Ways to overcome writers block

You're writing your novel and it's coming along great. You type along, fingers flying over the keyboard. But then, it comes out of nowhere... the monster that every writer fears. "Oh no! It's Writer's Block!"

It's coming at you, with its giant stinger ready to paralyze your brain with its neurotoxic chemical, preventing your mind from coming up with new creative ideas. So what can writers do when the monster comes at you. What defenses can writers carry to overcome such a mind numbing attack.

Do not worry, for I am here to load you with my armory of anti-writer's block weapons:

1) Keep on writing your novel and plow through writer's block. If you force out ideas for your novel, you might just be able to force the mind numbing stingers away, which will allow your novel ideas to eventually flow out freely (This rarely works, but try it anyway). Don't think about it, just write and plow on.

2) Write anything. When writer's block hits, try writing other things instead of your novel. Try writing some short stories or poems. Thinking up and writing new stories might spark the creative juices in your brain to think up new things for your novel.

3) Go for a run, or do some sports, or any physical activity that will burn you to exhaustion. Doing all these things will create a spark inside your body. Physical activity pumps chemicals like adrenaline, endorphins, and who knows what else, all throughout your body. All of your body's natural chemicals will rage a war with each other, until they ignite a spark of inspiration that will blow the monster away.

4) Take a break. Go watch a movie, or read my blog, or listen to music, or just sit on a park bench and go people watching. You can even do nothing and just fall asleep. Sometimes all you can do is to distract yourself from the mind numbing stingers and wait for their effects to go away.

5) Run away to another place. Sometimes you just have to run from the writer's block monster. So run away to another place and write. Sometimes changing your surroundings by going to a different place can help (make sure it's a place where you can concentrate on your writing).

6) Drink Coffee. Something as simple as a cup of coffee (caffeine) is the solution to fight off the writer's block monster's mind numbing attacks.

7) Deny everything. Close your eyes and deny that the writer's block monster even exists (I don't think this works at all, but try it if all else fails).

These are only some of the things you can do to defend yourself against writer's block. So if you're a writer, you should no longer fear the moment when writer's block will creep up on you and sting your brain.





*These anti-writer's block weapons don't always work. So prepare for the mind numbing stingers.

Guest Post for Jane Friedman

Hey there blog readers,

I just wrote a guest post for Jane Friedman, who works for Writer's Digest. The post is about using poetry techniques to help write your novel.

Check it out here.

Short Stories: A way to overcome Writer's Block

Hey there blog readers,

I'm sorry to say this, but I've got writer's block. So I've been putting my novel on hold for quite awhile. I want to finish my novel, but I can't. The ideas are just not firing in my head. I want to write, yet I can't write my novel.

So I'm going to write some short stories instead.

Just because I can't work on my novel doesn't mean I have to stop writing. I've had a few short story ideas backed up in my head for quite a long while now, but I never got the chance to write them.

So I decided to write short stories as a way to overcome writer's block. By doing this, I've discovered many benefits from writing short stories during my writer's block:

Productivity - I'm going to eventually write and publish these short stories one day, so why not just write them now while my writer's block prevents me from writing my novel. I'm not going to just sit around waiting for my writer's block to end.

Passion - When you spend months staring at the same novel and the same characters, the story begins to look a little dull to you. So if you spend some time away from your novel and work on something new, then by the time you start working on your novel again, you will work at it with a renewed passion.

Creativity - When you continue to write (even if it's not your novel), you can keep your creative juices flowing and stop the right side of your brain from building up cobwebs. Then by the time you're inspired again to continue on your novel, the ideas will explode out of your fingers. You'll be lucky if your keyboard doesn't catch on fire.

Jump Start - Your creative brain is not firing on all cylinders, so maybe if you write short stories, it will jump start those creative cylinders so that it will reconnect your creativity back to your novel. The ideas that fuel your novel will come back quicker and you'll overcome writer's block much faster than simply waiting around for it to end.

These are just some of the benefits that I've discovered while writing my short stories. Of course, you don't have to write short stories to overcome writer's block. There are many ways to get rid of writer's block, and different ways work for different people.

I'm the kind of person that loves to write and I've got some story ideas that needs to be written down. So this method of overcoming writer's block will work best for me, and that's why I'm blogging about it.

On a final note: It doesn't have to be short stories. You can try writing poems, or flash fiction, or even a comedy sketch, if you want to overcome your writer's block.

Happy 4th of July!!!

Happy Independence Day everybody!!!

I'm going to take a break from writing today, then go see the fireworks at night.

Tips to get Novel Ideas

Here are a few simple tips on how to get novel ideas:


-Sleep a lot. You can only dream when you're asleep

-Go outside and experience the world. You'll probably get hit with something sooner or later

-If you're lazy, then just daydream. You've got nothing else to do

-Talk to a lot of people (or animals, or maybe even inanimate objects)

-Listen to a lot of music or watch a lot of movies

-Try doing some of those writing prompts

-Go on Google Images and just look at a bunch of random pictures

-Remember the words, "What if..."

-Go people watching


Well that's it. Hope you'll think of a great idea for a novel!

The First Step: Light Bulb!

What is the first step for writing a novel?


It's an idea, of course!


To start a novel, you first need an idea. A spark of inspiration, a seed planted in the soil, a light bulb to brighten up the usual dull cobwebs in your brain. Call it what you will, but you need that idea.

But where do ideas come from? I have absolutely no clue. Some theories say that ideas come from your dreams. Others say it comes from the jumble of thoughts in your head mutating into an idea. While the rest of them say that ideas are inspired by your Muse (mine's on vacation right now).

Wherever they come from, once you have that idea, you have taken the first step on starting your novel.

Hope you'll have some great ideas for a novel

Best Advice for Writing!

I have looked through writing guides, how-to-write books, writing blogs, etc.... and so far, the best advice that I have discovered is from a youtube video of one of Stephen King's interview. One of the people in the audience asked him what his best advice was for aspiring writers, and his advice was:


To Read Alot and Write Alot!



And this is the best advice for any writer. ...I'm serious. This is the best advice out there for aspiring writers. I know it sounds simple. And guess what? It is simple. This advice is the magic pill of writing. Just because it's not complicated or super specific doesn't mean that it's not really good advice.

I'm willing to bet that most famous writers out there are people who have read a lot of books since they were little kids. Plus, they must have written some stories as well, before they even tried to get published.

Okay, let's break this down:

Read Alot!
-To someday be a great writer, you have to know that you're writing something for other people to read. So, read some other books. Alot of other books. Learn the rules, get in touch with characters, follow the plot, etc... You see, reading is a lot like... umm... I think baseball's a good example. Let's say someday you want to be a famous baseball player. Well, you can't be a baseball player if you've never seen a baseball game in your life and learn the rules of baseball. So, you can't write a great novel if you've never read a novel in your life (and be sure to read a lot of novels!).

Write Alot!
-To someday be a great writer, you also have to write a lot. Practice makes perfect. I'm not going to lie, your first few attempts at writing will probably be failures. Do you think the first stories that Stephen King wrote or JK Rowling wrote was published. They have written stories that the public will probably never see. It's like that baseball example. In baseball, it seems simple because all you have to do is catch the ball, throw the ball, hit the ball, etc... It seems simple, just like writing seems simple. If you've read a lot of books, it would seem like you can write a book as well. Guess what? It's harder than it looks. Again... Practice makes perfect.

Since I believe that this advice is the best out there, I'll type it again:

To Read Alot and Write Alot!