How to Beat Writer's Block
Ranked #9,187 in Books, Poetry & Writing, #323,991 overall
Has your writing hit a brick wall?
Image by Gil Oraggio
5 Tips to help you break the block
- Set a ridiculously easy target, like One Sentence; Fifty Words; Ten Minutes. After each successful session, increase the target by a tiny amount - Two Sentences; Sixty Words; Twelve Minutes. Most important, if you reach your target and the words are suddenly flowing, keep going. But stop before you're exhausted.
- Bribe yourself. Write a paragraph and you can watch a cool movie; write for half an hour and you can go out for a coffee.
- Challenge yourself to beat the previous day's total word count, even by just one word. But try not to count until you've completed the session.
- Use a spider diagram to figure out where your plot wants to go next.
- Give yourself a break from words and engage your visual creativity by painting, drawing, or taking photographs. Or stimulate your audio side by playing music.
The four types of block
- Complete block - usually occuring after a tragedy or upheaval in your life.
- Inner Critic Block - that soul-destroying internal editor who criticises every word.
- Pages of Misery Block - you may well be getting the pages down, but they feel like each word has been extracted by digging them out through your eyeballs.
- Chemical Block - medication, drugs, and alcohol can kill your muse. If this is your cause, you need to get assistance with dealing with these before you attempt her course. (Otherwise you're just wasting your time and money.)
Break your block
In 1994, Holly was signed to co-write a novel called Glenraven with Marion Zimmer Bradley. As things turned out, Holly ended up writing the entire book herself when Zimmer Bradley fell seriously ill. At the same time, two traumatic situations ensured Holly had plenty of distractions to keep her from reaching her goals.
Holly has created a great deal of high quality resources for writers as her way of paying forward what she has learnt over the years of her career.
To get a taste of what she offers, download the free ebooks listed below.
Finally, Holly has just launched her comprehensive audio and written course on How to Beat Writer's Block.
Holly says: "I realized that I'd won my dream, but I was letting it slip away from me. I'd beaten the slush pile, I had a stack of signed contracts and a stack of waiting deadlines. I'd conquered the odds millions of other writers were still fighting against, and I was letting my shot at my dream die... And I said, 'The hell with this.'"
Holly developed three techniques: one to reconnect with the muse, to instigate a meaningful conversation; the second to get that useful information down on paper as quickly as possible; and the third to kickstart every writing day and get the juices flowing without pain.
My review of How to Beat Writer's Block
Freebies
Download the following ebooks
- Introduction to Holly Lisle's Create a Plot Clinic
- This is the first 50 pages of her Plot Clinic ebook and contains so much information and analysis in itself that you'll be busy exploring the ideas for weeks.
- Mugging the Muse
- This is an old ebook, but a good one. If you don't already have your copy, grab it now. This is all Holly's advice for writers that she learnt the hard way at the start of her career. This one has to be downloaded through Holly's shop, but has no charge.
More Writing and Worldbuilding Clinic ebooks
- Create a Character Clinic
- A Great Character Will Sell a Book to an Editor or a Reader Who Isn't Sold on The Rest of the Book.
- Create a Plot Clinic
- You can create a novel, short story, or screenplay plot from beginning to end, even if you don't know what you want to write about yet.
- Create a Language Clinic
- Invent good names for your worlds, characters, and places. Create a complete working language, or just the parts you need for your story. Add depth to your worldbuilding.
- Create a Culture Clinic
- Create religions and philosophies, governments and lifestyles that are different than your own, that work together, and that feel real. Avoid cliches.
Read my review and discussion of How to Beat Writer's Block
- How to Beat Writer's Block reviewed
- My full review of How to Beat Writer's Block
- The claims made by How to Beat Writer's Block
- My discussion and verdict on How to Beat Writer's Block.
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