The Journey So Far

It’s been a long time since I’ve posted, and a lot has happened in that time, not the least of which was getting an agent and then losing that agent when they left the industry. If you’ve been following me a while, you may remember I’ve written a handful of articles doling out writing advice. I decided to step away from that a while back since it only distracts me from my actual goal: writing. Plus, I think there’s enough advice floating around out there, and as I’m currently unpublished, it feels weird to get preachy about the craft. That being said, I’ll leave my old articles up because some were guest posts for other bloggers and this place would feel a little sparse without them. Maybe there’s a useful nugget of advice somewhere within all that angry rambling.

As for the new direction of this blog. I’m not sure. I hope the day will come when I can reliably give updates about my writing, but seeing as I’m still working about 50 hours a week, my spare time is limited and I prefer to use it for writing. With the upcoming release of my debut novel, ShadowBane, I’ve taken some time to reflect on my journey so far, and this post is all you’ll need to get up to speed if you’re here for the first time or if you’re wondering where I’ve been these past few years.

I first started writing seriously in January of 2017, drafting a book called Sundering. The idea for one book split into two, then three, and now it currently stands at a planned series of seven, but I’m getting ahead of myself. I “finished” Sundering in September of 2018, meaning I thought it was ready to query, but it wasn’t. After a lot of rejections, I participated in the December PitMad and received a publishing offer from a small press, which I eventually turned down. You can read about that here.

I did significant rewrites for Sundering throughout all of 2019 and early 2020, then began querying again during the summer of 2020. It was during this time that Sundering ballooned from a planned three or four novels into seven. This was also when I vanished from social media, because 2020 was not fun for people who make a living in the fitness industry. Or anyone at all. Like many of you, I was just trying to survive. In the fall, I was given an R&R by an agent with Bond Literary, and in February of 2021, I signed a contract with them.

In the spring of 2021, Sundering went on sub, and I gleefully started drafting my next project, a novel about demon-hunting twins in a world modeled off late 1500’s Japan. That project became ShadowBane, and I’m pleased to announce I’ve managed to contain the idea for this series to a manageable three books. Despite a brutal 2021, which culminated in the death of my father-in-law (fuck cancer), I managed to finish drafting ShadowBane just before the new year.

I emailed ShadowBane (a whopping 206,000 words) to my agent, knowing there would be significant revisions to make, and took some time to relax and play Elden Ring. Meanwhile, Sundering had gotten nowhere, unless you count a last-minute rejection at an acquisitions meeting, so I was looking forward to making some headway on this latest project. In March of 2022, my agent called me to inform me that he had not read ShadowBane, and he was leaving the industry.

That sure took the wind out of my sails. Especially because it was St. Patty’s Day, and I was not in the best state of mind for a business call.

He gave me a list of similar agents and offered to connect me, but I knew querying a 200,000-word monstrosity was going to be an uphill battle, even with the advantage of already being represented. I decided to take some time off and reevaluate my options. So I did that while writing a terrible screenplay just for fun and playing a lot more Elden Ring.

In September of 2022, I decided to self-publish. I wanted full creative control of my work and I was fed up with all the red tape and long waiting times of the traditional publishing industry. I split that 200,000-word monstrosity in half (this is where the trilogy was conceptualized, instead of a giant standalone novel that was actually under-developed) and began my revisions while adjusting to new ownership and an expanded role at the company where I had worked for the previous seven years. These revisions continued into the summer of 2023, where I once again spent a lot of time adjusting to yet another change in ownership and another new role at work.

Life is wild, isn’t it?

After a few rounds of beta feedback and self-edits into early 2024, I knew that ShadowBane was ready for a professional editor to help me take it to the next level before I launch it. That’s where I am now. I’m planning on a fall release, but given how volatile the past seven years have been, who knows what will happen? I’m just glad to be where I am, with the better part of a decade’s experience under my belt and the knowledge that whatever twists and turns this journey takes, I’ll have the patience and the discipline to see it through.

Thanks for reading. Been a while since I’ve written that. Might be a while again.

