Five ways to combat writer's block

I know everyone deals with writer’s block differently, but I just wanted to share five ways I combat writer’s block and what helps me get back onto my writing journey. Some might be obvious, some may not work for you, but hopefully some of these strategies might be able to get you out of a writing lull.

 Walking

Most of my narratives are set in nature or have an element of nature-writing within them. Sometimes I find myself repeating similar phrases or descriptions as I spiral into writer’s block. I find going on a long walk helps with this. It clears my head, provides me with opportunity to really immerse myself in nature and notice things I perhaps hadn’t noticed before and therefore provides me with inspiration for my writing.

Reading

This is probably one of the more obvious strategies- be inspired by your most loved books. The books that made you want to write to begin with. What was it about the narrative, the characters, the imagery that captivated you in the first place? How might you recreate some of this magic in your own? I love to write chilling gothic stories for children and teenagers, and I am often inspired by Roald Dahl’s short stories but also good old Poe. If I am struggling with what to write, I usually take a break, read a couple of short stories, jot down what grabbed me and why, and use this to inspire my writing.

Board Games

I won’t go into too much detail about this as I have written about some of my favourite bookish games in my last blog post, but board games are a nice break when I am getting frustrated with my writing. They allow me to clear my head and focus on something else for a little while, but also some games (such as the ones I mentioned in my last blog post) actually encourage creativity, storytelling and imagination. I often find that after a game or two I am feeling refocused and ready to write again.

 Take a bath

I often get my best ideas in the bath (or sometimes the shower). Bath time is the perfect opportunity to mull over some of my trickier plot issues amongst all the bubbles… although sometimes I find that a lot of the solutions end up being water-based.

  Improving my writing space

Sometimes I find the biggest barrier to my writing is the space I am working in. If the space feels cluttered and unproductive, my mind feels cluttered and unproductive. Whenever I start a new draft, I spend a day clearing out my writing my space, tidying and organising. I also like to make it a pleasant environment to work in and often adorn the area with flowers, plants, candles and motivational messages to make myself feel motivated. I make sure I let as much light as I possibly can in and will often listen to ASMR rooms of seasonal outdoor spaces to allow for some background noise that isn’t too distracting.

So, there are five ways I try and combat the troublesome writer’s block, let me know what you do to keep yourself inspired and writing 😊 

Bookish Games

I thought I would write something a little different but still with a bookish focus. I like board games (not in an obsessive, that’s-all-I-do, expert- on-really-advanced-games kind of way), but I enjoy them. Especially on a rainy day. My favourite type of boardgame is one that has a literary theme or one where I need to use creativity. As we are all spending more time indoors, and we seem to have a little more time, I thought I would make a list of four bookish games I would recommend.

First of all, Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective- I absolutely love this game. I am a huge fan of Arthur Conan Doyle’s work. I love the cosy, old-fashioned feel to the Sherlock Holmes series, and I enjoy nothing more than listening to a short story audiobook. I have listened to so many now that I consider myself a bit of a “detective.” I have learnt the general tropes and hints of where the mystery is heading and can often now work out the resolution before the end of the story. Although in some ways, this has taken away the magic of Sherlock, it does feel good to imagine myself as clever as him 😊. Naturally, to be able to then PLAY the mysteries in this boardgame is something I obviously would be drawn to. And there is nothing better than playing this board game on a rainy day, with a cup of tea and a Victorian ASMR room playing on the TV. I play it with my husband, but I think it would be possible to play it with only one player as well, or even larger groups. The game takes you through a Sherlock Holmes themed mystery where you need to use newspapers, maps and “visiting” various areas of London to uncover the solutions to the crimes. I like to think I have gotten pretty good at finding the “secret messages” in the personal section of the newspaper, I mean it is a common place where Sherlock finds some of his clues in the series itself. You can choose how long you want this board game to last- you can play it more competitively and try and solve the mysteries in as few clues as possible, or you can do what we do and try to unravel every last strand we possibly can. Downfalls to this game are that I think we have a relatively early version of the game so there are few typos and once you play a mystery you can’t play it again (as you already know the answers). There are 10 mysteries in the box. I personally prefer games I can play an unlimited amount of time, but I do believe there are expansion packs, so that might be something we will invest in in the future.

