Life can get
in the way of writing. Whether you are experiencing an illness, loss of a loved
one, a huge change in your daily life (such as moving), or just overwhelming
deadlines — stress can be a real block to your creativity. The cycle can only
get worse if you get so upset about it that you become anxious, fearful of not
being able to produce, or miss deadlines.
Each of us
deals with stress, trauma and pain differently, and what may seem minor to one
is probably pretty major to the person experiencing it. There are some helpful
ways to deal with stress and get around the resulting writer’s block.
Take a
break. Yes, get up from your desk and talk a walk, watch a half-hour comedy on
the TV, do some gardening… do something to change the scenery and to relax.
Even a 30-minute “vacation” from writing could help to revitalize and energize
your creativity. Some find meditation or physical exercise will help to center
the mind and body and help focus on the task.
You may have
just experienced a traumatic life-altering event and it seems so hard to come
back to simply writing. This is a terrific opportunity to WRITE about the
event. Writing about the trauma can be cathartic as well. While you don’t ever
have to show this piece to the world (you can if you want) it will help to get
your writing brain moving again; and who knows, it may give you some valuable
material down the road to use in a fiction story. The main thing to remember
when you are in pain (physical or emotional) is to forgive yourself and be
patient.
On a
day-to-day basis there are many ways to spark your writing agility. Here are
some of the tips other writers have used: Take 15-minutes (time yourself) to
play a computer game; Play music in the background (my favorites are ballads
that tell a story or fast, upbeat tunes like “Eye of the Tiger”); Read
ANYthing, words in and words out; Draw a picture of your thoughts instead of
using words; Take a small notebook and people watch from a public place; Write
the word “remember” three times and then read it out loud; or Clean. These tiny
diversions can help to break up the disabling barriers around your creative
brain.
Writing Exercise: Think
of someone from your distant past. Pretend to find that person’s diary and open
the book to today’s corresponding date. Write the journal entry you “see”
written there.
Writing Prompt: You
are getting married today and so far everything seems to be running like
clockwork… until the car breaks down halfway to your destination. You can see
you are miles from any service stations and in all of the excitement you forget
to take your cell phone with you. What is your plan of action?
Challenge Assignment: Write
up to two-pages using one of the following premises:
1)
He was drifting off to sleep when he heard
the sound of shattering glass from somewhere downstairs.
2)
He was excited to be driving his brand new
car home when he received a phone call from his bank saying his accounts had
been hacked and they were putting a freeze on any further activity. He had just
written the dealership a check for the car and now it meant they couldn’t cash
it.
3)
His owners were selling their house and
moving, they kept petting him and saying they were all moving to a new house.
The cat was still upset every time he saw another box being taken from the
house. He was scared.
