Fighting Writer's Block on a Deadline

It happens to the best of us. If you've ever set your heart on writing something, then you've probably felt the crushing weight of failure looming large when you run headlong into the phenomenon that writers have angrily named after themselves.

Writer's block takes a majority of forms. Some are worse than others. Some can be fixed easily, and others take a little more. What you can't do is just dismiss it as something that's not a concern. Writer's blocks happen, and with NaNoWriMo coming up – the metaphorical definition of a deadline – we should do a little bit of work on some different kinds of Writer's Block and how to beat them.

Motivation Block:

This one is often overlooked, because it doesn't present itself as an actual block, but more a barrier to entry. This is the block that stops you from sitting down and actually doing anything. It's not defeat if you never tried, remember? As long as you always have something else to do – like check facebook again, or make another playlist for that novel, or tell someone about your plot – then you're not really failing to write. After all, all that stuff is leading you TOWARDS writing.

News flash. You're not writing. You're doing it wrong. Do all that other stuff, sure. Make playlists. Storyboard with friends. Do all that. It's great, and it'll make your writing much richer and better, but you can NEVER let it take the place of actually writing. If you're spending more time on the preparations than the actual writing itself, then you're crippling your own ability to produce, and that's worse than any mid-plot snag you hit. (Primarily because a mid-plot snag involves you being in the middle of your plot.)

How do you beat this one? Dedication. Sit down and write. It's as simple as that. It's scary, and you might write something crappy, but hey, who cares. You'll edit it. You'll fix it. You'll make it awesome over time, but always remember that you can't edit something you haven't written yet. Go. Write.

Plot Snag:

And then...you're stuck. Your characters just did something hugely important. They make a major movement forward, defeated the big bad (or at least bloodied their nose) and you have NO idea what comes next in the story. This is the most common of the writer's blocks, if you were to ask me. There's something terrible that happens to writers – we come up with a concept for an awesome story and it'll last 10-15 pages and stop. You'll be stuck, because you never thought of that next step.

There are two big ways to bust one of these blocks. Through planning, and through spontaneity. The planning method is the kind that a few of my friends prefer – especially the ones who already know where the plot is going in an ultimate sense. If you don't know where to go, check out your options. Look at what you've written, and where you're headed. Write down every single scene you could think of between now and then. Not even plausible ones. Just think of anything your characters could do, related to the plot or not. Got em down? There should be TONS. Now? Pick one. Write that scene. And be careful, this one can turn into a motivation block pretty quickly, especially if you decide that you need to over-plan. Keep planning what comes next and next will never get there.

The other way is actually the first piece of NaNo advice that I was ever given. If your plot is stalling, make something explode. Given that my novels are usually Sci-Fi/Fantasy, that's literally an option. However, it works even in more realistic settings. It's less literal, but dropping a metaphorical bombshell on your characters is a great way to make their motivations take off like anything. Destroy a relationship, have someone do something drastic. Introduce a new character you hadn't planned on. Obviously, this method requires your plot to be a little bit more fluid. You can't blow up that really important thing if they need it later. (Well, you can, but it takes more doing.) Ultimately, while this is the most common issue with writing once you've started, it's also easy to stop. Even with a deadlines looming closer and closer, you've got ideas in that writerly head of yours – USE THEM.

Not Good Enough:

How many times did you rewrite that first sentence? I know you did. Don't even TRY to justify it. Don't tell me that it needs to be perfect. It needs to be WRITTEN. This block is the one that makes writers depressed. The stuff that you're writing just plain isn't good enough. You don't know why, you don't know how to fix it, but when you read it back, it's all trash. This is the big one. The one that hits you with crippling doubt because you tried writing, and you personally feel like you failed.

You haven't. Just like someone who only write 5k for the year on a NaNo, you succeeded. You didn't make 50k, true, but you have 5k more written than you otherwise would have. How many people who never got off their asses did you surpass? Writing one sentence, even if it's absolute trash, puts you above millions who never got the motivation to try.

In the end, it's up to you to realize two things. First, your writing will never be good enough. You'll always look at it in hindsight and see improvements. It'll never be your masterwork – at least not until you set it down, call it finished, and decide that it's 'perfect enough'. Second, it's also not nearly as bad as you think it is. All you need to do is keep writing. If it feels like it's crap, keep writing. Switch your music, switch the story you're writing. Move to a different scene. Sidestep it and dodge it and just get OUT from behind this one, but don't give up.

Give up and you failed – it's the only way to do it.

Write, and you'll get better. A million words is the conventional wisdom. You need to write a million words before you'll be any good. If you write a thousand words a day – two pages, give or take – that will take you three years. Those first million words will suck. I promise you, but they will get better. Keep writing, keep going, and you'll find that this is less of an issue than you thought it was.

Writers block is a crippling cause of failures, but writing isn't easy. If you've chosen to write – to really write, because it is important to you – then it is going to be one of the hardest things you've ever done. It's fulfilling and wonderful and will completely change the way that you view your life, but don't for an instant think that it's going to be easy. Work at it, and you'll succeed.

Don't give up. Now go write something. A thousand words. You've got three years to do.