ANY WAY WEST - My character has creative block.

My heroine in ANY WAY WEST is suffering from a creative block. She's used to designing and sculpting pieces of art, all sensual in texture and form. Her ranch is falling in around her and her creative juices have dried up with her fears. Now her heart won't open up and neither will her mind. Without inspiration, she's afraid she'll never create another scupture she'll enjoy and love . . . until the opportunity shows up on her doorstep. The one man who walked away from her years before is back . . . and he's brought a friend. Two might be better inspiration than one.

Whether you're an author, songwriter, artist . . . when the wall goes up and or the door closes, keeping you from seeing the story or hearing the tune or envisioning the statue, we all feel a brief moment of panic. Now if you let that panic rule you, you can't open the door or knock down the wall. If you relax, knowing the ideas will return, there's a better chance they will, and sooner, not later.

Where do you go physically or in your head to find that inner peace to sort through the mire or create a pile of ideas to work with?

What are some of your techniques for organizing your thoughts?

What do you to to relax?

What do you do to open the door to creativity?

I read or look at pictures, and play mood music in the background. Sometimes I take a walk around my yard and note the color of the leaves, or bugs scampering across a bud. Ideas are all around us for the taking. Go grab one.

Have a great week ~~~ Eliza
Reposted from 2010

Comments

  1. Sometimes, you just have step back and wait for the creativity to return. I think sometimes for me it just comes with a thought. Great blog!

    Faith V. Smith

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  2. I love talking my way through it with you or one of my other critique partners. Sometimes just verbalizing the story gives you ideas about where to take it to the next level. I'm pretty verbal anyway. LOL Talking it through is more like old fashioned story-telling after all.

    Eliza

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  3. If I'm truly blocked, I need to start at page one and re-read my story and see what isn't fitting. I've usually done something out of character and that is why I can't paint my characters out of the corner that I've written them into.

    Fussy business, I tell ya. lol

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  4. When I worked as a copywriter at a NYC advertising agency in the late ;80's, my boss taught me so much about creativity. She would literally kick me out of the office and send me out onto Madison Avenue to clear my head. I would absolutely panic if I wasn't coming up w/anything. Now, I either go for a quick run or go to Borders and look through European mags hoping to get some ideas. A technique that usually works for me is to grab a favorite writer's book and literally start to type from a page of that book. It's like it activates the rhythm of writing in me and I usually at least get something down. I think we would all agree - this ain't no easy business! Thx 4 the post...Mary Kennedy Eastham, Author, The Shadow of a Dog I Can't Forget and the upcoming novel Night Surfing...oh, b-t-w, I love that picture of the girl on the bench at the water...beautiful...

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  5. Thanks for your suggestions, Catherine and Mary; both are helpful to me too at times. I think the hardest thing to overcome is knowing you have to go back into the story and rewrite a section, then make sure you cross all your t's and dot all your i's before and after the changes. I think I'd much rather have to deal with a blank page. :-)
    Eliza

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  6. Eliza,

    just taking a moment to stop by and say hi...when I'm feeling blocked I write...anything, just write and let it flow until it turns itself around to the work you're working on...it'll happen just like that, and you're good to go again. Hope this helps.

    Hawk

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  7. Thanks for stopping by Hawk. Great idea! Just write! You can sort through t muck and mire later, I agree.
    I did like my heroine's approach, she found two hot cowboys to inspire her. Now that's an approach anyone could use. (Although, it might be difficult to explain to my husband. He's very supportive of my writing, but that may be taking it a step too far. LOL)
    Eliza

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