WORDS 2354

Bust Your Writer's Block

You have a great idea, but not quite sure how to turn it into a thrilling story. You have an interesting character, but too sketchy and not sufficiently consistent with the plot. Your story has an exciting slant to it, but you cannot think how to disentangle the characters involved in it. Or you may have the plot, the characters, the problem, but the right ending is just not forthcoming. You feel stuck, empty, hopeless, and start hesitating about your writing ability. How do you get out of this pit of self-doubt and despair?

I can offer you a sure-fire exercise. It never fails, it always works, and brings the best from the depth of your creativity. But it is not easy.

"Bust Your Writer's Block" exercise offers an opportunity to unblock the flow of creative powers in the privacy of your writing retreat, whether you are writing for business or pleasure. If you are suffering from a writer's block, feel stuck on a topic and temporarily unable to express yourself creatively according to your true imaginative potential, or just ran out of ideas, this brainstorming exercise can offer a breakthrough opportunity and help to unblock the inspired easy flow of ideas and enchanting picture words flowing from the deep and mysterious well of human imagination. By the time you finish the exercise and write it all up you can expect to achieve a significant leap forward by developing a clear description of their main characters, a consistent story outline, the problem driving the story, and creative solution to the problem proposed.

Anyone who has ever experienced the exhilarating boost of energy from mind images carried like a volcano eruption through words sparkling like stars in the sky - can never forget the euphoria of creating. One awaits the next irrepressible urge to originate new images with greater and greater impatience, growing self-doubt, loss of confidence and even despair when they do not return for longer periods of time. When the awaited conception of beautiful pictures do not appear in the windows of imagination, not a word worth putting down comes to mind, a writer realizes that the dreaded "writer's block" came to visit, but hopefully not to stay.

What's the "Writer's block"? "Writer's block" is an interruption of the free flow of creative inspiration, a frustrating sense of emptiness, an anxiety generating sensation of inability to think imaginatively. The nostalgia for the fireworks of word pictures gushing forth faster than we can write them down, and longing for the almost sexual experience of satisfaction and fulfillment brought by a creative process is painful and depressive. For some writers the mental agony and torture when the right words just do not come can be so strong, that they may develop symptoms of physical illness, and depression is most frequent as a common outcome.

Countless ways, techniques, methods and tricks of "clearing" the blocked channels of creative powers have been tried, some effective or at least harmless, some inadequate and risky, from residential "writer's retreats to exotic trips and adventurous affairs, to experimenting with alcohol and drugs.

The techniques that bring most satisfactory, least risky and generally pleasant refreshment of creativity are available through various courses and workshops for writers, where in a friendly, supportive, and highly creative atmosphere one can unearth and bring to light new stimulating ideas.

However, the most helpful methods of reactivating the flow of creative imagination are to attend to "first things first" - that is, the four of five things that are the crucial pillars of a finished book.

The first of the first is the character description, the fullness of behaviour matching the situations, consistent with the thoughts, feelings, memories, dreams and actions. If the character has flaws - these flaws must influence decisions in a serious and consequential way, that the author will involve as pivotal to the story and unravel in due course, that is at the climax or denouement time.

The next most fundamental "first" and essential way of clearing up uncertainties is to revisit the story - re-examining its flow and ebbing, defining its main points, and recognizing their connection with the problems of real people. Retelling the summary of the story or its particular details to an avid listener can unblock a point at which an author is "stuck" in a similar way as a detective who is asking his client for the hundredth time to relate the details of the same event, until one tiny element omitted from earlier recollections is revealed. Such crucial detail can make sense of the entire event or story, dislodging a pebble that held the avalanche. Similarly, answering either pertinent questions or reacting to silly comments can also be highly inspirational, as we know from the famous creative relationship between brilliant Sherlock Holmes and honest but dull and conventional Dr Watson. A writers' workshop provides an ideal background for such revelations to be enabled.

Then, the problem presented in the work needs to be looked at. A tragedy or a comedy, a documentary or a bibliography, a play or a script, a poem or an article, each must have a problem, be it an epic or a tiny splinter of a greater dilemma. A predicament of some sort must exist, so that the author through the hero can bring to the world a new way of looking at reality.

And then the solution, the denouement, a convincing conclusion to the problem needs to be envisaged, designed, visualized, the decisive key that makes the story unique, producing the climax encapsulating the appeal of the story to the readers.

Clearing of the blocked plumbing drains, whether the holdup is caused by an invasion of overgrown underground roots of the subconscious or by a stuck "foreign object", such as excessive stress and real-life difficulties interfering with the creative process usually requires help "form the outside". An injection of energy more often than not must come from an external source, be it fellow travelers on the creative journey of life, friends, casual acquaintances, strangers or professional motivators of imagination presenting courses and workshops.

There is an exercise available for those who are serious about writing and wish to create a work that would touch the hearts and minds of others, the readers, a strong and powerful exercise that will help to bring the deepest of your own passions through remembering your personal past experiences. This exercise is probably the most effective way to remove your writer's block and get rid of the obstructions, reverse the downward spiral of being blocked, share your creativity and connect to the greater powers of inspiration.

