Eddie Louise
Writer's block appears for me in two circumstances:
1) When I haven't spent enough time percolating - the ideas are not yet ripe - if this is the case I need to read more, or watch good TV or film, or take a walk - anything to get the juices flowing. I set a time limit to these activities to ensure percolation does not become procrastination.
2) When I have written a problem into the MS - the first thing I do when I feel blocked is to review the story beats thus far - often I have put a foot wrong and if I correct that error, the story will flow once again. These are times when I let plot overwrite character or when I let a character's desires shape the plot (NOT killing XYZ even though the story needs it because my character {me} LOVES XYZ so much.) Once I find and fix that problem things will get going for me again.
1) When I haven't spent enough time percolating - the ideas are not yet ripe - if this is the case I need to read more, or watch good TV or film, or take a walk - anything to get the juices flowing. I set a time limit to these activities to ensure percolation does not become procrastination.
2) When I have written a problem into the MS - the first thing I do when I feel blocked is to review the story beats thus far - often I have put a foot wrong and if I correct that error, the story will flow once again. These are times when I let plot overwrite character or when I let a character's desires shape the plot (NOT killing XYZ even though the story needs it because my character {me} LOVES XYZ so much.) Once I find and fix that problem things will get going for me again.
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