At the 2022 Gen Con Writer’s Symposium I attended an excellent session on writer’s block. I’m happy to share my notes in this blog. These tips might help you with your own projects or give you some insight into what your favorite creatives are going through!

How to Finish? Get to the End

Canadian fantasy author Marie Bilodeau talked about “Getting to the End.” Bilodeau identified two main areas of difficulty for us writers trying to finish manuscripts: Issues with the story and issues with ourselves. In an earlier blog I focus on the internal problems that can stand in the way as we crawl toward the book finish line. This article will share some craft tips for locating the difficulties within a story that halt your progress.

We’ve all been there, staring at a page or blank screen, waiting for the Muse to whisper in our ear or for our characters to start dictating again. A walk, a snack, a beverage, and coming back the next day haven’t helped. What to do?

Review to Overcome Writer’s Block

Advice I’ve heard several times is to reread the story. I believe Neil Gaiman mentions this one in his Masterclass. As you retrace your steps, you hit a point that strikes you as wrong: it’s boring, it makes no sense, or a character’s decision doesn’t ring true. That’s the place the story went off the rails, and that’s the place where you need to start again.

Bilodeau advises to review your original notes for the story to remind yourself of what your goal was in the first place. Often stories evolve away from your original premise, which is fine, but in the process we literally lose the plot.

Energy Drain

As you review the story be aware of the story’s energy. When does it dissipate? You’ll feel it as a reader—your mind wanders, and you’re not engaged; you feel difference, physically, as you read. Low energy means the tension has decreased too much.

Look at what the characters are worried about at this problematic point. Are their concerns on track with the story question? Or are they going off on tangents? Has your story question changed? Maybe the change is for the best, but now the story plan doesn’t fit anymore.

If you feel unsure about direction, ask the characters to lead you. Give them agency to choose a direction and see where it goes, just as an experience. It may reinvigorate the tale or spark a fresh idea.

Twist Out from Under the Block

Try on a plot twist; it can be dumb but is another way to shake things up in your own mind and in the characters hearts. Or it might be brilliant and the solution to all your problems. Most likely, a plot twist made up on the fly rub up against other ideas and new story developments, organic to the project, start to grow.

Plot Devices

A sure way to induce writer’s block is to push characters into actions that fulfill the plot points but make no sense to the characters’ own story arcs and conflicts. Either the plot needs to change, or the characters need to change. Giving the characters choices—hard choices—will add depth to the story and keep everyone, you included, interested.

Researchs

Research is a fine thing to do for a little while when you feel stuck, but you can fall into that hole for too long. Factual research that doesn’t impact the story line can wait, especially as we struggle through the difficult draft zero. Leave a blank space and a note to yourself (“how did phones work in 1924?”) and move on.

Exercises

Bilodeau suggested a few writing activities to help jump start our process and get out of the writer’s block:

• Motivation Exercise: At the point you feel stuck (or the point you think the story got off track), ask why is the character doing this thing? Set a timer (she suggested thirty seconds; I found I needed a lot more time, five or ten minutes) and write every reason you can think of. The first items will be superficial. Digging deeper; you’ll come up with better stuff. In my experience, aim for fifteen to twenty reasons. (Good, bad, silly, terrible—it doesn’t matter. You need to shed that layer of mundane thought.)
• Wants, Needs, Goals, Values Exercise: Write about what matters to the character. What would make that matter more? What would make that matter more than life?
• Change Exercise: Write about what your character thinks, feels, and does. (Especially at the “stuck” spot.) What events could you introduce that will force them to do something else?

The Big Cinch from Montag Press, is an award-winning supernatural noir adventure by Kathy L. Brown. Sean Joye, a fae-touched young veteran of 1922’s Irish Civil War, aims to atone for his assassin past and make a clean, new life in America. Until he asks the wrong questions…

How do you deal with writer’s block or just feeling a little stuck? Your comments are welcome. Navigate to my website, click the blog title and a dialogue box will open at the end of the post.         

If you enjoyed reading this writing craft article, you might like to read about Character.

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