The exercise is about remembering and writing down in as much detail as possible the best, and then the worst experience of your own life. Since all good writing, stories we read and seek to read, are about other peoples strong emotions, especially sad or tragic ones, and how they overcame their most challenging trials and problems life threw at them, so to, we need to offer others our own problems to help to work out their own way to think, to feel, to live, to make life enriching choices, to be the best they can be - thanks to the offering of our own pain as help. That is why stories are worth reading, savoring, remembering, incorporating their lessons into our own treasure-trove of beliefs and guiding milestones. We offer our pain, or our best and happiest moments we lived, the life's lessons we have learnt in such a hard way, so that others would have perhaps a little bit easier way dealing with their own. We offer hope, comfort, a vision of new possibilities, we let others to learn from our faults, failures, mistakes, and wrong turns we took, misfortune we dealt with successfully or not.

You are welcome to try the guidelines for these two exercises, which help to bring out from your own heart all the necessary elements of an event that is certainly going to make a full story, when written out. It is the best and well proven guideline to write a short story with great appeal to a great number of readers.

The events that touch us in the deepest way usually (but of course not only) happen in childhood. They are the life-changing, pivotal experiences which burn themselves into our hearts and minds with an indelible force and change who we are as a result. People who do not find the strength to absorb the devastating power of such episodes may not have survived them, but those who do are altered for ever, for better or for worse. We learn to adapt to the forces that shape life - if we can, or otherwise perish. That is why there is so much power in those who survived.

The most hurtful tragic events are about a loss of a parent or sibling (through death, divorce, abandonment, imprisonment, neglect or prolonged absences), loss of a home (through poverty, loss of job, fire, theft, fraud), loss of a beloved pet, loss of health, permanent injury or disfigurement, rape, incest, abuse, violence, maltreatment, exploitation, alcoholism or drug addiction, and so on.

The best events in our lives are as numerous as stars in the sky, and can be as "small" as receiving a smile and a comforting hug when we are down, to having our life saved by a stranger. The events with a tag "the best thing that ever happened to me was..." are the most precious jewels and treasure we can ever possess in our lives and need to be cherished and remembered as frequently as possible, recalled and held close, since the gratitude we feel for having attracted them and deserving the good they brought is the most spirit-enriching, hope-giving spring source of living forces.

The worst thing that ever happened to me

The main negative event scene (tragic, sad, painful)

Describe the worst event (might have happened in the character's childhood). If you are thinking of several in that category, then describe the most important/intense one first, and than repeat the exercise with other strong tragic memories

1. ACTION: What happens? Make as full a description as you can.

1. PROTAGONISTS: Who is there? Mother, Father, Grandparents, siblings, friends? Describe what they look like, what they are like as people.

1. THOUGHTS: What are you thinking? What is your character thinking? (make up a short sentence to summarise your's or the character's attitude, perception, view, reflection, opinion)

1. EMOTIONS: What are you feeling? What is your character feeling? (happy, sad, scared, angry, jealous, a combination) - describe emotions and feelings with great detail, looking carefully for most suitable words that depict most accurately the depth and width of your feelings.

1. CONCLUSIONS: What do you conclude has happened? What does your character think about what happened? How did you make sense of what has happened? What thought did you have that life is about - so you could continue living in the world that allows such calamities to happen to the innocent? What does the character in your story conclude as the reason or the meaning of this event (how does he/she make sense of it, what does the event mean to him/her, what conclusions were reached after thinking about what had happened?)

1. DECISION: What did you or your character decide to do in future as a consequence of what has happened? What belief or motto in life have you adopted because of this event?

1. crucial relationships - Mother: What is your Mother - or your character's Mother thinking, saying, feeling about him/her? (if mother was not present, please imagine "what would she have thought, felt, said, done if she was there")

1. crucial relationships - father: What is your Father or your character's Father thinking, saying, feeling about him/her? (if either parent was not present, put them into the picture as a fantasy, and make up what you think they may have felt, thought, said or done?

The best thing that ever happened to me

the happiest event scene

Describe the best event in your character's life (incl. childhood). If there are several of that category, describe the most important/intense one first and then repeat the exercise with other memories

1. ACTION: What happens? Make as full a description as you can.

1. PROTAGONISTS: Who is there? Mother, Father, Grandparents, siblings, friends? Describe what they look like, what they are like as people.

1. THOUGHTS: What are you thinking? What is your character thinking? (make up a short sentence to summarise the character's attitude, perception, view, reflection, opinion)

1. EMOTIONS: What are you feeling? What is your character feeling? (happy, sad, scared, angry, jealous, a combination) - describe emotions and feelings with great detail, looking carefully for most suitable words that depict most accurately the depth and width of your feelings.

1. CONCLUSIONS: What do you conclude has happened? What does your character think about what happened? How did you make sense of what has happened? What thought did you have that life is about - so you could continue living in the world that allows such calamities to happen to the innocent? What does the character in your story conclude as the reason or the meaning of this event (how does he/she make sense of it, what does the event mean to him/her, what conclusions were reached after thinking about what had happened?)

1. DECISION: What did you or your character decide to do in future as a consequence of what has happened? What belief or motto in life have you adopted because of this event?

1. CRUCIAL RELATIONSHIPS - MOTHER: What is Mother thinking, saying, feeling about him/her? What is your Mother - or your character's Mother thinking, saying, feeling about him/her? (if mother was not present, please imagine "what would she have thought, felt, said, done if she was there")

1. CRUCIAL RELATIONSHIPS - FATHER: What is your Father or your character's Father thinking, saying, feeling about him/her? (if either parent was not present, put them into the picture as a fantasy, and make up what you think they may have felt, thought, said or done?