Writer's Block

My mailbox often contains questions. Some of them refer to jet engines but most ask about writing.

Shall we start with the second most ‘popular’ question first?

“I want to write a story but I don’t know what to write. What shall I do?”

This is actually two separate questions in one. It is inferred that, often, what is meant by this is, “I want to write a story but I don’t know how to write.”

In the first instance there is a major problem in that the enquirer wishes to write but has no story in their head to write down.

This is a major stumbling block as you may well imagine. If there is no story, even a rudimentary storyline, in the brain then there is nothing to start writing down.

You need something. You need some sort of notion about a plot and characters or you are wanting to drive a car that has no engine.

On January 2^nd, 2013, I posted a ‘Blog’ called ‘Start at the End’. This was intended to be a major help to would-be writers who were taking those first steps into story telling.

I do appreciate that there are many writers out there who do not do this but these are, for the most part, experienced authors who tend to have complete stories in their heads before they start to put anything down ‘on paper’.

If you have no ending then you have no idea where you are going with the story in the same way that if you have no destination in mind when you get in the car it is impossible to sort out a route for the journey.

But.

To do that you need an inkling in your head of what the story is to be about, the plot, the characters, the general storyline, the genre even!

I have recently written a war story or, at least, a story about military life in a combat situation that was thinly cloaked under the heading of science fiction because that is the genre where I feel comfortable.

Being comfortable with a story is a big help in writing it. If you have to stop to research at frequent intervals then the story will become disjointed.

Having nothing in your head to start with is a bad way to start a career in writing.

As regards the idea that you have no idea how to write that is somewhat less important.

Here the assumption is that you have a story in your head that you really need to get out and transfer it into a state that other people can see.

Perhaps you are embarrassed about your lack of grammatical skills or your poor spelling.

Do not worry about this. Some people have great stories in their heads but are unable to express the ideas adequately in a way other people will understand. This is where they collaborate with someone who does know how to write and can express themselves in a grammatically correct manner with the appropriate spelling.

Failing the possibility of a collaboration, write it anyway and then send it to some evil person who is cruel beyond words (called an Editor) who will deconstruct it and cover it in so much ‘highlighter’ that it will seem to be painted over with a distemper brush!

Do not let this dishearten you. Learn from it. Study it. The main thing is the story.

Beware. An American friend of mine sent me a story that was quite a good idea (if a little ‘twee’) that really needed a lot of work doing on the presentation. It also had to make up its mind if it was to be in ‘English’ or ‘American’ since the two are quite different when it comes to storytelling. Pick your Editor with an idea in mind about where you want this story to go.

The primary question is always about ‘writer’s block’. What to do about it.

They will say, “I have started writing a story but, after a couple of pages, my mind stops working...”

This means that you don’t have an ending or a story in mind.

Or.

It means that you have condensed your story down to about two hundred words and have completed it.

In the first instance the best thing to do is to stop and sit back in a comfortable chair and think about what you wish to achieve in the story. What are you characters going to do or say? In other words, compile a story towards that same ending.

For the second idea, it is hopeless writing, “Sally went to the market and was shot by John who ran away but was arrested three days later doing a drug deal. The End.”

Who is Sally? Why did she go to the market? Who is John? Why did he shoot Sally? What was his objective? Why did he go to the market? Was it a coincidence or did he track Sally there? What did he shoot her with? What was he selling in this drug deal—to whom? How did the police connect him with the shooting and the drug deal? When he shot Sally were the people in the market screaming in fear of their lives?

So much needs building up. Where is all of this happening? It needs a setting and atmosphere otherwise it becomes a journalistic report suitable for publication in ‘The Times’.

In other words, there is no real ‘writer’s block’. The difficulty comes in trying to thread your way through a story that may have several lines of plot worming around inside it.

I have two stories, right now, where I am trying to get around a complex piece of thought and experiencing difficulty with it. Answer? Drop it and write something else. Write a few short stories and a ‘Blog’, or two, and then go back to the one(s) where you are having trouble. Nobody says that you must only write one story at once.

Stop. Think. Breathe. Imagine.

Go to your other reality and begin again. Talk to your characters; let them lead you for they will know the way.

Let your imagination roam around inside your head and the answers will come to you without you realising it.