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5 Quick Ways to Beat Writers Block
Linda Dominique Grosvenor ©2003 All Rights Reserved. If you need to spend more time writing, instead of endless hours dreaming about "being" a writer, here are five quick tips. 1. Get away from the computer. Nothing ever happened staring at the computer except the onset of dizziness and eye strain. They say that a watched pot doesn't boil, the same goes for a book. Sitting at a computer doesn't write a book, whereas a change in scenery (even if you're just moving a chair nearer to an open window) can start the creative juices flowing and move you closer to your dream of becoming published. 2. Flip through a popular magazine. Faces, places and the bright colors in magazine ads can change our moods. Reading through the featured stories can fuel ideas or help you flesh out your current outline too. I collect magazines specifically for the photos and often make a collage. Every now and then when I desire to create a character that is more tangible and realistic rather than flat, I cut out a photograph from a magazine and add it to my collage. I find that it's easier to draw a story when the characters appears to be an actual person or people I can see and relate to. 3. Smell the fruit. When I'm stumped for an idea or just want to stir up a few memories that I can tie into my storylines I get dressed and get out of the house. I go to the market to buy fruit. Smelling oranges, strawberries and other familiar scents trigger memories that can go as far back as childhood. Memories can in turn give birth to ideas, and wonderful ideas produce interesting stories that don't have the same cliched stereotypes, but rather are inventive and new. 4. A good movie suprisingly enough does wonders for my writing as well. It may be my analytical nature that dissects every scene in the movie and pays close attention to the color of the draperies, the items strewn across the coffee table and the mannerisms of the actors in the movie as they interact with each other or get behind the wheel of a car and toss their hair before they drive off. The truth of the matter is that screenplay or novel, writing is writing, and a good book should be as visual as a movie and effectively paint a picture in the mind of the reader. Watch your favorite movie, take notes on the key elements, then get back to writing. 5. Stilted dialogue or the lack of can leave a story bland and unappetizing. Readers love the interaction between characters and a novel heavy on narration can leave little to be desired. A sure fire exercise to get your dialogue jumping is eavesdropping. Listen to the dialogue around you. Whether the people speaking are angry, remorseful or elated to see each other, the more realistic the dialogue, the more believable your writing will be. Realistic dialogue will turn, "Janice, my sweet darling, the love of my life, I miss you too," into "Miss you too." And it will turn a book that leaves much to be desired into something that readers honestly won't want to put down. Now, employ one or more of these five quick tips and get back to work on finishing up your masterpiece. The readers are waiting. Linda Dominique Grosvenor is the Best Selling author of several novels including BLOOM, FEVER and LIKE BOOGIE ON TUESDAY. Log on to the website to read a FREE excerpt of her latest release PRETTY BOYS. www.lindadominiquegrosvenor.com
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