The next bookish game is “Paperback.” Although this is about wordplay and more like scrabble than anything, the design of the game is really great, with the cards having illustrations of front covers of an array of different genres of books. It is a quick, easy game- and also one of the only games I actually win at against my husband- that may be part of the reason I like it so much.

Next, we have “Gloom.” I haven’t played this game as much as I would like, although the design is right up my street. I love the gothic, Tim Burton-esque design of the characters and the different “families.” It certainly is quirky and I like the twist that you are trying to make your own family as miserable as possible, whilst making the family you are competing against have “the best life possible.” I am torn with Gloom. It is everything I should love, but I find the competitive, numerical “point adding and subtracting” side quite difficult and would love to focus more on the story-telling component, whereas my husband is more into “just getting the game done” and it being more of a battle/ competition than really developing the narrative behind it. I think with this game, it really depends on who you are playing with.

Finally, “DixIt.” It is a great game for all the family and has been really popular when we have had friends over for “games nights,” all the way back when you could have friends over. It is nice, easy and simple, but does also rely on your creativity. The cards are absolutely stunning and I think the game is a really effective practice in describing something in a succinct and imaginative way- you really need your show, don’t tell skills here!

Anyway, those are my four recommendations- I would really love to hear your thoughts on any of these games and would also love any further recommendations of any bookish games you have discovered and would recommend. 

How did I miss this?

I was an avid reader as a child (surprising?). One of my fondest memories is doing the Saturday shop with my mum, and as a treat for good behaviour, getting to go up to the library (it was on the second-floor balcony area of the town centre) and completely immerse myself in the children’s section.

My big loves were, of course, Harry Potter, Series of Unfortunate Events and Goosebumps. I also loved Enid Blyton, Animorphs and anything Jacqueline Wilson. As I got older, I started delving into more of the classics, alongside the next-big-things such as Hunger Games and the Divergent series. And, although I read a lot, I somehow completely and utterly missed the His Dark Materials series. I have a really foggy memory of being at a creative writing masterclass and being introduced to an extract that must have been from the series where we then had to create our own ‘daemons.’ I remember being interested, wondering where the extract came from, but still, it didn’t encourage me to investigate. It isn’t until, as a 23-year-old and moving into my first home with my now-husband, and he unloaded his His Dark Materials books onto the bookshelf that I actually truly realised that this series even existed. It is safe to say my husband was shocked at my lack of knowledge of this beloved series, yet still, it isn’t until lockdown that I have finally been drawn to picking up that first book. Rather than buying new books, I was trying to do the thing where I actually read the books we already have, and I had made a list of all the untouched books on the shelves that I had yet to peruse. I was aware that the book had recently been made into a BBC series, but hadn’t really taken to it, what with my lack of understanding of the world Phillip Pullman had created. I wasn’t invested yet.

The first time I read the book was in the bath about two weeks ago, and I remember just kicking myself and thinking, “How on earth did I miss this?” His Dark Materials would have been right up my street as a kid (and still is). Magical world- check, animals- double check, a strong female protagonist- check. How did I manage to let it slip by? So now, naturally, I have devoured the first book and the first season of the TV series (much prefer the book, as per), and I will be shortly starting the next. I have even gone as far as speculating what my loved one’s daemons might be. I have decided to call on my inner child for the rest of the series, and I am determined to immerse myself with magical worlds as much as I once did.

Reading Outside :)

As I write this it is in fact the first day of rain in well over a week, but previous to this day we had been blessed with some glorious sunshine. It might be the only bit of summer that the UK gets (I hope not), but I made sure I made the most of it (within social distancing measures) and went outside as often as I could. As a result, I am now sporting a lovely t-shirt tan.

This blog post is going to be more about reading than writing. I just wanted to express my appreciation of being able to read outside. My books have joined me in the garden, in a field, next to a lake, and there is something about being able to read whilst amongst nature and in the sunshine that really adds to the experience. Don’t get me wrong, I love a cosy winter read wrapped up in a blanket, hot chocolate, the works, but nothing beats reading about an epic journey and hearing the sounds of nature around you.

So, that is all really- I just wanted to share my love of reading and the outdoors 😊. Let me know about any interesting and fun locations you have been reading lately.

When an idea strikes!

