Tackling Writer’s Block

Some writers deny that writer’s block exists. Some writers never experience that awful blankness when searching for the next word to put down, the next idea to make this piece the wonderful shape that we had in our heads when we sat down.

Other writers will tell you that they have struggled with it many times. They will tell stories of when they hit a wall in the middle of what was otherwise an easy flow of words and plot. It affects every writer differently, but it is still a common occurrence for those of us who regularly try to weave ideas and images into words in a page.

 

What is writer’s block?

It’s that awful feeling you get when you sit down before your scribing equipment of choice and nothing wants to flow. You know plenty of words, but none that will fit, or work, or come out. Fingers hover over keys, becoming more familiar with the feel of the touch-typing markers on the keyboard rather than actually typing anything. Or the pen waggles back and forth without coming into contact with the page and making meaningful patterns.

No matter what you do, that next word just won’t come. It might be the first word – it might be the terror of the blank page, staring belligerently back at you. Or it could be a wall that has suddenly arisen in the middle of a piece, and you can’t find the next step no matter how much you grope for it.

 

How do you beat it?

There are several ways that you can tackle writer’s block. Not all of these will work for you – it is a case of experimenting until you find what works for you. Here are some of the methods of getting past the blockage for you to try:

 

Just Write

One thing you can do is just write anyway. It doesn’t matter if it’s awful, it doesn’t matter if doesn’t make sense. Just get some words down and push on through that blockage. This is the brute force approach; often, the less you think about it, the better. Setting yourself a word count goal can help with this.

This is the method that NaNoWriMo is based on. Don’t let yourself get hung up on details or on plot, just write through anyway. You’ll be surprised at how quickly you find yourself caught up in the flow again, and you can always come back and fix it later.

 

Skip Past the Wall

Can’t write a particular scene? Not sure how to open a piece? Skip it. Write a different scene, start in a different place, and go from there. You can always come back and fill in the gap later, when things are flowing better. Don’t let yourself get hung up on one particular spot, and don’t let the wall stop you from writing the rest of the story.

Similarly, you can work on a different part of the project such as doing research or fleshing out character backgrounds. This can also be a good way to loosen up the words to put down next.

 

Walk Away

Sometimes, the best thing you can do is stop trying. If you spend too much time fighting with the wall, it’s easy to lose perspective and get too caught up in the fight to be able to write anything. So walk away from it. Not permanently – this is not a suggestion to give up on your piece as a lost cause. This is about taking a break from it, mentally and physically.

Play a game, watch a movie. Go out and have dinner with some friends. Bake like there’s no tomorrow. Buy yourself something shiny, read a book. Do something completely unrelated and try not to think about the writing project that is giving you so much trouble. Don’t return to the project until you know what you’re going to write next.

This is often when solutions sneak out of the woodwork and surprise you. When you’re in the grip of something that doesn’t bear any relation to what you’re working on, an idea will pop into your head and all of a sudden you can’t wait to get home and put it into practice. This sounds unlikely, but it can work!

 

Write Something Else

Similar to skipping past the wall and walking away, take a break from your writing project by writing something else. This keeps your pen in practice and allows your brain to disengage from that battle for a while.

I find that writing exercises are great for generating creative juices and getting things flowing again. It’s also good to do exercises that work different writing muscles (yes, you do have them).

Alternatively, you can try switching to a different project for a while. Maybe you’ve got something that needs to be edited, or a new project still in the planning stage that you can work on. Or even something else idling in the background that needs to be written. Do some of that, and come back to your main project refreshed!

 

Get Someone Else Involved

I find that bouncing ideas around with my friends is a great idea to regain enthusiasm for a project. I have a great circle of writing friends who love nothing better than this kind of thing, and I often come away with fresh ideas that I wouldn’t have otherwise thought of. I usually can’t wait to get home and start writing!

