Goodreads asked Shelagh Meagher:

How do you deal with writer’s block?

Shelagh Meagher Usually I sit in front of my computer and write anyway, then delete, then write, then delete. Somewhere in the back of my brain I trust there's something useful going on, just by taking the action.

But if it remains like that for a couple of days I sometimes leave off writing for a couple of days more, and, while I'm walking or doing some other mundane physical thing (somehow this is an important part of it), I think about why the story isn't moving forward. I never think of it as "I" can't move forward. The story has met an obstacle and I have to figure out what it is.

Usually it turns out that I've been trying to get my characters to do something they would never do. I might have considered it useful for the plot. But the little devils know their own minds, and don't like to be manipulated. Sounds crazy, because I'm making them up, right? But they really do come alive in my head and have their own ideas.

Once I clear up what it is they ought to be doing, the writing generally flows again.

flag