Chapter 22 - (Four Tips For Today)

Chapter 22 - Not making the rapid progress that I would like. 

Forcing writing is never a good idea but there are tricks you can play to over come those little writing blues we all suffer from now and again. 

In no particular order here are some of my own personal self help tips to get the thread flowing again. 

• Turn the radio / TV on or open a newspaper / magazine. Read or listen to two lines or sentences. Mash two different sources together. Write a paragraph using those subjects within your own story. This can work really well to add back story or sub plots into an area where you are struggling to progress. Sometimes straight through is not always the only answer, sometimes going around can be just as good. This trick I learnt on a creative writing course, many moons ago but it still works for me. 
• Alter your surroundings but do no procrastinate. A change is as good as a... Yep that old chestnut but this works for me too. Change where you are working, alter you outlook. Go look out of a different window. Sit in a Café, listen to other people talking but not in a scary way. Also, exercise, go for a walk or play a game anything to pull you away from what you actually are stuck on. 
• Music, yes this one works really well for me too. In short when I write I often imagine the story in music most likely because I am always writing to music. So it naturally becomes the soundtrack for the final novel. To the point where if I hear a piece of music it will link me to the chapter or the plot I was working on at the time it was added. This trick can help pull you back into the frame and mind set of wiring again. 
• Chat to your editor, this is the replay trick. Talk to the person who is working of the last few chapters you wrote. It's amazing what information you can gleam from this experience. How they expect the book to progress based on the work they have recently edited. You can almost use them as a metronome, a simple beat beat to keep you on track. This last one is a new one for me as this is the first book I have written with an editor on board from the beginning. Note, this could be anyone not just an editor but bouncing ideas off people is always handy.

Just four tips for today because you may have guess I am blogging and not writing, so maybe four tips but this one could fit into option two. 

Well hopefully this was of some use to anyone who take the time to read it. Please let me know if it was either through the website or via twitter, twitter is where I am most active at the moment. 

• If all of this fails the go for the nuclear option and kill off a main character. Only kidding don't do this. This is bad.

Update: So a quick writing session with my eldest was all it took. The eyes of a child is an amazing thing. The ideas they can come up, instantly and without preconception of what is good an bad is truly amazing.

So with all of that in mind, I am back on it. Hammering the keys, well not too had as I'm not totally sure that this keyboard would take it.