Or maybe it just needs more cowbell
I want to write a LiveJournal post but I'm often not sure what to say these days. But, I thought, it's NaNoWriMo month and a lot of people are writing and talking writing advice, so maybe I will try my hand at some process topics. I'm not sure that I have anything brilliant to say, but maybe as I blab, something brilliant will just slip out.

So, first topic. Writer's block.This is something a lot of people ask writers about. Now that I have some basis of authority, I suppose, I am starting to get that question.

A lot of people talk about writer's block is if it is a disease that can be cured. Like they want to know if they should take Advil, or apple cider vinegar, or put ice on it, or what. What is it?

Well, in my opinion, writers block is not a disease, it's a symptom of a manuscript being under the weather. When I have writers block, it is a probably for one of the following reasons:

-- I have an important scene to write that is boring. Such as, a scene where the protagonist has a fight with her parents. I don't want to write that. I want to write hot boy angst. I will probably never enjoy this scene as much as hot boy angst, but I might think about why I'm finding it so particularly troublesome. It's probably because I haven't considered the emotions of the scene deeply enough, and the scene might be coming off as stereotypical. Or perhaps I haven't given enough thought to the character of the parent. Or whatever character is involved in the boring scene. I may need to stop and think about that character as an individual for a little while.

-- I have a boring transitional scene to write. Like getting a character from point A to point B. Maybe I can skip it entirely, but I might think about, can I cut this down to just a few sentences? Do I need this much detail here?

-- The whole manuscript has gone off in the wrong direction. This is the most frustrating reason, but it is also the most important to address. If I keep going, I will only get more frustrated. This is the time I might take a few days off and let my subconscious handle it. The most difficult part is trusting that my subconscious will, indeed, do that work for me. Of course, my conscious is also thinking of it, but usually the solution comes in a magical way, often in that zone between asleep and awake. In the meantime, I might work on another project, or I might keep poking at that manuscript, but only a couple hundred words a day. That action just keeps the book in the forefront of my mind.

The most important step to take against writer's block, whatever the reason, is to not give up on the story. When I was a teenager, I only wrote when I was "inspired". That meant whatever I got stuck, I just put it aside. Often forever. Sometimes my subconscious would work out a solution, but usually took a long time because I wasn't actually recognizing the story's problems and trying to work on them. If it happened, it was my creative brain doing the work despite itself. If you go in with the mindset that you will at least think about your story every day, if not every waking second that your brain is idle, and you keep trying to write something, even if it's just a couple lousy paragraphs a day, you will break through the trouble spots.