If you can find one in your area, join a writing group (I should probably do a post about what to look for in a writing group). If you can’t find one, start one! (Not for the faint-hearted, but I have started three and love it.) Alternatively, there are good online writing communities with lots of people ready and willing to help out and offer advice.

 

Those are the tools that I’ve used or had recommended to me by various authors. The most important thing is not to give up – you can get past writer’s block. You just need to find the method that works for you!

Remember, you’re not alone in your struggle with writer’s block, and you can get past it. I hope that these tips are helpful. If you have any other tactics for tackling writer’s block, let me know!

Good luck, and happy writing.

Naming: Part 2: What’s in a Name?

One of the first things I do with a new writing group is an exercise on names, and it’s a topic that I often find myself commenting on when doing reviews and feedback on pieces. It seems to be one of the most overlooked areas of characterisation and writing, especially for new writers.

 

Exercise: write 100 words about your own name. You can write about your first, last or given name, whichever you prefer. Write about any of the following:

• What your name means to you
• Where you got it from and why it was chosen for you
• If you’ve ever changed it
• How you feel about it
• Family history or tradition
• Anything else it brings to mind.

 

For me, names are very important. A character doesn’t begin to truly take shape in my head until I can attach the right name to it. Some writers use placeholders while they search for the right name; I prefer to find the right name as early as possible, because it helps to mould the character as I write.

But beyond what our character’s name means to us as the writer, what does it mean to our readers? In our transmission of ideas, this is an important consideration. What might a reader take from the names we give our characters? How can we put a simple moniker to best use?

Here is some of the information I have collected on the subject. Some of this might be obvious, but these things are easily missed in the fire of writing. Not all of these elements need to (or in some cases should be) used, but these are some of the tools at your disposal.

Title

First of all, let’s look at what a character’s title can tell us, before we even get to the character’s name. This is the easiest and most obvious part.

• It tells us if a woman is married (Mrs), or refuses to give her marital status (Ms). Hints about age, status and personality are given there.
• It suggests the character’s level of education and profession (Dr, Professor, Father, Detective, Captain, etc).
• For men, ‘Mr’ is generic but does suggest that he is at least an adult.
• Archaic titles (Master, Madam, etc) suggest the time and society the character is living in, as well as relative social status.
• Official or noble titles (Lord, Lady, Duke, Ambassador, etc) also indicate social status, familial prestige and possible personal wealth.

Full name

So what does a character’s name tell us? Try these for starters:

• Social class/background. The names given to children vary according to class, and often according to the fashion at the time within those classes. For example, the notorious names given to the children of celebrities.
• Age / generation.  First names go in and out of fashion, and the generation of a person can often be pinned down because of that. Some names are always popular (Matthew and David are good examples of that), but names that seem ‘archaic’ or ‘oldfashioned’ are usually just out of the limelight for the moment.
• Family history/heritage. The family’s geographical origins can be indicated (for example, an American with an Italian surname would indicate that the character’s family emigrated to the US from Italy). This can have an effect on the background and culture of the character. Other heritage aspects can also be brought into play, assuming that the reader knows about the heritage you’re referring to.
• Culture/race. Similar to the above point, the character’s name can indicate the culture and origin of the character and his or her family.
• Meaning. Most names have a meaning attached. Readers are not always going to pick up on meanings (such as ‘Helen’ meaning ‘beauty’), but some are more obvious than others (such as the Apocalypse Blog’s Faith).

If you are building your own world/society, you can build more into the naming scheme if you choose. These guidelines are based on real-world rules (for simplicity and brevity!).

Given name

Wait, how is this different to their full name? The ‘given name’ is the name by which a person prefers to be called. It is not always the character’s first name – it may not be the character’s ‘official’ name at all. This is one of the more useful methods of characterising, as how a person prefers to be called says a lot about them.

