So, You're Stuck: Part II

Today's post is dedicated to the memory of  Gisela Gagliardi, who died yesterday after a tragic accident outside of Comic Con. I never met Gisela, but my heart goes out to her family and friends. A fundraiser has been established to assist her family with her final expenses.

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The last time I wrote on this topic, I gave some tips for getting the creative juices flowing when you feel like you've hit a brick wall. Writer's block is a very common affliction, but it doesn't have to be a roadblock. Think of it as a rest-stop, a chance to refresh your batteries and approach your work from a new angle.

One of the first ways to do this is to consider your goal for the particular story/chapter/paper. Do you want to convince your reader of something? Do you want to create a certain mood or to stir a certain emotion in your reader? Scare them, make them laugh, make them cry? The words you choose will greatly affect the outcome. Social scientists have long noted that the way a poll or article is worded has a heavy influence on the responses it will get.The reader may be completely unaware that the word choice is "nudging" them toward a certain conclusion.

 In a second study when positive and negative statements were combined (“… removing homes and extended roads”) 40% of people thought he would be re-elected. When the tense was switched (“…removed homes and extending roads”) 56% of people thought the politician would be re-elected.

Make a list of the words that you associate with the emotion you want to draw from your reader. Do an internet search for websites that deal with the topic. Read some of the stories and copy down phrases which you think captured the mood or stirred emotion. Now, think about how your characters would employ those words to describe their situation.

One of the things that once gave me a bit of inspiration happened when I was researching a word. I looked up the etymology and discovered its first recorded usage. Looking up that particular piece of text led me to an amusing anecdote that inspired a moment in the piece I was writing.

I never imagined I would find an "etymology" cartoon. God, I love the internet!

 Another idea is to write a "fanfic" of your own story. Write a few paragraphs from another character's perspective. Sometimes, we get "stuck" in the mind of our main character and that can limit your perception of the whole story.

Try a different narrative style. Have you been writing sequentially? Skip ahead and write the scene that's giving you trouble as a flashback. Have one of the characters call a friend and describe what happened in dialogue. Write it in a different tense.

One writer I once discussed this subject with said that she was "unblocked" when she decided she wasn't going to be able to complete her story, so she wrote out a summary of how it was going to end, intending to post it for the story's fans, so they'd at least be able to have some kind of resolution. As she was writing it, it got longer and longer as she added more detail, and before she knew it, she was writing the rest of the story as she'd hoped.

Simply talking it out with a friend can also help you. Call up a friend who can listen to your ideas and offer suggestions, or even just chat with a stranger over the internet. One writer online suggests talking to your dog or cat about it. (I swear I'm not making this up.)

Maybe you'd be better off talking to a dog. Cats aren't famed for being good listeners.

Maybe you need to take the story in a new direction. Supposedly, Mark Twain was stuck when he was writing Huckleberry Finn when he suddenly had the idea that Huck and Jim would take the wrong fork in the river and get lost. Maybe having your own characters get "lost" in something and fighting their way back will help you get back on track, as well.

Lastly, Google Images is your friend. Got a word or phrase that conveys what you want to say? Type it in as a search term. Browse through the image results. If you find one that grabs you, make another list of words that describes it. Use that image and the words as the basis for a paragraph of text. You may just find yourself expanding on it bit by bit.