Today's topic is NOT for the faint of heart! Reader be warned.
A.J. Maguire http://ajmaguire.wordpress.com/
When you are stumped on moving a plot line forward, what do you do to reinvigorate your imagination and get your characters moving?
The term Writer's Block gets tossed around a lot. I find that by writing every day and keeping my characters in the back of my mind, my stories and plot usually move along well.
Usually.
When I'm stumped one of the first things I need to do to get my characters and story moving, is to get myself moving. I take a walk or weed the garden. Clear my head and either mull over the story or just set it aside and watch the birds fly and the grass sway. Seriously. Sometimes procrastination can help. So can a piece of chocolate or a cup of coffee.
Inspiration can strike in the oddest of ways: meeting someone on the street who says something I can work with or just having a sudden "lightening strike" aha moment. Actually, I had one of those today while surfing the Internet trying to solve a problem in my latest novel "All That Sparkles." Today I saw an image of a necklace on a website and suddenly inspiration struck. I made notes to develop my story with later this week.
I find my writing and stories flow well when I am able to focus on my work and not be completely distracted by everyday life. Sometimes, however, things from my everyday life can seep into my story and take things in a whole new direction. Always for the better and never at anyone's expense.
One of the biggest reasons for Writer's Block is that authors try to write the best stuff they can. Honestly, sometimes in order to get a story moving, you just have to spill a little ink and write the worst crap you could ever write. Somewhere in the editing phase, you find the gemstones you'd like to keep and build on. Getting rid of bad lines is easy. I usually get rid of a lot of extraneous words and phrases to tighten things up for the finished product. The first draft is always full of stuff I threw in just to write.
A great way to get through the hurdle is to write with friends. Joining a writing group and having time set aside just for writing from a prompt is an amazing spark to rekindle your imagination.
In The Artist's Way, Julia Cameron suggests we write morning pages. Sit down every morning and blurt out at least 3 pages of everything on your mind into a journal. Be done with the chatter then move on to the good stuff. Your writing.
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