Writer’s block. What I do when my Muse is ignoring me.

Writers have lots of creative excuses for when inspiration fails, but no matter what you call it, it's annoying, and if you're like me where your mood is tied to your writing it's depressing too.

So what do I do when my creativity faucet is clogged?

I have to remember that I am writing for fun, because I enjoy it. Even if it's a job, it's the one I've chosen. It shouldn't be “You should be writing” but “You could be writing” because really, I’d rather write than do anything else. But, as much as I enjoy writing, there are times where I stare at the page and think, okay… now what?

Everyone has a different suggestion, because everyone is different and what works for me might not work for you. The trick is to find what inspires you, what gets your creative juices flowing.

I sit down and try to write. When I don’t know where the story is going I skip ahead and write another part, and if that shuts down I skip again. This creates some rather interesting bits and pieces of a story, but by the end, they usually all fit together.

If I can’t get anything down on the page, I pick up a book, because reading puts my head in a better place. Many people seem to favor music, but I'm not really a music person. Sometimes a certain song strikes a cord with me and gives me ideas, so just because something usually doesn't work doesn't mean you shouldn't give it a try. Recently I've found inspiration from looking at fantasy artwork online.

One of my biggest problems is focusing on just one idea, and not being sidetracked by all the other stories bouncing around in my head. For years I bounced around and wound up not finishing anything.

There are things that do the opposite, put me in a bad writing place. Playing randomly on the computer or watching certain dumb TV shows is bad for my writing juju and nothing kills my creativity faster than video games.

When I need to know know what needs to happen next in my story, taking a shower or vacuuming usually helps, or any monotonous tasks where my mind gets bored and starts creating stories. Going to bed always solves my problem, especially if my computer is off. I lay in bed and the ideas start to flow. I’m not one to put writing off, if ideas are flowing, I write. Forget sleep, food, and all the other important parts of life, the writing is working.

There is nothing better than a good writing day.

What do you do when you are having trouble writing? What kinds of things have given you a headache?

My first person point of view in my current novel has given me problems, especially when the main character isn't the center of the action. I hate it when I get stuck, because I've gotten my characters into such a mess that I can't see a way out. Crating the problems is fun, solving them can sometimes be tricky, because I like intelligent bad guys and I don't want to make things too easy for them. It's all the more rewarding when it suddenly clicks, the pieces come together, and I've conquered my character's dilemma, even though I'm the one who put them into it.