Book Release: The Gatewatch- Josh Gillingham

For those of you who don’t know Josh Gillingham, that’s a crying shame. He’s a Canadian fantasy author and one of the best author interviewers around, aside from being a swell guy in general (and a hell of a beta reader, too). His debut novel, The Gatewatch, is set to release on Sunday, May 17, and he’s here in my little corner of the internet today to talk all about it.

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The Gatewatch come out this Sunday, May 17. As your debut, how are you feeling? Nervous? Excited? Like a medieval king bathing in the spoils of (literary) war?

Ah, this is a good question. What am I feeling right now? I would say it is an erratic pendulum of emotions which undulate between elation and nausea. Of course, I am excited to finally launch Torin Ten-Trees on his adventure across the realm of Noros and invite others to take part in his journey. I also feel like I am baring my soul to the world and bracing for either bullets or roses. Maybe both. Anyways, it is the end of a long journey and I am feeling quite blessed to have seen my story survive the trip from initial conception to final publication. Sprinkle a bit of relief mixed with a touch of swelled ego and that’s pretty much the whole of it. 

How long did you work on this novel, from the tiniest idea until your final edit?

Technically this was a seven year project. However, I don’t know if I should count the first three years because it was a lot of start and stop. I would begin a chapter then throw it away. I would write a scene then forget about the book for months on end. However, about four years ago I read a book called ‘The War of Art’ by Steven Pressfield; that, coupled with a few things that were going on for me personally, kicked my ass into gear.

Even so, it was a four year slog and I can tell you that much of it was not pretty. When I got my ‘polished’ manuscript back from my editor it was so full of red crossed-out edits that it looked like Leonidas, King of Sparta, had cut a swathe through the whole thing. But every set of critical eyes helped the story become what it is today and I am really proud to be putting this troll-hunting fantasy adventure out into the world. 

The story clearly draws inspiration from Norse mythology, but what inspired the initial idea for this novel?

The Gatewatch actually began as a re-telling of one of my favorite Norse Myths: Thor & Loki Travel to Utgard. In this myth the two gods are bored in Asgard and decide to go traipsing across the nine realms to Utgard, the land of the giants, to stir up some trouble. There they meet a cunning sorcerer giant who baffles them with a series of humorous encounters including a drinking contest, a race, and a wrestling match with an old lady. However, as I really started to dig into the narrative it quickly grew beyond a simple retelling and emerged in its final form as an epic Norse fantasy adventure set in a realm under threat by monstrous trolls. 

Torin Ten-Trees- what a name. I love it. Can I ask the in-universe reason for the character’s name, or is that too spoilery?

Of course! Torin Ten-Trees is the son of Jarl Einar Ten-Trees who resides in Ten-Tree Hall. This well-weathered hall sits in a grove of ancient trees, thus the name. True to the experience of Vikings in history, the realm of Noros has a ‘king’ named Araldof Greyraven, to whom Torin is distantly related; however, King Araldof Greyraven isn’t really a king in the monarchical sense. He is more of a political savante who is able to navigate the conflicting desires and complicated relationships of the powerful Jarls across the realm, such as Torin’s father. Trees also have a major part to play later in the series and Torin’s connection to them will be of no small consequence. Finally, Vikings were famed for having memorable names, such as Ketil Flatnose, Sven Forkbeard, and Aud the Deep-Minded, so I had to honor that tradition with a name for the protagonist that would catch reader’s attention.

What was the most difficult part about writing this book?

I actually started writing this story at the point in the narrative that would kick off book two. It took me about three years of false starts to realize that I need to start at the beginning. Initially, The Gatewatch was intended to be only a prologue for the book I was trying to write but it soon billowed into a troll-hunting misadventure of its own. This let me really discover and develop the characters, as well as the world and the lore surrounding the trolls, dwarves, and giants. That particular revelation was a big breakthrough for me and sticking with the story long enough to get to that point definitely took a lot of bull-headed stubbornness (which I apparently have an excess of). If I could go back and fast-forward through any part of the process it would have to be those first three years of trying to figure out where the story really began. 

Do you plan to make this a series, or is The Gatewatch a standalone novel?

