. It was your decision after all. I had nothing to do with it. Murder is not a recommended outside fictional, literary worlds..