Monday, January 3, 2011

Sneaking up on Writers' Block

I'm almost done with the rough draft of my new novel. However, I'm having trouble concentrating on that last chapter. I know what I want to happen, and how it will end, but couldn't put it down on paper. It's important to keep that creative process going, so I decided to begin my revisions with Chapter One instead. That way, I can become immersed in the story as I go along, and sneak up on that last chapter. If you find yourself faced with a creative block, come at it from another direction until you break free. Once, in a very traumatic time in our family's life, I couldn't write at all. I felt lost without that creativity as part of my day. I decided to create a comic strip, based on our pet dachshund, Scooter. I had to study all kinds of drawing books, practice for hours, and then to write down the ideas that would fill a comic strip for a year before I could begin the actual strip. In the end, I realized I didn't really want to meet the deadlines of a strip, but by then, I was able to go back to writing books. Where there's a will, there's a way.