writer’s block
Writer’s Mud
To the best of my knowledge/memory, I have never had writer’s block. Not the way I’ve heard it described, at least. Manuscript at a standstill, unable to move forward one word, let alone one sentence.
Never had that—of course, I haven’t been at this too long yet. What I have done is slog through the writer’s mud. Have you been there? The forward momentum doesn’t stop; it just slows down. There’s a little more thinking going on, a little more letting the scene play out in my head before I attempt writing the words.
I don’t see this as a particularly bad thing (as long as the whole manuscript doesn’t go that way). It’s kind of the bridge that joins the planning part of me and the “pantsing” part. (For the uninitiated, that’s the flying-by-the-seat-of-your-pants concept.) I frequently have some broad plot points outlined (roughly) when I start, even some details noted, but I don’t have the specifics of how those major landmarks will be connected. Basically, I know the characters will start at A, stop by E, L, and T on the way, and end up at Z. The rest of the alphabet kind of unfolds as I go.
Generally, I like how this works. I have those big points in mind, so I know what I need to point toward. As I slog through the mud, my brain is sifting through possibilities, everything marinating and percolating to get those connections made.
Since I spent the majority of my life convinced I wasn’t creative at all, I’m happy to find a creative process that works (or seems to). I just have to make sure I keep moving, or that mud might suck me down to where I can’t get the momentum going again.
Have you experienced the mud? Or have you experienced writer’s block? What do you do to put a positive spin on it and get moving again?