Staring Down the Barrel of Writer’s Block

It nearly had me. After a year and a half of solid writing, I finally stared into the eyes of the brick wall beast. Since I returned to writing about a year and half ago, I have not ever faced writers block. There were times when writing was slow or ungratifying, but never had I been stumped. But I was stumped writing Steampunk Blues Volume II: The Scythe Coven for about a week. Here’s how I got out of it.

First, I wrote something else. And that went really well. I managed a piece of Steampunk flash fiction and a good piece of a “modern relationship focused neo-noir” piece that could become a novella or might become a graphic novel if I can find an artist to collaborate with.

Second, I daydreamed. I daydreamed largely around the Steampunk story and the neo-noir story and they fueled each other. Then I would daydream about The Scythe Coven. Then I would daydream about finding a collaborating comic book artist. Then I took a shower. Under the shower I had a breakthrough idea to get me writing The Scythe Coven again.

But it still wasn’t enough. I had a new direction, but I felt I was missing something. So I turned to John Matthew Fox, author of The Linchpin Writer. I watched a random video of John’s on YouTube and about three minutes into it I had my missing piece to get through the middle of the novelette.

And that was it. No panicking. I just kept on keeping-on but with other projects until the stars aligned and now I’m back to writing Volume II. I hope this can help somebody else.