In this blog post, I will talk about my own worst nightmare: writer’s block. It’s something I have struggled with, along with many other authors. Writer’s block is the main reason that my debut novel has taken me so long to write and release. In this post, I will give you some possible ways to beat writer’s block that have helped me in the past! Remember, not everything may work for you, but hopefully this will steer you in the right direction!
1: Make a Pinterest board. If you haven’t done so, take your mind off of your writing and focus on the vibe. Make a Pinterest board for your book, one of your characters, or even a specific chapter. A lot of times, visualizing your story can help inspire the next parts.
2: Make a playlist. Use a music platform to create a playlist about your story, your character, or a specific part or chapter. Music is great because you can listen to it while writing.
3: Make a list. Create a list of every possible scenario that you can think of for what will happen next, even the ones you know you won’t use. Sometimes, an idea will come to you based on all of your other ideas.
4: Move. Get up and find somewhere else to write. It can be a different room in your house, a coffee shop, a park, or anywhere else that is different than normal.
5: Read or watch a movie. Go find a piece of media in the same genre as your story and watch or read it. Seeing other people’s works is usually really helpful in sparking some inspiration.
6: Talk to someone about it. If you have a friend who writes as well, or a family member or friend who you can talk to, it’s really helpful to hear other people’s suggestions and ideas. Some of my best ideas stemmed from doing a “coffee date” with one of my closest friends and talking about our books together. They helped me work through some of my problems, and I helped them with theirs!
7: Look at it from a reader’s perspective. If you were reading this book, what would you want to happen? What would you not want to happen? What would you expect to happen? What would be the most unexpected thing to happen?
Hopefully one of these ideas can spark something for you, but remember: writer’s block is a difficult thing to struggle with, and even these methods don’t work for me sometimes! Give yourself some space from your story and take a break if you need to. It’ll still be there when you are ready. Have fun and happy writing!