The Gatewatch is the first of three books that will make up The Saga of Torin Ten-Trees. I am already in the final stages of editing Book 2: The Everspring and I am a few chapters into Book 3: The Elder Trees. I wrote the second book while waiting for publishers and agents to get back to me after I queried for The Gatewatch and the third while my first book was being beaten to a pulp in my editor’s dungeon. Perhaps I deal with stress by writing compulsively? I think I prefer to frame it as keeping my mind on something productive rather than worrying about things that are out of my control. 

“Epic battles with trolls, new realms full of magic and danger both above and below the surface of the earth, and sharp-edged banter between long-time friends”

You had to have done a ton of research for this novel. Care to share any neat tidbits with us? Maybe something you didn’t end up putting into your work, but that you find fascinating?

I have a bit of an obsession with Norse Mythology and Viking History and so, while I would love to say that I studiously labored over historical texts for hours on end in order to fine-tune the research for my book, it felt a lot more like an eruption of ideas out of my head because my tiny skull couldn’t hold them all in any more. In that sense, it was a kind of an overflowing of ideas following a few years of devouring translations of the myths and soaking in the semi-mythic accounts of historical Vikings as presented in the Icelandic sagas. 

One thing that I love about the Norse Myths that I didn’t get to in The Gatewatch is the Norse conception of the underworld. Most people know about Valhalla, Odin’s hall where fallen warriors go. (Actually, only half of fallen warriors go there. One time the gods pissed off Freya and she made Odin dedicate half the fallen warriors to her so they could train and feast in her hall, Sessrumnir, instead. She also made him promise to start lots of wars so more people would die and join her retinue of warriors. The lesson here? Don’t piss off Norse goddesses.) 

The Norse underworld of Nilfhel is just so delightfully grim. Anyone who dies a coward or of sickness or of old age is said to be sent there. It is ruled by Hela, a goddess whose face is half that of a beautiful young woman and half that of a long-dead corpse. She sits in a hall whose roof tiles are made of venomous snakes which have been tied to the rafters so that their venom drips down on those inside. Her kitchen implements are named things like ‘hunger’ and ‘starvation’ and her bed is named ‘sickness’. She has a pet dragon called Nidhogg which she feeds with the lifeless corpses of the wretched souls in her hall. And when she finally leads her legions of undead in the battle of Ragnarok, that final assault on the realm of the gods, she will sail there in a ship called Nalfalgar which is made entirely out of dead mens’ toenails. Yes, you heard me correctly, a Viking ship made out of nothing but dead men’s toenails. 

Tolkien based his fantasy races like trolls and dwarves off various mythologies, including Norse mythology. Since then, hundreds of authors have used the same archetypes to varying degrees of success. How do you set your fantasy races apart, especially given that they’re drawn from the same original mythology as Tolkien’s were? 

Yes! Tolkien was deeply interested in the Norse Myths and the Icelandic Sagas. At one point he was going to Iceland and when a friend inquired about his plans for the trip and Tolkien scoffed, remarking that it was a pilgrimage and not a mere ‘trip’. He was also a professor of languages and contributed important translations to the academic world of stories like Beowulf and The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun which were major influences on my story. 

I love Tolkien’s world of Middle Earth and am obviously a fan of fantasy as a genre, but in reading a lot of Tolkien’s source material I realized how far the genre as a whole had strayed from the Norse conceptions of dwarves and giants. (For example, the ridiculous-sounding names of the dwarves in The Hobbit are literally ripped straight out of the beginning of the Poetic Edda, a collection of Norse Myths composed by Icelander Snorri Strulurson around 1200 A.D.) Part of my aim in writing The Gatewatch was to return to a conception of dwarves, giants, and trolls that was more in line with the original myths and Scandanavian folklore; I hope that my presentation of these beings challenges a few of the tropes that have become commonplace in fantasy today. 

Fill in the blank: Fans of ______________ or _______________ would like The Gatewatch.

Fans of Beowulf, The Hobbit, and History Channel’s Viking series will enjoy The Gatewatch. Also fans of mead and axes, especially both at the same time.

