Ask the Author: Don Maker
Answered Questions (1)
Don Maker
Frankly, I have never had "writer's block". What that implies to me is that you are trying to write one particular story, and you have a problem going from point D to point E. You started it, but where to go next? Why have I never had this problem?
There are two solutions. First, a strong synopsis. I don't try to write the story all the way through, just plot out different things that might happen in this "what if" scenario. Where do I want it to end? How do I get there? Most of my synopses are at least 15 pages. Then I start filling out other logical scenes that I need to connect some of the unconnected scenes. While I am creating the synopsis, sometimes certain scenes or bits of dialogue, or necessary character traits that need to be present, occur to me. I write those down, and then flesh them out. Gradually, the entire novel develops.
The second is keeping at least three stories going at the same time. Some writers have trouble getting one going. If so, you are probably constraining yourself. Just because you are writing a novel, a play, whatever, does that mean you can't be thinking of another story? Even if I have half a dozen things going (which I actually do right now), I always look for another idea. Why? Because if I'm bogged down in one, I am frequently getting ideas for one of the others. So what if it takes me three years to finish one novel? I generally finish one major work every six months, simply because I have so many things going on. And what about the times I just don't have anything at all to be working on that is really new and exciting? I go back to those stories on the back burner and revise, revise, revise.
For me, there is no such thing as "writer's block". There is only what I happen to be working on today, and perhaps as well tomorrow, and what I will switch to when that is not working for me.
There are two solutions. First, a strong synopsis. I don't try to write the story all the way through, just plot out different things that might happen in this "what if" scenario. Where do I want it to end? How do I get there? Most of my synopses are at least 15 pages. Then I start filling out other logical scenes that I need to connect some of the unconnected scenes. While I am creating the synopsis, sometimes certain scenes or bits of dialogue, or necessary character traits that need to be present, occur to me. I write those down, and then flesh them out. Gradually, the entire novel develops.
The second is keeping at least three stories going at the same time. Some writers have trouble getting one going. If so, you are probably constraining yourself. Just because you are writing a novel, a play, whatever, does that mean you can't be thinking of another story? Even if I have half a dozen things going (which I actually do right now), I always look for another idea. Why? Because if I'm bogged down in one, I am frequently getting ideas for one of the others. So what if it takes me three years to finish one novel? I generally finish one major work every six months, simply because I have so many things going on. And what about the times I just don't have anything at all to be working on that is really new and exciting? I go back to those stories on the back burner and revise, revise, revise.
For me, there is no such thing as "writer's block". There is only what I happen to be working on today, and perhaps as well tomorrow, and what I will switch to when that is not working for me.
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