My creative writing class had a discussion about writer's block. How do you overcome it? I shared some great techniques that I learned in my previous writing class. The thing is that my answer is so simple. For me, I just watch an episode of my favorite TV show, watch a favorite movie, read one of my favorite books, or listen to music. I often listen to music when I write. I'm hooked on that feeling that I get when I'm lost in a story.
Songs tell a story, just like books, TV shows, and movies do. I get lost in those stories. It helps with the creative flow. I stick to books by my favorite authors, sometimes I re-read the same book twenty times. A good story makes you fall in love with the characters. I want to keep turning the pages. I hope to inspire that same feeling in readers when people read my stories.
A friend recommended a YouTube music video to me today that I've never seen, "Sweep the Leg" by No More Kings. It's got tons of great 80's movie moments in it. The actor who played Mr. Belding from Saved by the Bell is in it. It made me laugh. I went in search of Matthew Broderick Super Bowl Commercial again. Matthew Broderick will always be Ferris Bueller to me. I have these moments that made me smile and inspire my creativity.
A device that inspires my creativity is my transmitter. It allows my iPod music to play through my car stereo. I use it all the time. I have playlists for scenes that I'm getting ready to write. My characters have favorite songs. I make playlists for all of these and play them back when I need a little extra boost to keep momentum going. I'm getting to the point where I know my characters so well that they each have a favorite movie. For example in my latest story, Come Back to Me, the main character, Lexi McKenna's favorite movie is Romancing the Stone. Mike and Lexi's song is "Forever" by the Beach Boys.
My favorite author is LaVyrle Spencer. Ms. Spencer based most of her books in Minnesota, which is where she was born and raised. I recently had the honor of meeting Kansas City author, Dyann Love Barr and discussed her work with her. Her most recent novel, A Perfect Bride For Christmas, is based in Kansas City. My main character, Lexi is from a small town in LaPorte County, Indiana. I'm setting my stories in places where I have been so there is a real feel to the story. I want to make my story locations come to life.
I'm choosing to write about places that I know. I hope that it will give my stories a more real feeling. I've never been to Minnesota, but thanks to LaVyrle Spencer, I feel like I have. I want my readers to have that experience. I hope that I will be able to write characters that are real to my readers. That all starts with inspiration. Due to my various sources of inspiration, I'm starting to get to know each one of my characters and my story is moving right along a little bit each day. Thanks for allowing me to share them with you.
I was reading on Goodreads.com author A. Lee Martinez's blog post, where he he answers reader's questions. One of the recent questions was about writer's block. I really liked his answer:
ReplyDelete"I sit down, and I just do it. I won’t lie to you and say it’s always easy. But I sit down, I write something, anything, and hope it doesn’t suck too bad. Often it does. Sometimes it doesn’t. But worrying about it is pointless, and you just need to write and give yourself permission to write badly because it’s better to be a bad real writer than a great imaginary one.
So that’s my cure for writer’s block:
Write."
I love the last part about being a bad real writer instead of a great imaginary one. I get a lot of motivation from old songs that tell a story, and from reading. I've been distracted with our class lately so I haven't read as many books lately as I normally would. I've also been procrastinating on writing anything, and need to sit down and make a good comprehensive outline. Making that outline really helps the writing flow for me. It gives me direction and motivation. I just have to battle "outliner's block".