I am sure every writer has experienced this before, but I was about six chapters into the story I have started writing when I was hit with a completely new idea that has no relevance whatsoever to my current WIP. This left me with a bit of a predicament. Do I put my new idea in a back drawer, forget about it for the time being and continue with what I am currently writing which, let’s be honest, doesn’t enthuse me quite as much as this brand new sparkling idea, or do I allow myself to be enticed by this new concept, abandon my WIP at Chapter 6 and come back to it at some later date down the line?

Tricky.

I rightly or wrongly chose the latter and picked up a shiny new notebook to start plotting my new idea somewhere different from the old idea (didn’t want it to get jealous).

I know I have said this before but I love a new notebook. Blank fresh pages and the prospect of a new adventure. I particularly like my choice of notebook number two because it doesn’t have lines. This has been especially useful with the plotting and planning stage as I am a bit of a mind-mapper/ grid-maker (might be the teacher in me).  So far, I have plotted the sequence of the story, planned out some of the main characters (currently unnamed- I find coming up with character and place names to be one of the most difficult aspects of writing- I might write a blog post on this in the future. I’ve put that in bold in order to remind myself to write that blog 😊) but what I have enjoyed the most about my shiny, new idea (although the notebook is a close contender) is the fact that I have had to do a bit of research for it. I don’t want to say too much, but it involves the books below.

Let’s hope I stay committed to this idea and don’t get several chapters in when a new idea strikes and lures me away! 

Learning to be positive and following your dreams...

If I had to pinpoint the moment in my life when I became a “negative person,” I would probably have to say my teenage years. I mean, who isn’t a bit negative as a teenager? Seems to be part of that whole hormonal transition, but I think the negativity stuck with me. Not in an obvious, surface level way but more through self-doubt. I would always assume the worse, would always consider myself not capable even when there was evidence contrary to that, and even when good things did happen or I achieved something miraculous, I would always be fearing that there would be something lurking around the corner to take all of it away, or at least, make the whole achievement something I am not worthy of or something I do not truly deserve. I know a lot of people feel this way, but I started to find that as I got older, and perhaps more comfortable in my life, I was letting self-doubt and this lack of belief in myself, restrict me from aiming for all of the things I truly wanted.

I think I have mentioned this in previous blog posts, but at literally any point in my life, if someone asked me what my biggest dream was, the answer was always to be a writer- and still is. Yet, never in my life did I set aside the time to write seriously. It was that self-doubt again. If I started to write, I already felt like a failure. Becoming a writer is like becoming a model, actor, singer etc- near impossible and only for those special few who have connections or whatever. What I needed was a mindset shift. I needed to perceive writing in a different way, not the glamorised J.K Rowling kind of way I had grown up with. If I wrote a book, even if nobody read it at all, I was still a writer. I have written and created something. I have achieved something. And I needed to believe I was capable of doing that.

I have never been one to read books about developing yourself. I am much more of a fiction fan. I would prefer to escape to other worlds than face the reality of my own. But, last Christmas, I decided to pick out a few of these books and see if there was actually anything useful in helping me believe in myself a bit more. The majority of things I read I knew wouldn’t work for me (or is that the negativity talking again?) but I took on a few tips and a few ideas and decided to give them a go. One thing that has helped me massively is vision boards. I have made vision boards in the past without really considering them as “vision boards,” and without really thinking about what they mean. I made one for my interview as Director of English and managed to secure the position at the age of 25 and having only been a teacher for less than 3 years. That is a massive achievement, yet at the time, I don’t think I even truly saw it that way as, yet again, self-doubt and those negative thoughts ate away at me.

After reading about vision boards, I decided to make one for everything I would love (no matter how insignificant or wild) to achieve in the next 3 months to 20 years. It was really interesting to find myself adding things that I didn’t even realise I wanted, but up there as one of my main goals was becoming a writer within the next five years. In fact, having all of my aspirations laid out there in front of me really made a difference to how I thought about them. It was almost as if, because I could see them, they seemed more within my grasp and potentially possible one day, and it actually gave me the motivation I needed to start thinking about those small steps needed to get there.

