Just.

I set myself the goal of finishing my first, rough draft, by the end f the month and as long as I keep going on my current schedule, the rough draft will be done on the thirty first. Parts of the manuscript are pretty dire, some are outright unreadable but it will be finished, and from that I can chop out a decent first draft.

I’ll go into an explanation of rough draft, first draft and final draft next time.

That leaves the question of what to do next? I’m going to take Stephen King’s advice (in his excellent book “On Writing”) and leave in a drawer for a couple of weeks and do something else.

But what if you don’t have that kind of time?

Enter Micro Writing. You simply write small amounts of words whenever you get half a chance. Instead of setting a daily goal, you set a session goal. I suggest something like 100 words. You can tap out 100 words in less than five minutes. Got a break between calls? Awesome, write 100 words. Baby stopped crying for a moment? Awesome, write 100 words*

You do this with higher numbers as well, although you’ll need longer stretches of time. If you want to hit four thousand words in a day (which is a lot if you aren’t a full time writer) then sitting down and trying to do it all in one hit will leave you chewing your own foot in frustration.

It won’t taste good.

Write 1000 words before breakfast. Two lots of 1000 during the day and 1000 after dinner. It’s still going to be a big day, but four lots of 1000 words is not the behemoth of a task that 4000 words is.

There is a downside to this style of writing though, and that’s the break you get in the flow of words. If you’ve ever re read something you’ve written over several sessions and found it stilted and jerky then you know what I mean. To combat this I suggest taking a run up. Re read your last sentence and you hit the end of it simply write what you would have like to read next. It isn’t a complete solution to the problem, and you may need to even things out  in a later edit, but it helps.

Give Micro Writing a try the next time you have a full day. You’ll be surprised how much you can get done.

* NB: make sure baby is okay first.

It’s also really no big deal at all.

Saying it never happens doesn’t really help. Certainly there are people who never seem touched by it; they are the exception not the rule. Don’t feel bad if one of your writing buddies says they can write 3000 words without even really trying. The trick is that you can too. There are three main causes, and three easy fixes for writers block. Over the next few days I’ll go into these causes and their cures.

Cause 1: You’re tired

Just written 6000 words in one hit? Including a hyper intense scene where the protagonist is in mortal danger? It’s midnight, go to bed. Writer’s Block is most commonly encountered by over worked, stressed out writers trying to force themselves to write brilliant prose. Writing is a lot like lifting weights, your body needs time, and rest, to adapt to the demands being placed on it. You can build up to it. Jumping straight into 2000 word days will cook your brain like a microwave pizza and leave you staring, drooling and crying in front of your laptop.

Being over tired can also obviously come from other things in your life. I spent some time trying to write, working fulltime, lifting weights and training for a Mixed Martial Arts fight. I got injured (no one was surprised) and when I went back and looked at what I was writing, very little of it made any sense. I was simply doing far too much and pushing my body and my mind far beyond what I was used too.

These are fairly obvious, but emotional exhaustion is the one that takes the biggest toll on the writers I know, me included. This cause is particularly bad because of the idea that you need to suffer to write (which is bull puckey by the way). Sitting down to write after having a huge argument with your spouse or a death in the family may give you inspiration to write, but if you’re trying to write a novel (as opposed to writing for catharsis, which is different) then giving yourself some time to process the emotions will give you more inspiration, not less.

The Fix!

Sleep is the first order of the day (and night) for writers. None of us get enough sleep unless we’re unemployed. Everyone needs differing amounts of sleep, but usually if you’re getting less than 6 hours a night, you will be If you’re having issues with sleeping then take a look at this article posted on Family Doctor, they cover your sleeping environment in more depth than I ever could.

Truth be told though, we all know we need to sleep. If your sleep problems are ongoing, you may need to speak to a doctor. What should you do if you have a short term exhaustion problem and a blank white screen looming in front of you?

You can start with coffee. It certainly won’t help in the long term, but it will boost your mood. Good quality coffee also contains high levels of anti oxidants that can help with your overall stress level. You can also get caffeine pills and energy drinks, but if you can stomach it (and afford it!) then high quality coffee is the best caffeine delivery system you can get.

After a couple of days of relying on coffee though, it’s going to start losing its effect. If you’re going to be losing sleep, or are under any kind of elevated stress for more than a few days, then it is worth considering taking an adaptogen. Now, obviously I’m not a doctor, nor a medical practitioner of any kind, so ALL advice in this regard needs to go via your doctor before you take it on board.

Read that bit again.

Okay. Now, adaptogens are a class of herb that helps your body adapt to stressful situations, such as increased exercise, lack of sleep or…writing deadlines. I have found the best results with a herb called Rhodiola Rosea; however Siberian ginseng and true ginseng are other popular options. These don’t give you a boost in the same way that stimulants do, they just help your body return to a happy baseline (homeostasis for those of you who’ve studied some biology).

In my case, the major problem with writer’s block is the sudden loss of momentum. I don’t feel intimidated by the blank page, we just sit there and stare at each other like bad dates with nothing to say until I make up something else to do. The moment of silence on the radio gave me a little reminder to just relax, close my eyes and think of nothing.

Then the idea’s began flowing again.

I had gotten myself wound up about starting the book to far into the action, and I thought I needed to go back and insert some back-story. This would have been a horrendous mistake. The writing I was doing was not good, because I felt I had to do it, rather than wanted to. It would also have stolen a lot of the momentum the book has at the start. I trust that my readers are smart enough to infer back story from the clues I’ve put in. Some more foreshadowing probably isn’t a bad plan, but that’s a tiny thing, not a whole new chapter.

I wrote 2000 words before I had my my moment’s epiphany and all because a radio host was conscientious enough to call a moments silence. You don’t need an icon to die to  generate this within your own brain. Just switch everything off, radio, phone, everything that makes noise* and take thirty seconds to a minute for your brain to unclench.

You’ll be amazed just how good your brain is if you let it alone for a minute.