So, my friends, I am making my way through the edits of an urban fantasy novel of mine that’s being published this December. It’s due to my editor on August 1st.
(Don’t remind me of what day it is. Believe me, I know.)
This particular novel, in its initial form, was missing villain motivation and a logical progression in said villains’ modus operandi (jumping rather staggeringly from “let’s be friends” with the target to violence), so I’m having to insert in some scenes to have everything read more coherently. Luckily, most of these scenes are going well, but every now and then I run into one that just does not want to be written.
Writer’s block at any time is infuriating. When you’ve got less than two weeks to make sure your story is ready to go? Your nerves start to tingle and you seriously consider giving up the whole writing thing to hide under your desk for the rest of the day.
But, of course, that’s not an option, but it’s still not fun to stare at the same page for three hours.
I have two main courses of action for dealing with writer’s block, and the one I tend to use the most is to just push through it until it’s finished, no matter how long it takes. (The other is to go do something else and see if things percolate in the back of my mind. I find if something doesn’t percolate within a few hours, it’s probably not going to, and then it’s back to pushing through it.)
So, Squiders, in the interest of timeliness, do you have any other techniques that you find help you break through your block? Or, if you’re not a writer yourself, have you heard of techniques that creative-type people have told you work?
Time is, alas, of the essence.
Where Landsquid Fear to Tread 
Posted by Erin Zarro on 2013/07/22 at 6:55 AM
Hugs on the block. When I’m really blocked, I “talk to myself” except on the computer. I just ask myself questions and ramble and try to figure out where I went wrong. It works pretty well for me.
My other method is pushing through it.