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Do any kind of investigation on writer’s block, and you’re going to find a lot of advice and potential solutions for the problem. You’re also going to find a lot of people talking about why it happens, and one of the most interesting reasons I’ve seen is fear.
That’s right. Now, there’s some psychological basis to this, because most of our other reasons for not doing something are in some way built on a foundation of fear of some kind. However, while you might be…
…afraid what you write won’t be as good as what’s in your head…
…afraid that it’s not as good as someone else’s work…
…afraid that you might actually be successful…
…afraid you’ll have to share things with the world it may not like…
…or even afraid that you’ll have to change yourself and the way you see the world…
…most of the time, this isn’t what I see stopping people.
Most of the time, it’s their relationship with their story. And specifically, because they’ve lost their connection to their story, it’s pretty obvious why they’re stuck.
There’s nothing to write about.
It’s not that you’re afraid—of any of those things above.
You literally are in a separate “room” in your head from the story you’re trying to write.
And until you reconnect with it properly, you’re going to end up staring down the blinking cursor that’s taunting you at the top of an empty page.
So…how?
Well, one of the first things you need to understand is how your characters behave as people. Sure, there’s some specifics, but there are some critical things that guide people’s behavior.
Based on the deep study I’ve done in psychology and human behavior over the last 20 years, it’s easy to assume that people are hard to predict.
This is true to a point.
But there’s still only a small set of reactions you can expect in any situation. In fact it’s smaller than you might think.
And these reactions are driven by the way your characters see themselves, the world they’re in and the people and the events in it.
The best part is that this can change—either temporarily or permanently.
Everyone has a bad day where everyone is a threat and everything is a problem. That’s not random.
That’s a function of the environment you’re in and how easy it is for you to get what you want.
And if you don’t know what your characters want and what they believe is necessary to get it?
It’s not fear that will stop the words from coming. It’s just missing connections.
Because as soon as you connect those dots, understanding not just your character’s background, but what drives their thinking…
…then my experience is that you can’t write fast enough.
And stopping before 6am becomes a much bigger problem than staring at a blank page.
The good news is that it’s easier to fill in these blanks than you might think, and helping you do that is one of the main reasons I created the Breakthrough Scene Blueprint™ in the first place.
It gives you some prompt questions to help you create your story’s breakthrough scene (or scenes), and it just so happens…
…that these prompt questions are a pretty good cure for writer’s block as well.
To get your copy of the Blueprint, just go here:
I don’t want you afraid to write your story, and I don’t want you stuck staring at a blank page. You might be afraid of a lot of things, but I don’t believe that’s what’s holding you back.
I believe you can beat your blank page by rediscovering your connection to your story, because once you do…
…you’ll be back in the groove, and your story will be desperate to get onto the page.
All you have to do is let it happen.
To unlocking the soul of your story,
ast
—
Andrew S. Townley
Creator of the Perpetual Story System™