Goodreads asked Lara Ann Dominick:

How do you deal with writer’s block?

Lara Ann Dominick I stop writing. I go for a run, or play the piano, or read, or listen to music- anything to keep my hands off of my work. If I try to write through writer's block, everything turns out flat and I end up rewriting (at best) or deleting pages of work (at worst). Sometimes I go a few days without opening a manuscript to work on it because I have to give myself a chance to find a new "what if" or to figure out how a character who is particularly different from me in thought and action would react to a situation, and that just takes time. It also helps if you have someone you can rubber ducky off of. I will often corner my husband and make him listen while I talk through a scene to figure out where they need to go next, and he's amazing at knowing me and my characters enough to tell me when they would or wouldn't behave how I want them to. He's also great for coming up with "what ifs" for me.

So if you're stuck, take a break. Do something else. And if you're lucky enough to have someone who you trust to bounce ideas off of, use them.

flag