“Bjorn, let me tell you about this new book…”

What can readers expect from The Gatewatch? Bloody battles? Whimsy and wonder? Biting humor? All of the above?

All of the above, yes. Epic battles with trolls, new realms full of magic and danger both above and below the surface of the earth, and sharp-edged banter between long-time friends. Two unique elements of the book that readers can expect to encounter are riddles and Viking-style poetry. Torin Ten-Trees, the main character, is obsessed with riddles and this obsession gets them into and out of trouble on several occasions.

The history of Noros, such as the Lay of Beoric which tells the tale of the realm’s founder, is structured in a manner similar to the forms of skaldic poets of the Viking Age. Rather than our modern focus on end-rhyme, Viking poets revelled in internal rhyme and alliteration within the confines of brutally strict verse structures. And if you haven’t brushed up on your poetry terms recently, fear not! I have a brief guide to Viking verse forms at the beginning of the book. 

Time runs short, Commander Gillingham. Morale is low. The enemy is at our doorstep, but they’ll surrender if enough people click the link below to order The Gatewatch. Now is our final chance- you must rally the troops with words of wisdom and courage. Give us your best pre-battle order speech!

Well, what a perfect opportunity to throw in a quote from the book! Hear it from Captain Calder, commander of the troll-hunters in the mountain outpost of Gatewatch, as he rallies the new recruits in this slightly appended and revised version of his speech: 

“So consider now whether you have the heart of a hero with the strength and courage to face the dreaded trolls. If, in your consideration, you find fear where there should be boldness, then take your leave of this place. You’ve all heard the stories, fireside tales of troll-hunters and heroes. Gatewatch is where those legends were forged. Now it is time for the smith of fate to strike with his hammer. Will you be broken into pieces or will you be molded into warriors worthy of taking up Beoric’s flaming torch? Will you hide under your beds while trolls threaten to devour your families and burn your homes, or will you take up the axe and stand beside your brothers and sisters to vanquish the horde?  Will you flee into the depths of despair when doom hangs in the air, or will you follow the blazing flame of your ancestors’ call out of that darkness to win glory and victory?

So what are you waiting for? Charge forth with all haste and order your copy of The Gatewatch!” 

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Thanks for stopping in, Josh! Congrats on getting your debut out into the world, and best of luck to you! I’m sure we’ll speak again soon.

You can read more about Josh on his website or follow him on Twitter (@JoshMGillingham).

Writer's Block: How to Beat it

We’ve all been there— staring blankly at your computer screen, turning over the same two or three thoughts in your head for hours on end, but somehow unable to translate them onto the page in any meaningful way. It’s beyond frustrating, even in the short term, and when left to fester, can have you questioning your ability as a writer and your reasons for even writing in the first place.

Writer’s block.

We speak of it like a curse that can descend upon you with frightening swiftness, leaving you powerless to produce anything of merit until the spell is lifted. But of course, there’s no curse, and just like it doesn’t come out of nowhere, it doesn’t magically go away either. Creativity comes and goes, inspiration waxes and wanes, but these are just by-products of our natural writing processes and our lives in general. Writer’s block is no different, and to treat it as anything other than a naturally occurring (and super aggravating) phenomenon that strikes us all at some point is doing yourself and your writing career a disservice.

Before we go any further, two quick disclaimers:

1. This advice is intended to help people with typical cases of writer’s block— fleeting periods where creative thought and technical execution seem to be lost. If you’re one of those folks who hasn’t written a word in ten months, you feel powerless at the keyboard, and you’re in mental agony about it, I probably can’t help you. There’s something else going on, and it’s beyond the scope of this article.

2. Let’s not conflate writer’s block with burnout. Prolonged periods of writer’s block can be extremely discouraging, but for the purpose of this discussion, I’m treating writer’s block as a completely separate issue from burnout. I’m writing this with the assumption that you have the desire to write, but are simply unable to act upon it. If writing or writer’s block is affecting your mental health, this may not be the right article for you, because I’m not a mental health expert and I’m not taking those aspects of the process into consideration. Use your best judgment when applying any of the strategies I’m about to discuss. We all need a break sometimes, and none of the below strategies involve stepping away from the keyboard. It doesn’t feel right for me to advocate stopping writing when your goal is to write and the problem is that you can’t. Breaks do work, but in this article I’m assuming you don’t need one.

