Mo Fanning - British writer and comic

Writers' block

Writer’s block – yet another writer with yet another tip

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Dealing with writer's block

Writer’s block is painful. Everyone gets a form of it at some point, and most writers have ways of dealing with it. A frequent fix is to ‘just write anything’ until the feeling of being blocked passes.

I recently stumbled upon a new tip for dealing with writer’s block, and it’s working like magic; not just to free up a brain jam, but also as a way to build an effective and engaging narrative dripping with that magic ingredient, conflict.

Write the last line first.

I’ll give that a moment to sink in.

When you start a new story or chapter or scene, write the final line of dialogue before you get going (or when the block sets in). This means you spend the rest of your writing time working towards that outcome, shaping actions and words around creating this natural outcome.

The last line should either tie everything up in a nice bow or deliver a cliff-hanging incentive to read on.

‘And that’s why we should never have done it’ was the example handed down in a recent script-writing workshop. We set off writing dialogue, not knowing our characters, but knowing where we needed to end up. Keeping the outcome in our heads and having it so clearly defined influenced so much of what came before. Lo and behold, the writer’s block lifts.

Choosing something that would make the reader want to turn the page when creating your final line chapter ends helps give your narrative force.  Think how you might write a scene or chapter in your work in progress that ends on any of the following:

  • ‘What now?’ she said. ‘How the hell do we make this right?’
  • ‘This is all your fault. I never want to see you again.’
  • ‘She’s going to hit the roof when she sees it.’

 

 

 

Why I don’t write every day

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‘Experts’ tell anybody who calls themselves an author they must ‘write something every day’. It need not be their finest work. The words might be something to delete the next day. They might not relate to any work in progress. But we must write. Every day.

I want to say I follow this rule. I don’t.

Some days, I can’t find the time. On other days I find the time, but the internet finds cat memes. I’ve tried making myself write when my so-called muse is outside vaping, but the results are lamentable. Writing  something I wouldn’t read seems absurd.

I tell myself I’m writing. Even when I’m not.

I lie in the bath and ponder story-lines. It’s the same when walking the dog, or cursing as some random slowly unloads the contents of a shopping trolly at the basket-only check-out. I try to storyline what might happen next and what absolutely won’t. I put scenes in order. Some would maintain this is writing. I think of it as planning. But it leads to writing, so I guess it counts.

I also tell myself not writing works.

Often if I miss one day, I’ll miss more. I don’t do guilt by half. I’d rather shower myself in shame when the gap between chapters stretches to a month. But when I go back to the story, I find myself recharged. What flows from me reads better than what was already there. I cherish the latest chunk of the story. So much more than the last one … and I was certain what I previously wrote would see me win the Man Booker.

There’s a private fear that not writing every day means I’ve run out of words. A few years back I stopped work completely. For three years I left behind the business of building worlds, convinced it was no longer in me. This week I found myself well past the half-way point of what I hope to be a final edit on my next book.

What I’m struggling to say is, don’t beat yourself up if you don’t write some days. Everyone gets to where they want to be.

The Armchair Bride

Getting off the writer’s block

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Help with writer's blockWriter’s block. Now and then everyone who dares call themselves a writer will hit blocks. Times when you can’t get anything to work. Some write through it, sure that if they get something, anything down, it will help work things out. I’ve tried this and all it usually achieves is a page of stilted nonsense where the story jogs on the spot and characters talk rubbish. It gets deleted a few days later and achieves nothing.

The biggest cause of writer’s block for me is not knowing the characters well enough. I can have the storyline planned to the finest detail, but if I don’t know the people well enough, it won’t work.

So often I’ll get to know them as I write and this is why I’d never dream of sharing a first draft. Inevitably by the time I’ve reached the end of my first draft, I go back to the start and realise the character at the start isn’t the one at the end. And it isn’t due to their growing as the story progresses, it is because I was feeling my way at the start and by the end, I’d worked them out.

The first draft chapters have the people that populate their paragraphs saying ridiculous things that contrast with the people they become by the end.

That’s why I think the best advice out there is to just get the draft written and not get hung up on making those opening chapters the best they can be.

Sure, every editor, agent and peer reviewer will focus on the opening three chapters or the first 10,000 words, but getting those perfect isn’t worth a thing if later they have to be brutally carved up.

So often I’ve scrapped the first ten thousand words or started over.

My message is this. First drafts should never see the light of day. Second drafts should be shared only with those you trust and who will continue to love you despite everything. Third drafts, maybe a few less obliging friends. But it’s only the fourth. fifth or sixth that should ever really be shared with a  stranger.

You have one pop with a story and character, don’t send it out into the world too soon.

Writer’s Block

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Writer's Block - Mo FanningWriter’s block. Everyone I know who writes – or tries to write – hits it some time. You sit down ready to spew a whole load of graceful prose at the page and nothing comes. Or worse, something comes but what you write is pure and unadulterated rubbish.

The dialogue is clunky. The situations silly. You know in your heart that these are pages you will one day cast away. But you’re a writer so you have to keep going.

One bit of absolutely valuable advice I once received was to get to know my characters. This particular (published many times) writer pointed out that the main reason for things grinding to a halt is because you don’t know your characters well enough. If you did, you’d be able to write them, no matter what.

Experiment to beat writer’s block

She told me to experiment. On days when the story isn’t coming write extra scenes. Stuff that won’t make the final mix. Take two of your characters who don’t get on and put them in a pub, on a bus with two remaining empty seats, in an airport lounge with a 24-hour flight delay and nobody else around who speaks English.

What she was saying was write something. Anything.

After months of not writing very much at all, I’ve started to force myself to sit down every day and write something. Anything. At least 350 words a day. And thanks to those fabulous chums at The BookShed, I have a forum where those of us committed to the 350-words-a-day routine post our word counts.

The Karma Chameleon has been reborn. Rewritten and of the 90,000 words in the first draft, I’d say less than 1000 survive. New characters have sprung up, others have been culled and the plot simplified. So far so good. But I can’t help thinking the main reason I’m able to write this is that I know the characters. That’s what matters above all else.