Comments on: How Do You Get Past Your Writing Road Blocks?

By: 10 blogs that will help you write great phenomenal posts | Accumulator of desired abundance

Thu, 01 Apr 2010 10:52:14 +0000

[...] How Do You Get Past Your Writing Road Blocks? [...]

By: Joanna

Joanna — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 09:42:42 +0000

Hi Cindy, nice to meet you! I love the simplicity of this approach… focusing on the bits that you want to write, and trust that the rest will sort itself out I think I will remember and apply this one.

By: Cindy Hiday

Cindy Hiday — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 01:16:00 +0000

I go around the road block. As a novelist, chances are good there’s a chapter later in the story I’m aching to write but the chapter I’m struggling with is in the way. So, I work on the chapter (or scene) I really want to be working on. By doing this, I usually discover one of two things – either I see what needs to happen in the blocked chapter and it becomes easier to write, or I realize the blocked chapter isn’t needed, which is why I couldn’t get it written!

By: Joanna

Joanna — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 07:29:59 +0000

Hi Dawn, good to see you. Thanks for sharing those suggestions, and I agree they’re all good approaches for getting round the initial resistance or need to find structure. I think doodling and mind mapping are great ways to generate odd words, and to find the ones that resonate.

I can imagine situations where that wouldn’t help a bad case of stuckness (like an assault of the critic)… but ‘do something else’ generally helps. I also like the idea of saying ‘what if there is no stuck?’. I’ve been trying not to focus on stuckness but instead smile and thank my unconscious mind for the solution it’s going to come up with… when it’s ready. We’ll see how that one goes…

By: Dawn Goldberg

Dawn Goldberg — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 03:20:49 +0000

I try not to let myself get stuck with roadblocks. I'll do something else. I've done a lot of research into thinking/processing styles, and I've applied this information to writing. Briefly, most of us were taught to do idea generating and brainstorming through outlines. That's great if we think in a logical, linear way, but if not... Plus, even if we do think in a logical, linear manner, outlines might not always do the trick. So, I've been working on dozens of different strategies, corresponding to Howard Gardner's seven multiple intelligences, to help people brainstorm. I'll just pick one and work with it. I might spend a few minutes doing a mind map, a Venn diagram, a graph, a map, power words... Full sentences and paragraphs don't necessarily get written during that time, but after, they certainly do. People get stuck with the idea of being stuck. Thinking, ruminating, drawing, making diagrams, drawing graphs... all that is part of writing. What if we said there is no stuck? Dawn Goldbergs last blog post..Can't Do It Anymore

By: 30 Practical Ways to Get Round Your Writing Road Blocks | Confident Writing

30 Practical Ways to Get Round Your Writing Road Blocks | Confident Writing — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 08:30:16 +0000

[...] Starting with such a practical, block busting suggestion seemed like a good way to open this compilation of tips, suggestions and strategies for getting round your writing road blocks. [...]

By: Joanna

Joanna — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 09:02:46 +0000

Hi, thanks for that quote – seen various attributions of it, probably because it’s such a good one Reading, and writing every day are sound additions. Thanks.

By: QuinnCreative

QuinnCreative — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 23:37:16 +0000

I stare at the screen till blood runs down my forehead. That was actually from a New Yorker cartoon a long time ago--so long, it was a typewriter and not a computer. If I'm stuck, I usually do some reading--of good writing. As far as actions, writing everyday makes you good at writing everyday. QuinnCreatives last blog post..Automated, but Not Working

By: Joanna

Joanna — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 22:32:42 +0000

Kathleen, thank you so much for taking the time to leave this comment. Your feedback means the world to me, and was a wonderful way for me to finishin off the weekend. I hope you’ll be back soon – and more importantly, that you’ll be off writing with confidence!

By: Joanna

Joanna — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 22:30:24 +0000

David, really we need to kick these critics into touch! I’ve never tried Tai Chi (yet) but as I said on Twitter I’ve heard great things about it, and can see like other suggestions made here it would be a great way to get back into the flow.