   With those disclaimers out of the way, let’s also keep in mind that there are two types of writer’s block, which I’ll refer to as creative and technical. Creative writer’s block is the struggle to come up with ideas, concepts, plot lines, character arcs, settings, etc. Basically, anything you have to imagine out of thin air. Technical writer’s block is the struggle to execute on existing ideas, an inability to translate thoughts onto the page or to capture the essence of what you’re trying to convey. Both problems require different solutions, so I’ll offer a few ways to deal with each. Not every strategy will work for every person, but at least one of these should work for most people. Now, let’s get to it!

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The Nike Method

Let’s start with the move obvious solution, and the one that’s probably going to piss you off. Let’s just rip off the band-aid. In the words of the most famous footwear company on the planet, just do it. I know you’re already thinking “but the entire point of writer’s block is that I can’t just write my way out of it.” And you might be right. We’ll get to that. But you also might be making excuses for yourself and confusing difficulty with impossibility.

I’ve sat there, staring numbly at the same sentence for half an hour because the next one refuses to work itself out in my head, (or on the page for that matter) just like you have. A few of those times, I’ve closed my laptop in frustration, only to fix it without much of a problem when I came back to it the next day. The other times, though, I just trudged through, no matter how difficult and frustrating it was. When I was editing Sundering, sometimes I took two hours to rewrite a single paragraph, which I think says more about how bad my writing was than anything else.

The point is, just because something is difficult doesn’t mean you can’t work through it. The ultimate solution to technical writer’s bock is to just suck it up and write something. Anything. Fifty words. Twelve. Who cares if it doesn’t make any sense? You’re going to edit it later, anyways. You have ideas to work with, so what are you waiting for? Stop making excuses and just get words onto the page. Write it in the most simple, bland language you can. It’s just placeholder text, and that detail you’re agonizing over may not even be important to the story. You’re letting something tiny and irksome hold you back, like a thread of your sweater caught on a bramble bush. Just rip that shit off and forge ahead, and sew it up later so it looks nice and pretty.

JUST DO IT!

I’ll get off my high horse now. While I may lack social tact, domestic skills, and general human empathy, I’ve cultivated a very strong work ethic, so the Nike method is my bread and butter. I get that other people simply can’t will themselves through a writing session. Some things just can’t be forced. When you’re pushing up against that wall, but it just won’t budge, there’s always…

The Bridge Method

Instead of bashing your head into the wall for hours on end, just walk around the wall. Or climb over it. Or however it is that people get around large, rectangular obstacles. Just skip the part you’re struggling to articulate and write the next sequence you have a clear picture of, or the next part you’re genuinely excited about. It’s like what they tell kids taking standardized tests— if you don’t know the answer, skip ahead and come back later.

We often do this in our initial planning stages, by coming up with a concept, a conflict, and a resolution. It’s only after we have a better sense of our story that we go back and connect all the dots. In fact, I use this strategy as part of my hybrid plotting/pantsing method, which you can read about here. But I digress. Don’t beat yourself up over the words you can’t think of, and work with the ones you can. If you’re thinking “but I can’t find a part of my story where the words just flow,” then I’ll kindly refer you to the above section. Or the one below.

The Buddy System

When all else fails, take advantage of the buddy system. What is the buddy system, you ask? It’s simple— tell a buddy that “no matter what, I’m going to finish this chapter by the end of the week,” or “I’m going to finish this draft by August,” or whatever deadline you choose to self-impose. Your buddy is someone who holds you accountable, who can encourage you when you’re down and light a fire under your ass when you’re feeling complacent… And who can inflict some sort of punishment when you fail.

