| 1. Use Logic: Check for External PressuresAre you | | | | only under pressure. You'll probably know if this applies |
| under physical or emotional stress? Is your diet | | | | to you by thinking back to how you handled |
| lacking? Do you need more sleep, or more restful | | | | homework, assignments and exams at school. If you |
| sleep? Would a visit to the doctor be in order before | | | | can produce when the pressure's on, then set yourself |
| you start beating yourself up about your inability to | | | | a deadline. Don't make that deadline too unrealistic, |
| concentrate?2. Start brainstormingJot down all the | | | | though, or you may find that you're setting yourself up |
| possible plot permutations you can think of. At first, | | | | for failure - again.8. Change the time and venueJ.K. |
| these will be fairly logical. Then, as you run out of | | | | Rowling wrote the first Harry Potter book in extended |
| options, you'll find that you start to come up with more | | | | stints in a cafe (or so the story goes). Roald Dahl |
| off-the- wall ideas. These might be just what you need | | | | worked in a battered garden shed. Try changing the |
| to get you going again.3. Ease into your writingStart | | | | venue or the time of your writing - from home to a |
| your writing session with something that's 'easy' - a | | | | library; from late evenings to early morning; from the |
| letter, a shopping list, a recipe, a 'to do' list. Then move | | | | kitchen table to a table in the corner of your |
| on to a brief session of free writing. THEN go back to | | | | bedroom.9. Meditate or go walkingSometimes it helps |
| your story. You may find, as others have in the past, | | | | to get out in the fresh air, or to sit quietly and move |
| that a half-hour session of writing in a journal or diary is | | | | into a meditative state and just let the ideas flow. Or |
| a good warm-up for a writing session.4. Take some | | | | not flow. Perhaps what you need is to dissociate |
| time outOnly you know how much time this should be. | | | | yourself from the world for a while.10. KEEP walking... |
| Sometimes the subconscious simply needs time to | | | | remember Forrest Gump...Don't want to write any |
| work its magic. That might be a day, a week or a | | | | more at all? OK. Then walk away and keep walking. |
| month. Obey your instincts. You might think that the | | | | Nobody said you have to write. Why write if it makes |
| danger is you'll never get back to it. Okay: perhaps that | | | | you miserable? It may ALWAYS make you miserable. |
| means you don't LIKE it enough to get back to it. | | | | If that's the case, don't do it. It really is that simple.Or...it |
| Writing shouldn't be a penance. Find a job or a hobby | | | | may be making you miserable NOW, but you loved it in |
| that you DO like.5. Revisit the last few pagesGo back | | | | the past and you expect you will again. If so, walk |
| ten or twenty pages and revise. You could even | | | | away just for a while. Give yourself an extended |
| retype the last page completely, and see if that | | | | break - and only go back to the keyboard when you |
| releases new ideas.6. Use the tried and true 'carrot' | | | | just can't stay away any longer. That's the best cure |
| trick. Reward yourself!Think of something you'd really, | | | | there is for writer's block. (c) copyright Marg McAlister |
| really like. (Of course, the family might object if you | | | | Marg McAlister has published magazine articles, short |
| want to reward yourself for your diligence with a trip | | | | stories, books for children, ezines, promotional material, |
| to Bali.) A chocolate? A trip to see a movie? Dinner | | | | sales letters and web content. She has written 5 |
| out? New clothes? Set yourself a task that is | | | | distance education courses on writing, and her online |
| commensurate with the size of the reward - and DO | | | | help for writers is popular all over the world. |
| IT.7. Pressure Cooker TacticsSome of us work well | | | | |