Some writers I know swear that there is no such thing as writer’s block. They believe we can push through and create stories even when our imaginations seem to have dried up and shriveled away like a tumbleweed on the prarie. Or perhaps a better analogy this week would be our creativity floats away like a snowflake in a blizzard!
Maybe that’s true. Maybe it’s just plain hubris keeping me from writing anything new on my latest fictional work, but I don’t think so. I’m tired. I’m dry and I just can’t hear my characters talk to me. I guess if I wasn’t such a stickler for writing what actually had to be in the story, I wouldn’t be so hard pressed to come up with something new. Maybe I just need to let my characters wander around a bit, spend some time just letting them be boring and mundane until I see what has to happen next to make the plot move.
Right now my characters just want to sit inside on a cold winter’s day and play cards. Perhaps that’s not such a bad idea. I’ll bet many a great plan was hatched over a game of gin rummy.
I’ve read things that say when you are in this funk, to sit down & interview them. Do the base questions, who are you, but then be sure & ask the knee deep questions. Even be Barbara WaWa, “If you were a tree, what tree would you be?” Let them tell you what is troubling them. It may be the reason you can’t write about them is you know there is something you want to come out, but just isn’t. Do an in depth interview & find out what they want.
I’m all for playing cards or watching movies on blizzard days.
I did the interview thing before and it worked, but it was for a character I hadn’t planned on writing about. I think you’re right about there being something that needs to come out but just isn’t. I have the ending for the book, there’s just something that has to happen before I can get there!
Have you written the ending yet? Maybe you can write the ending and the linking parts will magically appear! It could happen. 🙂
I have a wonderful ending. At least I think its wonderful. But I need to figure out what to do with one of the minor characters before I can get there. Sat down and “talked” with him today and I think I might have an idea!