Flash Fiction Chronicles

Editor’s Note:  Authors offer more suggestions on how to get words on the page. 

FROM CLIFFORD GARSTANG:

Although I can’t say that writer’s block per se is a common problem for me (I’m more plagued by the distractions of the internet and life generally), there are a couple of things that I do if I seem to be having more trouble than usual getting my thoughts and/or fingers moving. They’re both too simple to expect to do any good, but they seem to anyway.

One is to just look out the window and describe what I see. It may be the ominous clouds or the way the sycamore tree in my front yard has suddenly come into leaf, or the cat bird that sits in that tree and seems interested in what’s going on inside. The other method is to transcribe. I have a favorite book at hand and if nothing else works I simply open the book and start reading and typing. In fact, I’ve been working on typing a whole book. I chose one with a cadence that I think works for me, particularly in the book I’m currently writing, and it seems like a good exercise, if nothing else.

Clifford Garstang’s Short Story Collection, In An Uncharted Country, is forthcoming in Fall 2009 from Press 53.

FROM SYRIE JAMES:

Writer’s block is usually a temporary, creative problem that originates within an author’s work itself.  When I find myself unsure of how to proceed with the novel or screenplay I’m writing, I find it’s almost always because I have not done enough research.  Maybe I am not familiar enough with the setting, time period, or location of my piece; maybe I don’t know my characters well enough; or maybe I have not thought through the plot in enough detail.

In any case, there’s a gap in my knowledge: something is missing.  It’s like a cart with only three wheels; it’s difficult to move forward until you find and install that fourth wheel.  So I take some time out and do some more research, or add more detail to my character outlines, or take a long walk and carefully think through the scene or outline I’m about to write.  Suddenly, the pieces begin to fall into place, I know exactly what I want to do, and I can’t wait to get back to my writing!

Syrie James is the author of the best-selling novel  The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen.   Syrie’s next novel, The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Bronte, will go on sale 6/30/09.  Visit www.syriejames.com.

FROM GILLIAN BAGWELL:
Sometimes when I find myself dreading the writing, for whatever reason, I just tell myself that I will sit and write for 15 or 20 minutes, and then I can stop.  Almost always, once I’m writing, I become engaged, and before I know it, it’s two hours later.  Sometimes I find that I’m dragging my feet because I’m feeling overwhelmed by a particular piece I have to write or rewrite.  Then I look for stuff that seems easier that also needs to be done. 

For instance, maybe I can go through and make all the little corrections that I noted.  In both of these instances, I end up accomplishing something – usually more than I thought I would when I sat down – when I didn’t think I could make myself get anything done.

Gillian Bagwell is working on final revisions to her historical novel The Darling Strumpet of the Crowd, based on the life of Nell Gwynn, seventeenth century actress and long-time mistress of Charles II.

FROM CARSON PIERPONT:

One technique that I use for writer’s block is to step into the scene myself. I freeze time, put it on pause, and picture myself stepping into the scene as though I’m stepping onto a set of props and dummies. Then I investigate. I walk around observing the characters and the setting as though I’m thinking about purchasing it. I am free to get as close as I like. I walk up to this character. What does he have in his coat pocket I wonder? A note! A laminated note! Who walks around with a laminated note? I think this technique is helpful in getting your senses involved and in discovering things to write about. 

Carson Pierpont is a writer living in the Pacific Northwest who writes and worries about what he writes and when he’s not writing he’s worrying about not writing. 

 FROM C. L. HOLLAND:

Usually I don’t get writer’s block, I get “writer’s meh”. It’s not a block so much as it ties in with depression, so that while I want to write I can’t get past the apathy. There are a couple of ways I deal with it. The first is just to accept it and ride it out. It happens. Another is to deal with the depression by doing something I enjoy that isn’t writing – and to let myself have fun doing it. Finally, if I’m feeling bad because I can’t get my writing fix, I’ll write something so far out of my comfort zone that it’s a whole new challenge. Last time I switched to sci-fi, and now I have a whole new world and set of characters to play with.

C.L. Holland is a British Fantasy writer who was a winner of Writers of the Future for 2008. Her works have appeared, or are due to appear, in Every Day Fiction, Kaleidotrope, Hadley Rille Books’ Ruins Metropolis anthology, The Lorelei Signal, and Bards and Sages Quarterly.  Click here to read “Beyond the Gate. ”

I have to agree with what several of my colleagues have already asserted – writer’s block is just in your head. I find that it’s more of a motivation problem than a lack of ideas. Writing is hard, and sometimes it really is more fun to stare at a blank screen than try to figure out the best way to open that story that’s been burning up your brain all day.

The cure I like best is to read a story (or watch a movie/television show) that you think is really great. Something that really exemplifies the medium. Something that invigorates, inspires, and reminds you why you’re bothering with all this thankless work to begin with. Maybe there’s even a solution in there that you can use to get a story back on track.

It might also work to check out something that’s complete rubbish. You know you can do better than that, and that hack made a million dollars. So get back to work.

Alexander Burns lives in Fort Worth, Texas. He writes because he doesn’t have a basement in which build robots or time machines. His work has appeared at Every Day Fiction and A Thousand Faces.