Your options:

• First name. Simple, straightforward, familiar and informal.
• Title and surname. Formal and distancing. Often indicates a position of power and respect – using this form of a name is an act of giving respect to a person. Period pieces often use title and first name for a similar effect, though that is a more familiar form. Profession-based titles also place the character in a professional role (Dr., Father, etc) rather than a friendly or interpersonal one.
• Surname only. Not as familiar as using a first name, not as formal as using it with a title in front. Can be used for the same effect as a nickname.
• Nickname. Informal and familiar. Can also be used to distance themselves from the ‘real’ name.
• Shortened version of the first name. Familiar, relaxed, and informal.
• Codename. Completely hides the ‘true’ identity of the person. This is more purposeful than a mere nickname.
• Middle name. Very similar to using the first name, but there should be a reason why it is used instead of the first name.

So how do I choose what name to use? Here are some considerations for you:

• Do you want to give the character a particular role or purpose?
• How does the character feel about his or her own name? This is one of the most important ways you can characterise through the use of names.
• Was the character given an awkward, embarrassing or overly complicated name?
• How casual is the character? How comfortable is the character with others being familiar with him or her?
• The background of a character can often influence how he or she prefers to be called. Any bad experiences that might affect this? Good ones? Bullying at school?
• Does the character have a very common first name? Was an alternative required for ease of identification? (Six Charlottes in one class, for example).
• Has the character changed his or her name? Officially? If so, why?
• Does the character have a name that he or she hates being called by? An embarrassing nickname? Named after a repulsive or reviled grandparent?
• Does the character have a name that only a few people use – like a nickname only used within the family?

This choice can vary between characters and depending on relationships, so it’s not always as simple as choosing one and running with it.

Used name

Wait, what? This is the other side of the coin from the given name. On the one hand, there is the way that a character would like to be referred to. On the other hand is the name used by other characters. These do not always coincide!

The name that a character uses to refer to another person is an efficient shorthand for indicating the relationship between those characters. Formality, familiarity, intimacy and friendliness are all factors that play into this.

Be careful with this, though! Don’t overuse it, or you may end up with a character being called by a different name by every person they know. That has pitfalls of its own, not least of which is confusion. Identity and confusion are covered in Naming: Part 1.

So there you are! Now you have a plethora of tools for naming and characterising the cast of your work. Now get back to writing!

Naming: Part 1: Identity

Names matter. They shape our perceptions of a person. They give us a lot of information, most of it unconscious. They also identify characters and make it easier to keep track of who is doing what, where and why. Names do a lot of legwork in our creative work, and so I believe that some attention should be paid to them.

Be kind to readers

Your readers don’t know your characters. The primary purpose of naming is identification and it is important to keep this in mind. Your readers are there to read your story, and the monikers given to characters are markers to help them keep everything straight. You can use the tools laid out in Naming: Part 2 to make the names of your characters do a lot of work, but don’t let them lead you astray.

• Don’t give a character too many names. If every person that a character encounters calls them by a different name, your reader is going to be very confused about how many people are being talked about. Keep it simple.
• Don’t refer to a character by more than one or two different names in a single scene. This quickly becomes confusing and makes it difficult to follow who is doing what, where and to whom. This is especially important in very busy scenes, with a lot of action or characters involved. You already have a lot of work to do to help your reader keep up, so don’t make it more work than you have to!
• Don’t assume that your reader is taking notes. No-one should have to take notes in order to keep up with your story. If it’s possible that your reader might have forgotten that your character changed his or her name three chapters ago, throw in a little reminder of who you’re talking about.
• Don’t make characters’ name too similar. Understand that readers skim certain words when they read, and how that impacts on your job as a writer guiding them through your story (see below).

Tom and Tim and Tam and who now?

Similar names quickly grow confusing for readers because of the way that the eye skims words when reading. Readers don’t want to have to re-read sections three times just to get straight who is doing what – this is a good way to turn a reader off a story.

