Lost Words and Found Words

If you're a writer, this might be familiar territory. After all, if you're serious about your craft, and I'm assuming you are, you've been there before. You're staring at your work, and the blank space beneath the last thing you've written is staring at you and winning the 'betcha-won't-blink-first' contest. Twenty minutes have passed, and nothing new is coming. Fifty-four minutes have passed, and you've typed four words. Two days have passed...well, you get the idea.

Suddenly, you panic. Will you ever be able to write again? When did this lost words and found words thing get to be such a big problem? You might think it's a big problem, but there is a solution.

So, what to do?

This is going to sound ridiculous, but for me, I fix it by just writing. It doesn't have to be at that exact point in my work in progress. It can be something completely unrelated. Perhaps it's another scene or from a different character's point of view, or maybe it's in a different piece entirely. The point is, unless you're writing, the blank space is going to be winning for a very long time.

Lost Words and Found Words

Unclog Your Mind

I find that if I'm writing, it unclogs whatever thought processes bogged me down in the first place. Maybe I was stuck on a character's reaction, or maybe, as the author, I was struggling with what just happened to my characters. (Why do perfectly awesome characters completely jack up a truly incredible story by doing the most ridiculous things?)

No matter what the reason, the only way to unclog a sink is to remove the clog, right? The only way to clear the clog of writer's block is to write. Sounds overly simple, doesn't it? It might, but it's the only thing I've found to cure it.

I find the more I write, the less 'clogged' I get. Because it's harder to clog a full flowing stream than it is a meager little trickle, isn't it?

Lost Words and Found Words

So, get the first word down and then the second, and then the third. Those first few words will start a trickle at the word faucet, and then a nice steady stream will begin, and before you know it, you'll have a couple of hundred words staring back at you.

Don't get hung up thinking about the exact place you're stuck. Find another place to break into the piece. Start another chapter, write a bit of backstory about a character, or simply free write about the story. No matter how you do it, WRITE.

When you think less about your piece, you'll write more. The words will come more easily, and the work will come to life before your eyes.

It's that simple.

Just write

Trust me. If you do that, you'll find the lost words you've been looking for.

Write ON!