• By Winston Kuwada
• Published 03/3/2012
• Writing

So there you are, you’ve finally decided to write a novel. Maybe you’ve thought about it for a while. Maybe you finally got inspiration from reading a popular book and thought to yourself, “Hey, I could have written this.” Or maybe you went to a book signing and realized that authors are people to, and that you could write a book just as well as any of them. Perhaps you’ve even got a really good story in mind, and you’ve told a few friends and they all agree it would make a great story or screen play. So you became more motivated than ever. Perhaps you’ve peered into your future and saw the fame and fortune and radio interviews. This further motivated you to sit down and actually start writing. Except, you can’t think of anything. The more you stare at that blank page, the harder it is to string even two words together. You’ve got writers block. Luckily, you’re reading this article, and you’re going to find out exactly what to do to get rid of it.

The first thing to realize is that every novel goes through three or four drafts before it’s even sent to a publisher. Most novelists go through three or four draf

ts before they give it to their agent to read. This means the first draft is as rough as ever. It’s not even close to perfect. It doesn’t even have to be close to grammatically correct. Don’t even turn on the spell checker. The second step to getting over writers block is to write whatever gibberish comes to mind. Look at your wall and describe it in detail. Write down whatever happened on TV last night. Describe in detail how to cook whatever it is you had for dinner last night. Just write something. Eventually something about your story will slip in there, and just go from there. Another thing to do is to write according to the clock, and not by the page. If you have a huge number of pages you need to write, it can seem overwhelming. However, if you’re only writing for two hours a day, just keep on writing until your time is up. Of course, two hours is a long time, so break it down into twenty minute blocks. Write for twenty, and then break for ten, and just keep on going.

You’ll be amazed how quickly and easily these simple tips will help you conquer writer’s block once and for all. Once you incorporate this tips into your daily practice, writer’s block will become a thing of the past.