Welcome to A Novel Approach. If this is your first issue, I encourage you to check out my back issues for more tips on how to write a novel. It's my fondest hope that I can help other writers do the best they can do.

If you have any specific aspects about novel writing you'd like me to address in future issues, please feel free to contact me and let me know what those are. Thank you for your interest, and here's to better writing!

Winning the Writers Block Wars

First, let me say that because this newsletter will also live as a web page, you will sometimes see me misspell "writer's block" as "writers block". This is due to the fact that search engines can't deal with apostrophes in their keywords. Not smarter than humans, yet.

To the spelling fanatics (of which I am one), I apologize! But the search engines can't find my page when I spell it right all the time.

Now, on to the article I intended to write (which has little to do with spelling)...

Do you have writer's block? Does it seem to plague you all the time, or only when you're really in the mood to write? Does it crop up at the critical moment, when you've gotten your heroine in a fix you can't figure out how to get her out of?

Relax! (I mean this literally.) It's not the end of the world. Nor the end of your writing career. All writers get writer's block from time to time. Although for me, it's rare.

All writers usually find their way around this roadblock, too. Here are some of my favorite tips for doing so, and some reasons you may be blocked to start with.


Cause and Effect

Some writers are blocked more often than others. Why is that?

Maybe those writers are newer to the craft, or don't think they know enough to write well. I'll tell you in a minute what I think can cure this form of writer's block.

Other writers are only blocked when they get to the climax. How do I solve the mess I made?

I've been there. I have a perfect plot racing along, getting my heroine in deeper and deeper and WHAM! Out of nowhere, I've gotten her stuck and haven't a clue how to get her out. Writer's block at this point is your brain's way of telling you to let it stew. More about this in a moment as well.

I know at least one writer who seems to get blocked every time she's really in the mood to write. What's with that?

Maybe a lack of confidence in herself. Maybe a lack of a detailed plot to rev her creative engines. Again, I think there are ways around this. Ways that won't make her any crazier than the writer's block already does.


Writer, Cure Thyself!

Okay, let's go back to the writer who feels blocked all the time. The one who also may be new to the craft (or even just to the novel he's working on), and may feel like he doesn't know enough.

Maybe he doesn't!

No offense intended, but maybe he doesn't know enough about his current novel to write it, so his brain is blocking him.

The "cure"? Figure out the basics: Who is the main character? What's the main conflict? Who's standing in the main character's way? How does the main character ultimately win (or, heaven forbid, lose)?

Until you have a basic picture of your novel, it's very hard to write it. Do a few character sketches, too, and you should be able to start rolling.

If you're a stickler for detail and organization, you might be better off plotting the entire novel ahead of time (which I don't often do, but many authors do). If you don't, you risk blocking yourself because you "don't know enough".

Now let's look at the climactic-moment-block. The one where you got your hero in such a mess, he can't get out, and you can't get him out.

Start by taking a break from the project for an hour, a day or even a week. Ask your mind to work on the problem you've created and please give you an answer. (One of the tricks I learned through the movie The Secret and related studies I've done.)

If I let my mind work through what I've done and where I've cornered my hero, it usually drops the answer to the problem right into my hands after a little break. If not, I play what if, which is another form of asking my mind to help me out.

Finally, for those who seem stuck too often, even when they want to write, I recommend four things.

First, make sure you know enough details of your story to actually write it. If not, plot it out, if only in bare-bones fashion.

Second, play with your characters for ten minutes if you feel blocked. Talk to them, interview them, give them quirks that will make them memorable. Get to know them a little better, and they'll soon be writing the novel for you. (Been there.)

Third, just write. You may think you're blocked and find once you start writing, it just starts to flow. This is my best cure. I rarely find I can't continue once I make myself start.

Fourth, Believe In Yourself! Tell yourself you can write, and you can do so right now. Remind yourself you're a great writer (or a soon-to-be-great writer) and that you've got what it takes to get this novel from fingertips to print. If you don't believe in yourself, you're going to be perpetually blocked.


Where Do You Go From Here?

You've done it. You're cured of writer's block. Go forth and write.

If it nails you again, just try these methods to dodge the block-bullet. You can do it! I believe in you!

I hope this helps you believe in yourself, and your ability to overcome writer's block.

For more tips about getting past your writers block, check out the links to related pages on my website. There are more possible causes and more methods to banish the block on every one of these.

Writers Block
Overcoming Procrastination
Novel Writing Tips (knowing these should help you beat your block!)

If you're still faced with writers block, read this quote and see if that isn't your problem. If it is, you know an instant cure.

I never discuss a novel while I'm writing it, for fear that talking about it will diminish my desire to write it. ~ Dean Koontz