Ask the Author: Carlye Knight
Answered Questions (4)
Carlye Knight
First off, I absolutely believe writer's block is a thing. Pretending there's no such thing is cruel and dismissive and further shames those who are genuinely suffering from it.
One way I deal with it is by using a web app like Write or Die and slamming the keyboard for a preset amount of time. I might be typing out garbage, but I can either 1) revise, or 2) look at it as purging the bad before I get to the good.
Another way is changing my creative medium. If I'm stuck while typing, I'll switch to longhand. If I'm stuck while doing both, I'll draw out the scene with markers and a sketch pad. Sometimes I just have to walk away from the story altogether and do some sewing. One creative endeavor tends to feed into the other.
Sometimes when I'm stuck on a story, I'll find a writing prompt that might be relevant and let loose from there. If that doesn't help, then I commiserate with one of my writer friends and we brainstorm. Brainstorming and bouncing your ideas off someone else is fantastic for dislodging writer's block.
One way I deal with it is by using a web app like Write or Die and slamming the keyboard for a preset amount of time. I might be typing out garbage, but I can either 1) revise, or 2) look at it as purging the bad before I get to the good.
Another way is changing my creative medium. If I'm stuck while typing, I'll switch to longhand. If I'm stuck while doing both, I'll draw out the scene with markers and a sketch pad. Sometimes I just have to walk away from the story altogether and do some sewing. One creative endeavor tends to feed into the other.
Sometimes when I'm stuck on a story, I'll find a writing prompt that might be relevant and let loose from there. If that doesn't help, then I commiserate with one of my writer friends and we brainstorm. Brainstorming and bouncing your ideas off someone else is fantastic for dislodging writer's block.
Carlye Knight
This is going to sound cliched, but hanging out in a local , non-chain coffee shop is always helpful. It takes me back to my pseudo-beatnik phase when I was scribbling fire in my journals. It makes the words pour out a little faster. The words aren't always that great, but that's why you revise, revise, revise.
Carlye Knight
If you mean Confessions of a Failed Preacher's Daughter, it started out as the back story for a novel I was outlining a few years ago. The adult main character was working to overcome a repressed upbringing, and wrestled with shame and guilt as all that past baggage conflicted with her present-day wants and needs. As I worked the first draft, the back story became far more compelling than the front story, so that's how it turned into a novel about a teenage preacher's kid and the complicated relationship she has with her faith.
Carlye Knight
A YA mystery that takes place in silent-era Hollywood.
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