One thing I promised when I started this blog was to give people a look into my personal process of writing novels. And for those of you who are also writers, perhaps there's a trick or two I've learned that might help your craft, and no doubt vice versa.

One phenomenon everyone has either heard about or experienced is writer's block. It's something every writer suffers through from time to time, especially those of us who create fiction. It’s like hitting a roadblock in the middle of a story with no clue as to which way it should go, the frustration building and building as we rattle our brains for the answers. And if there’s an impending deadline involved, we feel like throwing in the towel and shamefully admitting our failure to responsibly meet the reasonable due dates we were given.

I think the mistake most of us make is relentlessly pushing ourselves to keep going, which just makes the situation worse. What we need to do is step back, realign our thinking, and move forward anew.

How does one do that? Here are a few suggestions.

1. Breathing. I’m not just talking about taking a few deep breaths, although that never hurts. I’m suggesting to follow the advice of Andrew Weil, MD, who says we transform our mind and body into optimum functionality when our breathing is deeper, slower, quieter, and more regular. The goal is to actually make this a lifelong practice by transforming our breathing whenever it crosses our mind, like when we’re driving, standing in line, watching TV, waiting for an appointment, etc. The idea is, if we do it often enough, our bodies will eventually start functioning that way automatically. But to get us past this CURRENT mind fog, we should treat it more like meditation. I usually close my eyes, focus entirely on my breath, and slowly count to five with each deep breath in and out, keeping the pace regular and soft. If my thoughts get distracted from my breath, I gently bring them back. Do this for 10 to 15 minutes straight, and you’ll be in a completely different frame of mind. I swear.

2. Questions and Answers. The nature of writer’s block is getting disconnected from one's storyline and characters, right? So I think it's important to open up the lines of communication and reconnect by whipping out a legal pad and hand-writing questions and answers about what’s stumping me (no computers for this exercise). If it’s a plot issue, I write something about “how could this incident have happened despite these conditions?” If I'm having trouble with a character, I start a conversation. I'll ask them why they’re so mad, or can’t figure out what to do, or don’t want to follow my storyline. I find that my characters bloom into their own, real personalities, and sometimes they have to do what’s right for them, whether I like it or not. So it’s important for me to take steps to understand them better, and sometimes I have to adjust my story accordingly.

3. Images. If a picture is worth a thousand words, a half dozen should easily get a writer through a chapter or two, wouldn’t you think? Before I start each book, I find a picture of someone who personifies each main character, and sometimes it helps to pull them up on one of my screens and stare at or talk to them when I’m looking for answers. The same is true for settings. If a scene is going on in Paris, and I don’t know where it’s headed, I’ll pull up some images of Paris and see what they inspire. If I need more stimulation, I'll try a video that resembles where I am in my book. For example, if I’m having trouble writing a car chase, I might put on that scene in “The Rock” where Sean Connery steals the German guy’s Humvee, and Nicolas Cage chases him all over San Francisco in a Ferrari. If that doesn’t get my motor running (no pun intended), I don’t know what will.

4. Theme Music. Do you know why Hollywood pays so much money to composers to score the perfect background music for a motion picture? Because it evokes emotion and immerses us in the moment. So I'll occasionally hop onto iTunes and buy the soundtrack for a movie that has similarities to my book, and it always gets me in the right mood. Since I write action, mystery & suspense novels, I'll often listen to music from James Bond, Mission Impossible and Simpson & Bruckheimer films.

5. Distraction. Everyone knows it’s occasionally necessary to take our mind off whatever we're working on to get more clarity. But I think mindless activities don’t help because a portion of our brain is still actively trying to solve the problem. I suggest truly engaging our consciousness elsewhere, thereby blocking our thoughts from the issue so we can come back fresh. For me, this is a good time to work on other book-related activities like marketing, blogging, tweeting, cover designs and book trailer concepts. It all has to be done, so I can’t possibly feel like I'm spinning my wheels.

Not everything works for everyone, nor does anything work all the time. But these practices often work for me, and I'm curious what works for YOU. So if you have a chance, please let me know!

Happy reading and writing!