Stymied, Snookered & Stuffed

What do you do when you’ve run out of ideas, hit the wall and arrive at the unwelcome barricade we know as writer’s block?

I’ve heard all manner of approaches to this: go for a walk, take a bath, do a jigsaw puzzle, make a cake, run away and join the circus, take up plumbing instead and enjoy a steady income at last etc.  In other words, do any number of things which are definitely not writing in order to allow your subconscious to chunter along on it’s merry way for a while until some inspiration leaks out into your consciousness again.  At that point you can shout, ‘Hallelujah’, dance a jig, crack open the bubbly, of whatever your preferred method of celebration may be.

I think I’ve tried all of those things (no, wait; honesty compels me to say that so far I’ve neither joined the circus nor tried my hand at plumbing), plus praying of course, but would love some more ideas if you’re willing to share them.  For the most part they work pretty well – I’m clearly not in a position to comment on the last two, though I would very much like to be.  I’ve found that fresh air and, preferably, sunshine are a great combination for blowing away the cobwebs, relieving the creative funk and allowing new ideas to percolate or old ones to marinate.

I know there are some people who simply set aside the piece they are stuck on and dive into something else from their ‘to be written’ list. For me, this is second cousin to impossible and that’s because I’ve made the very useful discovery that I am a linear thinker.

Like a snow plough or an 80,000 ton oil tanker, I don’t change direction easily.  I get the bit between my teeth and keep going until it's done. This has proved very interesting in our marriage since my husband is a maximiser and strategic thinker who can juggle changes of plans with the ease of a fighter pilot or fire-juggling ice-skater (and you don’t see many of those, do you?).  It’s me that needs time and space to recalibrate my thoughts if I need to change my focus.  It doesn’t happen quickly. 

Have you seen those remote vacuum cleaners or lawn mowers that bimble around doing their thing until they hit a wall or a garden path?  At that point they simply bounce off and try again, and again and again.  And again.  Ten out of ten for focus and perseverance but a big fat zero for achieving anything.  That's me.

I tend to keep banging my head until the realisation dawns that it is actually time to walk away for a while. 

Pulling something else out of the ‘to be written’ file simply means it won’t have my full attention while whatever that pesky knot or dilemma was that messed up my writing day, is still screaming in my ear.

I know there are pansters and plansters (I’d like to think maybe even a few pranksters to lighten our days…?), but I don’t have a term for this linear condition.  I just know that when I’m stymied, snookered and stuffed it’s time to close the laptop and take a break.  I will actually be on holiday when this is published – hurrah!

How do you write?  What do you do when you hit that creative road block: push through, do a U-turn or wait patiently until the path is cleared again regardless of how long it takes?

All tips gratefully received and considered.

 

Jenny Sanders has spent the last eleven years living between the UK and South Africa. She writes faith-inspired non-fiction: Spiritual Feasting (2020) asks how we can ‘feast’ when life serves unpalatable menus; Polished Arrows will be published in spring 2024, exploring the allegory of how God shapes us to be fired effectively into our culture and contexts.            

  Jenny also has two published collections of humorous short stories for Key Stage 2 children. She is available for author visits taking creative writing sessions in primary schools.  She loves walking in nature, preferably by a river, and has a visceral loathing for offal, pineapple and incorrect use of car indicators on roundabouts.