I made my vision board in January and I had written my book by March. It was as if I needed something like this, a change in mindset, to just give me a little push to actually knuckle down and just do it. I then did something that I never thought I would have the courage to do in a million years and shared my work with others, even going as far as querying some agents with what I had created. To send my book to agent meant I had to believe in myself. This was a big deal. Something I had also dreamt of but hadn’t envisioned myself doing either at all or (when I created my vision board) for at least 5 more years. It felt good to be brave, and the feeling I had yesterday when an agency actually requested my full manuscript was one I hadn’t felt in such a long time. I finally felt positive about myself. And although I still have those realistic and grounding thoughts, such as there may be nothing that even comes from them reading my full manuscript, I am remaining positive because at least my writing is good enough that a professional has taken interest in it- and that makes me feel good and believe in myself just that little bit more. 😊

Lockdown reading and reading as inspiration for writing:

Surprisingly, I haven’t read as much as I usually do in lockdown. If I knew how long I would be at home at the beginning of lockdown, I would probably be shocked at how little I have read so far. I think this may be because I have been substituting some of the time I could be reading with a lot of writing and have been doing a few other different activities I wouldn’t normally do as well. The main times I read in “normal life” are on long journeys or audiobooks as I am getting ready for work in the morning- and as I am doing neither as much lately, I think that may be part of the issue also. I have had more time to think about what I am reading though. Usually (particularly when on holiday) I would just jump from book to book, swiftly picking up the next as soon as I had closed the previous, and I didn’t fully digest what I read. Now, I have more time, I am reading much more slowly and having a break before I pick up the next. Another way in which my reading is different is that (now that I am writing a lot more) I feel like I am looking at novels in a different way. I am thinking more about the writer’s process, wondering how they might have planned their narrative arc, why they have characterised characters in particular ways, etc. I am even starting to think about how I would have written the concept for the book (definitely not saying I would have written it any better, but it is interesting and fun to think about different ways the story could have gone!). I have always known, but now understand more than ever, how much reading can support your writing. Different books can support so many different writing ideas, so I thought I would write a little bit of my reading experience (as of late) and how these books have influenced my writing and the way I look at things.

This is one of the first books I read in lockdown and although it is anthology of all things Spring and not a fiction book as such, it really made me feel happy thinking about that transition from Winter into Spring and how much nature can influence mood and atmosphere. I love the change in seasons and would love to include more exploration of season change and nature in my writing. I feel that anthologies like this are a great place to start for inspiration.

I used to be obsessed with Greek Mythology as a child. I would read The Gorgan’s Head (pictured-not a lockdown read) over and over again… you can probably tell from the discolouration and bent cover… It used to scare me a little bit, yet for some reason it would be the “go to” read when I wasn’t supposed to be reading at night time and I had to sneak out into the hall where the light was left on in order to read it. Despite my childhood obsession, I hadn’t touched anything with any reference to Greek Mythology since studying Homer at University, so it was lovely to take the time to read this Greek re-telling (pictured left). I really enjoyed it and I really liked the romantic element. I have never been any good at writing romance or non-platonic intimate connections between characters, so I felt I learnt a lot about crafting those believable relationships from reading this. 

I really liked the tone and atmosphere of “The Secret History” (my next read). It is totally in line with the atmosphere I like to build in my writing, bordering more on the unsettling and eerie, and I really enjoyed how obsession and the nuances of character motivation was explored using the unreliable narrator. I love narrators who I can judge, speculate about and not entirely trust, and I am keen to build some of these narrators into more of my narratives.

Next was “Americanah.” I had been meaning to read this for such a long time. It had been on TBR for at least half a year and I am really glad I got around to reading it in lockdown. This was a fantastic novel on many levels. It was extremely layered, and again, I feel like it taught me a lot about characterisation and how much impact nuances in social interaction can have within a narrative.

And finally, I am reading “The Last.” This is actually a book my husband had purchased for himself. I am at the stage now of scouring the bookshelves for books I haven’t read yet or have accidently neglected to pick up, and I was initially hesitant wtih reading a book about the end of the world in the current climate. I haven’t finished it yet, but am enjoying the mystery it is currently conveying and I am thinking about how I might best evoke curiosity and mystery within my own writing- particularly as I am intending on writing a YA thriller.

I would love to know what you have been reading in lockdown. Leave me a comment and let me know all about your current reading journeys 😊