Dreaded Writer's Block
'It is definitely unhealthy to sit in front of a silent typewriter for any length of time. If, after you have typed the first sentence, you can't think of a second one, go read.'
-- Marsha Norman
Writers have often joked that writing is what you do after sorting the laundry, doing the dishes, vacuuming the rug, walking the dog, shopping for dinner, and washing the windows for the tenth time that week. If this sounds familiar, reverse the process: make writing your first priority. All the rest is what you do after writing.
- Prevention is the best cure for Writer's block.
Graham Greene came up with a fail-safe inoculation: Don't keep writing until you simply run out of dialogue for your characters to say. Stop writing when you still know clearly what the next line or even the next scene will be.
This line that's been waiting all night to be written, primes your creative pump the following day. That's because you'll have those first words ready to go when you face that monitor or -- if you do it the old-fashioned way -- that piece of paper the next morning.
- If Prevention fails . . .
Forget about the play you're writing. Pick two new characters with no connection to what you're working on and make them talk to each other. Odds are that will generate the urge to go on from where you hit that wall.
- And remember, that wall may be the result of . . .
- Not having a Suspense Plot
Or not having one significant enough for the story you're telling.
- Using up your Suspense Plot too quickly
Go back and see if you resolved your Suspense Plot -- without realizing it -- one or two pages before you thought was Writers Block grabbed you.
- Letting Dramatic Conflict drain away
And that's usually the result of having lost your Suspense Plot in the scene you're working on.
- Getting bored with your central characters
- And worst of all: Losing interest in your story
So what you think is dreaded Writer's Block may not be anything so deep and mysterious. It's probably just a technical problem.
In the meantime, something to write on your palm . . .
But if this doesn't do the job, take a few days off and start Reading good plays. If you're like most playwrights, reading something really good will stir up that urge to put your own words on paper.
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