This is classic negative reinforcement, or in some circles, it’s known as positive punishment (positive, in this case, pertaining to the presence of an undesirable punishment). I’m not suggesting your buddy take a lead pipe to your kneecaps should you fail to meet your commitment. But let’s say you hate doing the dishes, and you and your spouse split the duty 50/50. Tell them “I’m going to (insert goal and deadline), and if I don’t, I’ll do all the dishes for a month. Tell your best friend they can post that hilariously embarrassing picture of you on social media if you don’t get your work done. Tell your fourteen-year-old that you’ll drive them anywhere they want on demand for three months. Bet you money you meet that deadline, no matter how difficult.

You can also take a slightly different approach and go super public with your intention. Post your goal and deadline on social media, and then get to it. The threat of social humiliation will likely galvanize you into working through whatever transient barriers present themselves. I do this often for powerlifting, in some cases calling a lift months in advance. In fall and early winter of 2017, I was very injured after a rough season, and my current best squat was 425 lbs. I had been stuck on that for two years. In January of 2018, coming off the injury, I announced on my Instagram fitness page that I would squat 445 lbs by June. After being unable to add 5 lbs to my max squat over two years, I declared that I would add 20 lbs in six months. And I did.

I had a lot of struggles going into that competition, but the fear of looking like a loud-mouthed jackass who couldn’t back up his talk drove me to work through every obstacle with white-knuckle, bang-your-head-against-the-wall determination. It was stressful, emotionally draining, and at times, physically painful— and it was 100% worth it. Granted, I grew up wrestling under a coach who was fond of screaming obscenities at teenagers, so that sort of pressure-cooker situation brings out the best in me, but I think there’s something to be said for opening yourself up to shame, ridicule, embarrassment, or other form of punishment in order to meet a goal.

This guy’s got nothing on coach Ralph.

It can be frightening, but you’re looking for something to shake you out of your rut, aren’t you? Moving forward isn’t always comfortable. At the end of the day, this is still a technical problem. You’re struggling with execution, so you just need to tinker until you get it right. You can’t tinker if you don’t get words down. Get the words down, even if they’re the wrong words. You’ll fix them and make them the right words later. That’s what betas and editors are for.

You may think I’m being harsh, you may think (not without reason) I’m being a jerk, or you may think I just don’t understand writer’s block. Now I’ll admit, I’ve never experienced a period of technical writer’s block for more than a few days. Because I do these things. Or maybe I’m just lucky. Who knows? Maybe these strategies won’t work for you— everyone is different, I understand that. But maybe they will. Maybe I’m on to something. And you’ll never know until you really try.

For those of you suffering from creative writer’s block, thanks for bearing with me so far. I’m sure reading about this “get your shit together, suck it up, hear me roar” approach is making you roll your eyes, because this isn’t applicable to you at all. You can’t force ideas into your brain. You have to gently coax them in, and the more you try to force them, the worse it gets. I get it. I suffer from creative writer’s block much more than technical writer’s block, because I’m writing a massive fantasy series spanning several continents and with decades of backstory. I have 28 pages of notes on one kingdom’s religion. Thinking of all that stuff is hard, and sometimes you go into a brainstorming session super excited, only to come up empty-handed. The strategies below have helped me come up with some pretty wild ideas (most of them bad), and they might help you.

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The Ole’ Switcharoo

Getting early feedback on your story, otherwise known as developmental edits, can be a godsend. This isn’t quite the same thing as a beta reader, since betas are supposed to be used on complete, relatively polished manuscripts, but the general principle remains the same. You find a partner, swap WIP’s with them, and bounce ideas off each other. Having fresh eyes on your work can open you up to new ideas, alert you to conceptual weaknesses in your story, and inspire you to expand on the things you do well. I’ve heard some people call these types of critique partners alpha readers, so we’ll go with that. The point is, they can see things you can’t and point you in the right direction.

I’ve had alpha readers (and beta readers, for that matter), inspire some of my favorite scenes, things that now seem critical to the story. I’ve had them point out problems that, once solved, lay the groundwork for more depth in the characters and the world they inhabit. I cannot stress how helpful it is to have a partner to act as a sounding board for you, and how beneficial it is for you to discuss someone else’s writing, to get out of your own head and think about something that isn’t your own work. If that doesn’t work for you, there’s always…

The Palate Cleanser

The idea is simple— if you’ve been grinding away on worldbuilding, plotting, or discovery/drafting and are having trouble coming up with new ideas, or if you don’t know where your plot is going to go next, just work on something else for a little bit. If you can’t come up with any ideas at all, you just have a single character, setting, or concept to work with, this trick work even better. Now, I’m not suggesting you start a new novel, although some people probably take that approach.

