I’ve discovered the ultimate cure for writer’s block. And it’s the simplest thing in the world. Ready?
The Ultimate Cure for Writer’s Block
Keep a notebook and pen in your bathroom.
The Writer’s Block
I’ve been working on the sequel to Imminent Danger for awhile now, and it’s been going … not so well. My problem is that, according to my beta reader, there isn’t enough plot in the second half of the book. Fair enough. What I essentially have right now is tons of plot up to the middle of the story, tons of plot at the end … but for the second half, the characters mostly just traipse around and do irrelevant stuff.
So, obviously I need to change that. And I’ve been making extremely slow progress, but it’s been tough going because I just don’t have any inspiration for it, and I can’t bring myself to sit down and write if I don’t have inspiration. Thus, nothing gets done.
And then I brought a notebook into the bathroom.
The Solution
The first step is to get that notebook and pen into the bathroom. The second step is to take out everything else that could possibly interest you. That includes books, magazines, sudoku puzzles, tablets, etc.
This means that, when you sit down for your daily … let’s call it “relief”, you have absolutely nothing to occupy yourself with other than the notebook. And when a writer has nothing but a notebook and a pen, what else can we do but write?
It’s worked amazingly well. My characters are getting out and doing things, meeting cyborgs, dancing to the alien version of dubstep, etc. Will all of my scribbling make it into the final version of the book? Probably not. But at least I’m writing again! What else can a writer ask for?
Unrelated post of the day
I can’t remember which WordPress blogger directed me to this post, but it was really interesting, and I thought I’d share it here. It’s written by Cassandra Clare, a popular YA author, and she talks about dealing with hate blogs. I didn’t even know there were hate blogs. Clearly I live in a fairyland of butterflies and ice cream mountains. Anyway, here’s the link.
Unrelated video of the day
For those of you who’ve never experienced the genius of College Humor, here’s a link. And here is one of my favourite comedy sketches/songs by them:
Michelle Proulx - Author 
Michelle, this only works if your childless. The minute I close the bathroom door, Every person in my house somehow needs me urgently. Thus no reading or writing happens in my bathroom. At least not by me. 😀
Hahaha, I never thought of that. You could try sticking a big “Do Not Disturb” sign on the door? 😀
I was babysitting for my friends. I sit down on the toilet.
“Thunk!”
I get out of there as fast as I can thinking their two year-old has killed himself in the thirty seconds I’ve been in the bathroom.
He’s sitting there, watching TV, with this GIANT thing of Spray n’ Wash, like from Costco.
Man, kids…
Be proud that he didn’t spray the whole house while you had disappeared for 30 seconds. Once my son spilled a 25 # bag of rice across the living room. I had just closed the door.
You did well.
So glad you found “relief” for your writers block!
Lol. Nice pun.
I couldn’t help myself, you left it wide open.
LOL
Michelle, thanks for the link to Cassandra’s article. Wow, I didn’t know there were hate blogs either. But I think almost everyone I know has dealt with the online “hate” mongering.
I just can’t believe that people would actually take the time to make an entire blog devoted to hating on an author. It’s not like Cassandra’s even doing anything particularly radical. Well, I guess her books do feature gay characters, but if that’s the reason people are hating on her, they need to get with the times, lol.
Nah, it’s actually because there’s a huge controversy about people who think that her books are plagiarized off of Harry Potter–she kind of pulled an EL James, you know, wrote a fan-fiction that she later changed and published… That’s what most of the people are upset about. I’ve never read her books, so I can’t say 100% for sure, but either way, you shouldn’t devote your entire life to hating on someone and making them miserable. 😦 I mean, how does that make anyone any better?
Really! I’d never heard that she changed a fan-fiction. I can’t imagine that’s true, though. Her books bear absolutely no resemblance to anything I’ve read before. I know she used to write fanfiction – in fact, I read several of her stories – but they had nothing to do with her original work. Hmm … Very interesting.
I read that hating someone is like taking poison and expecting that person to die…
That’s very wise! You should become a jedi.
Judge me you do. Perhaps a Jedi I already am. Hmm.
Well, certainly have the speaking part down, you do. Mmmm yes.
The Hoodie Song: pure genius. Thank you so much, made me laugh out loud.
Oh yeah… good post too! 😉
You only come here for the “unrelated” images and videos, dontcha? DONTCHA?
I love that song. I watched it about twenty times when it came out. When the hoodie first started singing, I absolutely lost it.
Michelle, that was a little TMI for me, and man you should see what I’ve got on my blog. 😉
While we’re on the topic of TMI, my husband and I make patterns with the floor tile. Or we remember our tablets.
Yes, tablets are excellent time wasters. Mine is in a constant state of running out of batteries, though. I should really find the charger …
Sometimes I let the batteries on my iPad drain and leave it uncharged, so I get other stuff done.
There’s a poop joke somewhere in this post, but I’m going to show some maturity and not try to find one here.
Either that, or I’m just too lazy and tired to make the obligatory poop joke right now.
So…poop.
I believe that was exactly what this post needed. Thank you 🙂
The word sh*t crossed my mind a few times while reading this, but I was quickly drawn into the hoodie video and completely forgot the topic.
Hahahaha. It’s fairly distracting, isn’t it?
It’s genius, and I want a hoodie like that! 🙂
Maybe this will help with your WIP, the title is 5 Ways To Increase Conflict.
http://www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/guide-to-literary-agents/5-ways-to-increase-conflict
Good luck, and don’t take too long in the bathroom. 🙂
Hahaha. I probably should have thought this post out more thoroughly. Now everyone’s going to think I spend my entire day just sitting in the bathroom, writing in my notebook. I do leave it occasionally, you know! Honest!
Also, thanks for the link 🙂 It’s got some great ideas.
This would only work for me if I could invent some sort of waterproof note-taking apparatus – all my good, and of course fleeting, ideas occur to me while I’m mid-shower. Writing on the steamed-up glass is an option, but not a very good one. Thanks for your post though – it made me laugh! 😀
What about installing some sort of etch-a-sketch device – e.g. something magnetic where the pixel would flip over and turn black when you wrote on it? I swear those exist somewhere …
Perhaps a waterproof case for an iPad? You could type whilst showering…
Well, that’s just asking for things to go horribly wrong, lol.
Yes – there would be too many distractions. No showering would get done at all. Although the iPad could get used to control the shower using WiFi. I’m sure there’s an app for it.
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