Got to a part in your book where you don’t know what happens next?
Know what happens next but don’t know how to write it?
Know how to write what happens but your characters won’t talk to you to back up your scene with dialogue?
Brain melting out your earholes?
Pulling hair off your head?
“Writers Block”?
If you think you’ve tried every trick in the book to get over it, I’m telling you now there is one method you haven’t tried that will work 99% of the time. It’s really bloody easy too. I almost don’t want to tell you because it feels like my own little secret. Like my own red button for launching nukes which I sit stroking whilst laughing manically at the fact that nobody knows how much power I have. What? It’s a perfectly normal analogy…
Moving along.
Wanna know what to do if you get stuck with your story?
Stop.
Put it to one side.
Go and read.
I don’t care what you read so long as it’s something you love. A book that draws you in. A book you don’t want to put down. If you can’t find a new book that makes you feel that way then go back to an old one that you’ve read before and start over. Forget about your manuscript.
Neglect your characters. Ignore your world and go visit someplace else instead.
Now here’s the tricky part.
When you get sucked into a book, when you’re at that point where you just have to read another page…
Stop.
Put the book down.
Go and write.
Now I’m not saying it will lead you to finish the rest of your story in one sitting. But I promise that this is more likely than any other method to help you get out of the slump. You may only write 100 words, but that’s 100 more than you had before isn’t it?
Sometimes we get lost within our creations, and our imagination gets overwhelmed with the scale of the task. We all need to escape from time to time, so give it a try.
Write on.
E.C. Jarvis is a British author working mainly in speculative and fantasy fiction genres.
Since 2015, she has independently published six books spanning two different genres and series. The Machine, The Pirate, The War, and The Destiny in The Blood and Destiny series - a steampunk adventure. Desire and Duty, and Lust and Lies in The Consort's Chronicles series - an erotic fantasy.
If you like action packed, fast-paced page turners, then try one of her books. There's never a dull moment in those pages.
She was born in Surrey, England in 1982. She now resides in Hampshire, England with her daughter and husband.
https://www.amazon.com/E.C.-Jarvis/e/B0154YOIGI
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