It doesn't matter if you write fiction or non-fiction, if you use paper and pencil or pen, if you use a computer's word processor, if you are an experienced author or an aspiring one. At one time or another, everyone who puts one word in front of another for people to read faces a blank page that seems to want to stay blank.
Of course no page fills itself up. But when the ideas are flowing, it can certainly seem that way. It's when ideas have gone into hiding that the blank page is so daunting. In fact, it can cause you to believe that you must be a dreadful writer if you can't think of anything to write. And that's when the term "writer's block" rears its ugly head.
Writers can get blocked so easily, it's a wonder any of us ever writes anything. But the truth is, writer's block is an internal phenomenon. What's blocked is the writer's psyche. I'm no psychologist, but I've had my share of inner "demons" and they all spring from the same source inside the human brain.
But it doesn't have to get as far as depression or low self-esteem. The truth is, writers write when they have something to say.
So the minute that dreaded blank page makes your heart skip a beat because you think you've lost the ability to write, here are some steps to take. Try any or all -- whatever works.
Tune into your environment, engaging all your senses.
1.) Are there sounds?
A clock ticking, children playing outside, the roar of traffic, a distant train whistle, a woodpecker. Just keep listening. Jot down each sound for at least five minutes, or until you're itching to write. Do any of the sounds evoke an emotion? Is the woodpecker annoying? Imagine being exhausted and just on the edge of sleep when it starts rat-a-tat-tatting away at insects in a nearby tree. Can you use this as a story starter?
Idea: Why is this character exhausted? Is it early morning or mid-afternoon? Is this a much-needed nap or a shift-worker bedding down for her "night's" sleep during the day? Or is your character on the run and trying to sleep by day, because he's been traveling under cover of darkness?
Does a train whistle evoke an emotional response. I've personally always thought there was a lonesome quality to distant train whistles. Nearby, they sound like foghorns and elicit an entirely different reaction. Still, as the train recedes in the distance, what was a mind-numbing blast becomes haunting, like a memory.
What would your reaction to a sudden loud train whistle be if you were stalled on the train tracks? What if you had a child locked into a safety seat in the back of your car? Could you get yourself and your child out in time? Write the scene, including the emotion.
Is wind whispering through pine trees, whining through gaps around the windows, moaning throughout a stormy night? Listen with your inner ear and write how these sounds make you feel.
Does a ticking clock make you crazy because you can't get it out of your head? Could it actually drive you insane? Speculate and write.
Do city sounds make you yearn for the peace of the country? Do country noises make you yearn for the familiarity of the city -- even the random gunshot and blare of horns? Writing about these feelings will clarify them.
2.) Is there a fragrance in the air?
Is someone baking, cooking dinner, spraying hairspray, using cologne, freshening the air? Aromas can evoke powerful memories and emotions. Think about baking cookies in Grandma's (or Mom's) kitchen and start writing while the memory is fresh. Don't forget to write in the aromas and the feelings.
Have the nearby fields been plowed and treated with animal fertilizer? Did a skunk spray its way out of danger close by? Does freshly-mown clover hay smell sweet and earthy or does it send your sinuses into an uproar? Whatever your reaction, write about it.
3.) Explore the textures around you.
Gently rub your hands across various surfaces, almost like a whisper. Compare and contrast your own reactions to feeling brick, stone, sandpaper, silk or satin, burlap, cotton, leather, wood, glass, wallpaper, velvet, human skin, metal, rubber, plastic, a toy stuffed animal, etc.
Did anything give you goosebumps? Arouse you? Repel you? Send you on a memory journey? Write what you felt with your sense of touch as well as what emotions were elicited.
4.) Sample foods.
Taste various foods for their temperature, spiciness, texture, flavor and ethnic culture. You have to eat, anyway, so why not make it a writing exercise as well? Tune into your reactions. Did something make you grimace? Was it too sweet or was it sour? Did it taste like last week's garbage or did your eyes roll back in your head and you sighed, because the taste was exquisite?
5. Look and see.
It's possible to look, but not to really see. As writers, we need to do both. And we need to see on more than one level. Focus on a small section of a room. The trick is to keep narrowing the area of vision until you've zoomed in as far as you can with the naked eye.
Let's say you picked a coffee table to examine. Even if it has very little on it, chances are the longer you go over it with a detailed eye, the more you will see. Is that a shadowy beverage stain in the wood grain? Does the table's glass inset have flaws in it? Tiny bubbles or other imperfections? Inside the art book on the table, is there anything loose? Anything personal? Something hidden under the end papers?
Once you have seen all there is to see in this small area, try to imagine ways in which your discoveries, however small or insignificant, might affect people in a fictional situation. What emotions did the items evoke? Which reactions were the most knee-jerk and which were the mildest? Why?
The key with this technique is to engage your senses, consider possible character reactions.
You carry your five senses around with you all the time. If you learn to hone those senses so that they work for you on command, your prose will begin to show it. What? You're not writing yet? Get to it!
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