Sunday, March 4, 2012

Beating The Dreaded Writer's Block

My characters in the third baby Boomer mystery, Marriage Can Be Murder, are giving me a hard time. Well, to be honest, they're not giving me any of their time at all. Yes, here I am at Chapter 26 of this mystery, and I have DWB -- Dreaded Writer's Block! And there's no vaccine, no antibiotic, nothing on the market today at the local pharmacy, that will cure the darned thing. Sigh. What to do? Just sit here at my desk, stare at a blank computer screen and pray for inspiration? Go through what I call my Itch List -- a list of ideas I've been saving in no apparent order for no apparent reason except to draw on them for a situation like this? Well, I've gone over my Itch List. Several times. Nada. Zilch. Big fat zero inspiration-wise. Even staring at the water, conveniently located outside my office window, isn't helping. Unless I plan to throw myself in it. Nah, bad plan. Too cold here on Cape Cod. It is March, after all, which here on the Cape can last at least 3 months. It's grey and gloomy here, just like my mood. So, Murderous Musers, what do you do when you contract DWB? All tips gratefully accepted. And where the heck to those characters disappear too, anyway? Susan Santangelo

2 comments:

Bill Kirton said...

I've made such a feature of my laziness that it's probably that which I get rather than the dreaded WB, so I suppose I'm lucky. I did co-write a book a few years back aimed at helping students to write essays and we gathered a few techniques together in that which might help to overcome it. It's only a page of bullet points but if you'd like it, email me and I'll send it over.

Jackie King said...

Writer's Block is miserable and characters sometimes contrary...why oh why do we still love writing?

It's a mystery.