Here are the things to watch out for when deciding on names:

• If the first and last letter are the same, what comes between is immaterial. The eye skims over the middle part, particularly vowels. This is most applicable when the names are the same length, as they make the same ‘shape’ on the page. You can get away with this if the lengths are markedly different, but it is worth checking.
• Rhyming names. These are easily confused, especially if they are interacting a lot.
• Same first phoneme. The eye can skim from the first phoneme, effectively missing the latter part of the name. Again, this is particularly the case when the names are of similar lengths.
• Same initials. Similar to the above point, Jack Martin is easily confused with John Michael.
• Different versions of the same name. Tom and Thomas may easily be confused with each other. Abbreviations that are markedly different from the full name may avoid this problem (Elizabeth and Betty, for example).
• Sex is not a barrier. It is possible to get male and female characters muddled up! Don’t think that giving the characters different genders will prevent any of the above from applying. If your response is ‘but a girl wouldn’t do that,’ then your reader is likely to say, ‘that’s why I had to read it twice!’ (The same applies for out-of-character actions.)

These are not hard-and-fast rules, but they are guidelines for what you should keep an eye out for. They apply most strongly when the character names in question are in the same scene, being talked about, or are closely linked. However, the guidelines do still apply even if the characters never meet in the course of the story.

This effect can be counteracted by strong characterisation and careful use of pointers in the text to make things as clear as possible. It is by no means impossible to have Tim and Tom in the same piece, but you should be aware of the confusion that this might cause.

 

So now you know the pitfalls to avoid, and how to make it easier for your readers to keep track of your characters and the action in your story. But a name can do a lot of work for you – see Naming: Part 2.

Guidelines – Synopses

Here are some guidelines for creating a synopsis, which is part of the standard novel submission package for agents and publishers. Remember that a synopsis is a tool for selling your book – it is a marketing exercise. It is also expected that there will be differences between a synopsis and the final novel, so don’t worry about making it match the novel exactly.

What’s it for?
Most submittees (agents/publishers) will ask for a synopsis, either with the first 1-3 chapters or before seeing any of the novel at all. This is to show that you:

• Can be professional.
• Have a whole story (not just the first three chapters), and that you are capable of telling it.
• Have well-rounded characters.
• Have a logical and believable plot.

What do I put in it?
A synopsis is not an outline (a breakdown of the story chapter by chapter). It is an overview of your story, and should include the following elements:

• The story’s progression from beginning to end.
• The same writing style as the novel (even if the POV or tense are different). Try to make it engaging and interesting to read, not just a list of facts, names and events.
• The end/twist/denouement. This one is very important: never put in cliffhangers or teasers.
• All the important details of the story. It’s easy to miss some, so try to make sure that it’s all in there.
• Motives – for the major characters, give an idea of why they act, as well as what they do.
• Subplots – and how they link to the main plot.
• An introductory first paragraph – one that brings in the protagonist, the situation and the main issue/thrust/problem of the story.

Format
This can very widely between agents/publishers – always check with whoever you are submitting to for their exact guidelines. However, here’s an idea of what you should be aiming for:

• Length: 1-2 pages. 
  No more than 2 pages (A4). Changing the margins or font size is cheating (and they will notice this). Some submittees can have wordcount limits, but that is unusual.
• Spacing: single or double. Usually single should be fine, but some require double-spacing.
• Paragraphs: space between each one.

Mechanics
These do not vary between agents and are considered non-negotiable industry standard:

• Point of view: third person.
• Tense: present.

Things to remember
A synopsis can seem like a chore, but it does serve an important purpose. These things are worth keeping in mind:

• This is an example of your writing. Let it reflect you properly.
• Spelling and grammar are important. It does make a difference. Get it proofread, get it right!
• You are not bound to it! Agents and publishers are aware that stories change as they are worked on, so don’t feel tied to reproducing the exact story in your synopsis. No-one else is expecting you to.

Sources:
Talks with published authors.
The Creative Writing Coursebook – Paul Magrs, Julia Bell
Teach Yourself How To Write A Blockbuster – Helen Corner and Lee Weatherly
The CWA guidelines for submissions for the Debut Dagger competition