Explode That Block: Three Games to Get You Writing Again
We’ve all been there. You’re zipping along on a story or a scene when something goes wonky. The scene goes limp on you, like a protesting toddler. Or it gets vague and blowsy and you can’t catch a hold of it. Or somehow it repels you like the wrong end of a magnet so that you physically cannot sit down at your desk and write, no matter how you try.
I hate to break it to you, but sometimes, when you get writer’s block, it’s because there’s something wrong in your story. You may have written something that doesn’t work and your mind is trying to get your attention by putting up a roadblock. So the first thing to do is read over the last few pages. Did you make some unnatural choice that had made your story unhappy? Did you try to wedge in a bit of plot that needs to be shown, not told? Did you take a wrong turn?
If, after you do some analysis, you find all to be in order, try one of these games to get your juices flowing again.
Wrong name, Sally
Stand up. Move back from your desk. Now walk around your office (or your kitchen, or bedroom, or wherever you like to work). As you walk, point at objects and name them – but give them the wrong name. So you’ll point at a shoe and say “stapler” and then at the window and say “pineapple.” Sometimes you’ll goof and say the actual name of the thing. Don’t worry about it. Also don’t worry about being clever. You don’t need to say, or “forensic evidence!” or “pickle barrel!” (Though saying “pickle barrel” is kind of fun in itself.) It’s not an exercise to tap the well of your creativity – it’s designed to get you out of your head and into the moment.
This exercise will make you feel a little giddy and goofy. That’s good. When you sit back down to write again, you’ll feel refreshed.
I don’t know why I call it “Wrong Name, Sally” except that chances are very good that your name is NOT Sally. So even in the title, I’m playing the game. See that?
One last thing, this might not be a good exercise to try if you work in a public place like, say, the town library or a Starbucks… You might get some pretty strange looks if you start going around and labeling the lattes “frogs” and the tables “electric chairs!”
The Character Stalker
This technique is especially useful when you need to get to know a character better. If you find that the character is fuzzy in your imagination – if their dialogue is stilted – if you’re working on a scene and the character’s choices all seem inauthentic – then give some good, old-fashioned stalking a try.
This game requires you to head to the street or to the mall. You want a place that is crowded, and where people are walking around. What you’re going to do is watch the people. Study them. Try to find someone who looks like a character in your book.
Then you will trail them. Stay 10-15 feet back and try not to get noticed. As you follow them, you are to imitate their walk. I know this sounds a little crazy, but do it anyway. Watch how they hold their hips. How their feet fall on the ground. Are they taking big, swaggering steps, or are their steps timid or sensual or careless or aggressive? Watch how the subject’s arms swing, if at all, and how they hold their head. You can follow a few different people for each character you’re workshopping. Take a small notebook with you to jot down a few of the key physical traits you pick up on.
Once you have brought the walk of your subject into your body you will have a new sense of how your character operates. You see, the human body exposes the private world view of its inhabitant.
Critic Bashing
I spent the first 3 years out of college as a member of a comedy improvisation group that both performed for adults in the evenings, and did school shows during the day. I performed thousands of shows, some of them lousy, some of them wonderful.
Perhaps the greatest gift I got from my years as a comedy improviser was liberation from my inner critic. Friends, I say it all the time, and will say it again here: you cannot create and judge at the same time.
If you go to an improv school, where people are training and doing their first shows, you can watch this terrible collision occur. A newbie will say something (usually something completely harmless) but their inner critic will decide it was the wrong thing to say and suddenly the performer’s face contorts and they stop and gape and try to backtrack and become completely disengaged from the flow of the scene. It’s like watching a bike throw a gear – the machinery goes all loose and kinky and the rider is thrown.
Just as the inner critic has no place on stage, he/she critic has no place in your writing zone. He/she will sit behind you, looking over your shoulder and slam every single word choice you make until you are forced to go and eat a bag of M&Ms just so the crunching of your jaws will drown him/her out. I hate you inner critic, I really do.
So here’s what I’d like you to do. You’re going to pick a chair or a piece of furniture or a place in your house or office. It’s best if it’s a piece of furniture you don’t actually like that much, or a corner that you don’t often hang out in.
Whenever you feel like you’re being hard on yourself, I want you to go to that chair or corner and actually voice the opinions of your critic. “You’re crazy to think you can write a novel,” your critic might say. “Your ideas are totally lame and you have no idea how to write good dialogue and also, those pants are terrible.”
Good. Let that little meanie vent all he/she wants.
Then stand up and turn around and refute the critic! “I can too write a novel! Of course I can! My ideas are perfectly good and my dialogue is getting better every day. These pants are not my best pants, but that’s okay because no one besides you is here to see me!”
Repeat this process. Let your inner critic tell you out loud everything he/she has been whispering to you privately. Make him/her express verbally all those oily little images of failure he/she has been slipping into your mind. Make that critic cough them up and get them out in the open. Fears and criticisms don’t hold up well in sunlight.
Then, once you’ve heard the criticism stand up for yourself again. If you don’t, who will? Refute his/her arguments one by one and tell your critic off when you’re done being logical. It will feel good, I promise you.
Those are my tips for pushing past writer’s block into new, exciting territory. I’m so delighted to be featured here on the Gaithersburg Book Festival blog! May 17 can’t come fast enough for me!
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