No More Blank Page

I was listening to a commercial for an interview the other day, and a woman said that a her writer friend “never had a blank page”, in other words he always had something to write about. It is another way of saying that he never has writer’s block.

Nora Roberts once said that a poorly written page is better than a blank page. I totally agree.

I Never Sit In Front of a Blank Page

I am like that myself. I never have writer’s block. I always have plenty to write. Sometimes I have too much. For instance, I just finished a month long project of writing a first draft of a fiction book in   30 days. This program is called NaNoWriMo.

I finished this project on November 29 and spent the next two days distancing myself from that project and didn’t write anything for those two days. The reason I took the break is not because I didn’t have anything to write. Last year during December, Every day I started a new book. So I have numerous projects I could work on. The fact is, I simply needed a break from writing. I took the break because I needed to evaluate where I should go next. Sometimes just helps to stop and think things through. That’s what I did the past two days.

I currently have three NaNoWriMo projects that are still unpublished. One of them is Sunrise on the Mississippi which I just finished its first draft. I have one book ahead of it in The Locket Saga series called Two Rivers which I wrote last year for NaNoWriMo. I plan to publish that this year. Another book that is in the series which is actually much later is On Mercy’s Wings which is set during the American Civil War.

One of the things that I was thinking about was projects that I have in the works. For a couple of years now I have been working on two nonfiction books that address the phenomenon of “writer’s block”. One addresses tips to nonfiction writers writing and the other addresses tips to fiction writers. I may be working on those books and work to get them published this year. Neither book will take long to complete. I just had projects that I thought that I needed to finish first.

However, what I thought about most during the past few days is something that has been bothering me for a while and that is, I have not had the sales on my previous books that I know I could have if I spent less time writing and more time marketing what I have already written.

A Tip for Getting Past the Blank Page

If you have trouble writing anything, the first thing I would suggest is to get away from the blank document and think about what it is that you want to say. Take about fifteen minutes to do this. Write down what comes to mind.

If nothing still comes, sit down in front of the document and whine on paper about how you are unable to write anything and then start writing down all the reasons (or excuses) that you can think of for not being able to write anything. Spill everything that comes to mind out on paper even if it has nothing to do with your current project. Write down things that you need to research before you write. Write down people that you need to see before you can write. Write down ideas about your project. Write down all of those things that you have to do that do not relate to your writing project but are on your mind. Do this for fifteen minutes.

This is called a brain dump. Now look over what you have written and delete your rants. Put those things that don’t relate to this project on a list and promise that you tell yourself that you will get to after you have spent time on this project.

Now you no longer have a blank page. You may not have much, but you will have something left that relates to this project. Organize the information related to your writing project into a logical sequence and start filling in some of the material that you know. Include questions that you need to research. You may find that you are no longer blocked.