Moving Past the Blank Screen

The Angel Editors are currently offering “Preptober” support for all you considering NaNoWriMo (and for those who don’t want to NaNoWriMo but still want to join in the good conversations). You can sign up for it here.

I’m going to tell you straight. I’ve never taken part in NaNo. I’ve thought about it. Prepped for it. Put it on the calendar. Used it as an excuse to hide in my basement office and binge-watch The Great British Baking Show. But I’ve never actually Done The Thing!

And that’s because I’m a coward. I hate facing that blank screen. It mocks me. Some days writing comes easy. Some days it doesn’t come at all. And then there are most days, where I manage to trick myself past the blank screen and get some solid words on the page.

How do I do that? Science!

Ever hear of Sir Isaac Newton? Yeah, the apple guy. Well, he also had these Laws of Motion. We only need concern ourselves with part of the first one.

Newton’s First Law of Motion

An object in motion, tends to stay in motion.

OR

A writer who is writing tends to stay writing!

But how to start writing when you’re facing the bleak blank page on your computer screen? Especially when you generally use that computer for Work! And Taxes! And Fighting Twitter Trolls!

Step Away from the Computer!

I mean it. This really works! You’ll get back to the computer, but for now, step away. Grab paper or post its or index cards. Snatch up pencils and pens and markers and get yourself physically writing. It does something for you creatively.

And don’t worry about writing in your WIP right now. (Because that’s the problem, right?) Instead write the scene you want to work on as a Haiku. Three lines. Five syllables in the first line, seven syllables in the second, and five syllables in the last. You can do that!

Or try synopsizing your novel as a limerick. You already know the first four words! “There once was a…” (I bet you know the next word too!) Can’t quite figure it out yet for your story? Try someone else’s.

There once was a boy in a wolf suit

Whose mom said, “That isn’t at all cute.”

He traveled the sea

To where wild things be

And his soup was still warm when he got back.

OK. Perhaps not an official limerick, but Who Cares? My writing was in motion. I was thinking of setting and character and word choice. I was being creative. I was having FUN.

Don’t want to be that creative? Rewrite your last page by hand in a notebook. Don’t have pages written yet? Write your main character an apology note for all the things you’re going to do to her.

Can’t manage words? No problem. Doodle! Science shows (Hooray, Science!) that doodling is good brain exercise. It reduces stress, aids creativity, and helps us focus. Craft your scene as a comic book page. Maybe include speech bubbles. Or just sounds.

Thoughts of drawing something freaks you out? Who says you have to draw “something”? One of my favorite things to doodle is an ever-increasing spiral. It gets my hand IN MOTION!

Or you can trace. Or color something in. Just get doing.

I move back to the computer when I feel ready. When I feel “in motion.”

So, for those of you brave enough to tackle the 1,600 words per day challenge – and for those of you who just want to get some words on the page – I hope this can jump start your daily efforts.  Oh, and that spiral doodle? Easily worth 57 words.