Have you ever found yourself stuck for ideas, knowing what you should write? If so, you’ll you are suffering from what is called ‘writer’s block’. You’ll sit there for ages wondering what to put down on paper. I remember when I first tried to write a novel in thirty days, I struggled for ideas to keep it going and then I gave up. After that I learned that I had to get ideas from somewhere. In this post I will show you how I did that.
The following steps are what I took:
Write a novel
Just start writing and the ideas will come. If you don’t write you won’t get many ideas. It is like using a muscle continually. If you don’t use it you will lose it.
Don’t just rely on just being a “pantser”
Just writing however, doesn’t always solve the problem of writer’s block. What is a pantser? You may ask. A pantser is what I was when I wrote my first novel. You just sit down and write. I did start a second novel and tried the same method but this time pantsing didn’t work: I ran out of ideas. On my third novel, which is now my second, as the second never materialised, I plotted a basic story line and wrote a rough draft as to what would happen in each chapter before I began writing. I did not completely discard being a pantser as I found I had to make my ideas work by writing different characters and storylines as my novel progressed.
Keep a journal
Recording how you go about life, any interesting events, and how you feel each day. This helps when you are stuck and can’t think what to write, you just go back and read your journal. It reminds you of past experiences and ideas you’d forgotten about.
Keep a dream journal
I have used at least one of my dreams as an idea in my novels. What you do is to keep a notebook by your bed and write your dreams down as you wake up. If you don’t write them straight away, they usually disappear from your memory. Not only this but as you write the dream down, you tend to remember more of your dream and you get more of a story developing. I’m sure if you tried this, you’d get many cool ideas.
Write as you are going through something
I was moving house round about the time I wrote my recent novel so I based what I was going through to help me write my novel in that the couple in the novel were also moving house. When I get paid lots of money one day, I want to go on a cruise and write an adventure while I am on the cruise.
Follow the things that interest you
Educate yourself on the topics that interest you by following others blogs, reading other novels or other books. Sometimes I am too tired to read and will watch my favourite You Tube channels. These have given me many ideas which I will discuss later in other posts.
If you follow the steps of writing, plotting, keeping a journal, keeping a dream journal following others who write about your interests, you’ll find your ideas will come fast. So now that you know of these ideas, you’re ready to have a go without worrying you’ll run dry. Get writing and journaling, go on an adventure and write while you go through it. If I can do it, so can you.
