When You Get Stuck on a Scene

When I write sometimes I just end up getting stuck. Call it Writer's Block, call it your Muse taking a vacation. Doesn't matter how it's said, it basically means you reached a certain point where you can't write any more. This can bring any story to a grinding halt.

Especially when you try to rekindle your inspiration with Cheezburger.

A personal rule I use is that I give myself three days with no writing. I don't force myself to think about it either and instead hope it comes along more organically. It does, especially when I give my brain the opportunity to go on Standby Mode (which I will discuss in the next post). Sometimes I just rehash in my head what I've already written, other times I think too far ahead, and sometimes I work out exactly what I need.

Other times, however, my brain just flat out refuses to cooperate, and my three days are up. What do I do then?

I write anyway.

Sometimes it's my best writing, sometimes it's not. The times that it's not I plow though anyway because, later on down the road during the editing process, I come up with a much better idea or flesh out the one that's already there.

You can give yourself more or less time, depending on circumstances, but I use three days because if I have less I'm distracted with the deadline of getting back to writing. Longer than three days and it starts getting too far from my mind. You want a golden point between the two.