First of all thank you for taking the time to read this.

Ok what do you do when the dreaded writers block gets ahold of you?

Well before we go there let's pause for a moment to talk about what writers block is.  I know that the answer to that is as varied as the people reading these words.  With that said I will share my thoughts on this topic and encourage you to do the same.

I have found that writers block for me has come in various stages and for different reasons.  More often than not it is because something is not working in the story.  That has been for different reasons at different times.  It has taken a hold of me because a scene in the story just did not "work".  I knew that it did not work but I was trying to force it into the story anyway.  It was an interesting angle but it simply did not fit.  I knew it did not fit and I could not get past it.  I therefore became a blocked writer.

Another time was when I found myself staring at a blank page for the start of the third chapter.  The harder I tried I could not get started.  The more I looked at that blank page the more frustrated I became.

I can almost hear the sympathetic groaning coming from you.

Well I did manage to get past the blockage without throwing my trusted laptop out of the window.

In the first case I wrote a quick summary of the situation that did not fit.  I then wrote down a summary of the story before and after that situation.  Once I had that I took a step back and looked for flaws.  Why was it not working?  The answer became blatantly clear that I was trying to put it into the wrong part of the story.  The character was too developed in the scene compared to the story around it.  Of course I could have used a technique to make it work with a dream or flash-forward or something else but that was the problem.  It was too obvious that it did not flow well.  By putting it into the story later on it not only fit into the story but added a depth to the story that was missing.

I used a similar technique in the second instance as well.  I distilled the story and then looked at the major progression points for the story.  I then broke down the major points of the characters and their interactions.  Once I had that backbone for the story I was able to work through it and with continued refinement I was able to massage it into a very interesting story.  "Fault Line" will be my next release.  More on that in future posts.

In summary I want to say that writers block can strike anyone for any number of reasons.  My recommendation is to take a step back and break down the story and then plot out the connection points of the story.  Once you have that basic format I have found that I am able to build on it until somehow the story is told.

Please share you thoughts.

All the best,

T L Scott