Blake Northcott's Blog
October 1, 2011
My 3 Secrets to Defeating Writer's Block Forever. For Realsies.
Someone on Facebook recently asked if I had any tricks for battling the dreaded evil curse known as ‘writer’s block’.
Whether you’re a seasoned author or taking your first stab at a novel, you’ve no doubt experienced this phenomenon at one time or another: hands frozen on your keyboard with a blank white screen glaring back at you, gazing into the abyss like a deer caught in headlights. Or equally demoralizing, you write and write and write, and then in a fit of frustration you delete all your progress, realizing that everything you’ve just created is a complete waste of vowels and consonants.
So the short answer is no, I don’t have any new or exciting insight on this topic, BUT, I have used other people’s advice to some effect in the last few months.
Hopefully this will help you out on your journey:
1. Write an outline
This isn’t sexy, but it works.
I was reading the excellent book ‘The Newbie’s Guide to Publishing’ by J.A. Konrath (the best free book on writing EVER) and his suggestion was this: write an outline, and you’ll always have a guide to follow. The more detailed, the better. And don’t start writing the actual book until you have one.
Konrath even doubles down by claiming that because his outlines are so extensive, he NEVER suffers from writer’s block. He takes about a week (40 hours) to complete a full outline, and it’s very detailed – sometimes including dialogue.
I’m not going to dispense any advice on how to actually create an outline because his explanation would be far superior, but needless to say it’s a necessary evil when creating your story.
I’m writing an outline for ‘Relapse: Vs. Reality Volume 2’, and it’s going WAY faster than Volume 1. I’m estimating that I’ll save 8-12 weeks of revisions because I took the time to create an outline, and that’s no exaggeration.
2. Always be Writing
ABW is nothing special – it’s just leaving your writer’s cap on at all times.
Did you just meet an interesting person? Hear a funny anecdote? A crazy joke? Did you spontaneously think of some wild and insane character?
WRITE IT DOWN.
Now.
Don’t have a notepad or a laptop? Take out your phone and Email it to yourself. Don’t have a smart phone? Grab a goddamned napkin and jot it down with the waiter’s pen.
Just don’t let it disappear back into the ether, because these experienced are GOLD.
3. Keep your stuff organized
Now that you have notes, do something with them. Create a folder on your desktop so you have somewhere to drop all these gems.
There is a character I came up with in 2007, but because of the flow of Vs. Reality I didn’t have the space to insert her into the narrative. So I saved my notes and she’s appearing halfway through Volume 2.
You never know when you’ll need a great idea, and if you keep track of them, you’ll have a vault that never seems to run out.
Good luck, and if you have any tricks of your own, let me know!
Blake Northcott
Whether you’re a seasoned author or taking your first stab at a novel, you’ve no doubt experienced this phenomenon at one time or another: hands frozen on your keyboard with a blank white screen glaring back at you, gazing into the abyss like a deer caught in headlights. Or equally demoralizing, you write and write and write, and then in a fit of frustration you delete all your progress, realizing that everything you’ve just created is a complete waste of vowels and consonants.
So the short answer is no, I don’t have any new or exciting insight on this topic, BUT, I have used other people’s advice to some effect in the last few months.
Hopefully this will help you out on your journey:
1. Write an outline
This isn’t sexy, but it works.
I was reading the excellent book ‘The Newbie’s Guide to Publishing’ by J.A. Konrath (the best free book on writing EVER) and his suggestion was this: write an outline, and you’ll always have a guide to follow. The more detailed, the better. And don’t start writing the actual book until you have one.
Konrath even doubles down by claiming that because his outlines are so extensive, he NEVER suffers from writer’s block. He takes about a week (40 hours) to complete a full outline, and it’s very detailed – sometimes including dialogue.
I’m not going to dispense any advice on how to actually create an outline because his explanation would be far superior, but needless to say it’s a necessary evil when creating your story.
I’m writing an outline for ‘Relapse: Vs. Reality Volume 2’, and it’s going WAY faster than Volume 1. I’m estimating that I’ll save 8-12 weeks of revisions because I took the time to create an outline, and that’s no exaggeration.
2. Always be Writing
ABW is nothing special – it’s just leaving your writer’s cap on at all times.
Did you just meet an interesting person? Hear a funny anecdote? A crazy joke? Did you spontaneously think of some wild and insane character?
WRITE IT DOWN.
Now.
Don’t have a notepad or a laptop? Take out your phone and Email it to yourself. Don’t have a smart phone? Grab a goddamned napkin and jot it down with the waiter’s pen.
Just don’t let it disappear back into the ether, because these experienced are GOLD.
3. Keep your stuff organized
Now that you have notes, do something with them. Create a folder on your desktop so you have somewhere to drop all these gems.
There is a character I came up with in 2007, but because of the flow of Vs. Reality I didn’t have the space to insert her into the narrative. So I saved my notes and she’s appearing halfway through Volume 2.
You never know when you’ll need a great idea, and if you keep track of them, you’ll have a vault that never seems to run out.
Good luck, and if you have any tricks of your own, let me know!
Blake Northcott