Instead, research some writing prompts.

There are about a million sites that generate daily prompts in a variety of genres, but I personally love Reddit for this. Pick one you like and write a short story on it. Don’t overthink it. Just enjoy the act of spontaneously drafting something pressure-free and with no larger expectations. Combine two or three ideas into a single short story if you want to, the more, the better. You’re just trying to shake something loose by thinking creatively outside of your main project. Don’t agonize over details. When you’re done, return to your primary WIP and see if the ideas flow any better. This strategy can also work for technical writer’s block, since it forces you to put words on the paper, and because of that, it remains one of my favorites. When all else fails, you can always resort to…

The Nuclear Option

Ever heard the phrase “write drunk, edit sober?” Try it. Literally. (If you don’t drink, just skip this section, it’s not for you.) I know the phrase is intended to mean that one should write freely and without inhibition, only to edit carefully and meticulously, but you know what serves as a great uninhibitor? Alcohol.

Once in a while, I like to pour myself a glass of whiskey and pluck away at the keyboard in a separate file. Don’t change any existing work, and check it sober before you add your drunken finger-ramblings to your official WIP. I once wrote an entire chapter, maybe 12-13 pages, completely hammered, and it was actually pretty good… except I wrote the wrong character into it. Everything else was fine, but I wrote the wrong character’s name about 50 times. That was embarrassing, but still, it ended up as a solid chapter, and because I wrote it in a separate file, it was easy to spot.

Now, you might be thinking that this sounds more like a solution to technical writer’s block again. Get drunk, start typing. Well, there’s a second solution that I also use sometimes. Put on a TV show or movie that inspires you, that makes you want to write, keep your laptop open, and write down whatever ideas spring into your brain. Just one or two lines, quick notes to review later and expand upon if they warrant further consideration.

I’m not saying you should lift scenes directly from what you’re viewing, but watching media with a relaxed frame of mind can often clue you in to things you miss during a regular viewing, and those stray observations can manifest themselves as tiny seeds for ideas in your own work. Even horrible movies can inspire a stroke of genius. I thought of a major twist involving the series antagonist while I was watching a Transformers movie under the influence. I’m not joking.

I’m not saying you should pound a fifth of liquor every time you get stuck, but entering a different state of mind can help you think of things you wouldn’t normally think of. Sometimes, that’s just what you need. However, if you find yourself copying Hunter S. Thompson’s daily routine, you might have gone a little too far.

After 9 hours of booze, cocaine, weed, and acid, he’s FINALLY “ready to write"?” How…

I encourage you to keep it legal and not to use this method as a crutch. I’ve thought of some of my best ideas doing this, but for every good idea, there’s about four or five terrible ones. Use it sparingly, vet any ideas you do write down with extreme scrutiny, and keep your health in mind. Alright, that’s enough about substance use for creative purposes. Let’s go over some final points.

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Wrap-Up

There you have it— six different methods to help you overcome writer’s block. I realize that, as much as I tried to delineate between creative & technical writer’s block for simplicity’s sake, real life isn’t always so cleanly divided, and the two can overlap, or one can lead to the other. You may have to try a few of these approaches, combine them, whatever. Just find what works for you. Writer’s block is maddeningly frustrating, and it can be emotionally draining when left unchecked. Don’t let it ruin your passion and turn it into something you dread.

And again, I can’t stress this enough: Don’t confuse writer’s block for burnout. Even as much as I advocate putting your head down and grinding through barriers, forcing yourself through burnout is a surefire way to hurt your overall progress, say nothing of your mental health. Writer’s block is just another obstacle, like time constraints, distractions, and a sticky “R” key that makes your narration sound like it was written by a pirate. Stop mystifying it and start figuring out how to beat it. Best of luck.