The Blank Page Syndrome

Here's a good trick. Try stream of consciousness writing. Sometimes I'll just type something -- anything -- to get me started. A journal works great for this. I date the entry -- thereby eliminating the blank screen -- then gripe and whine for the first paragraph or so. Once I've purged all the nastiness, I try to segue into whatever writing problem I happen to be facing at the time. This generates more whining -- but writing-related whining this time -- and then, finally, some productive thought and the proper mindset.

Writer's Block

If the problem is attitude, I resort to the stream-of-consciousness trick (plus caffeine and chocolate).

If it's sleep deprivation-- Oh, here's a good one. If you're an adrenaline-junkie writer like I am, set the oven timer for twenty minutes, then take a power nap. The timer going off will scare the bejeebers out of you. Use it to your advantage. Sit down and write before your heart stops pounding.

If you believe you have a story problem, try interviewing your characters. That works for me. It's the journalism background, I suppose, but I sit down at the computer, and just type questions to my characters, as though interviewing them, and let the characters respond. It sounds idiotic, but I swear it helps. Once you get in touch with your characters, playing around in their heads, usually you can tell where the story went wrong or where the characters acted against their inclinations. Fix it.

Fear is one of the trickier problems. Whether it's fear of success or fear of failure, every writer confronts this at some time or another. This is a subjective, totally unpredictable business, and most of what happens to your work after you send it off is completely out of your hands. Once you accept that and realize all you can control are the words you put on paper, this fear should ease. Keep the connection a direct one: you and the story. Assuming this connection is a sincere, strong one -- and the planets are all in alignment, the publishing gods all in jovial moods -- the rest should fall into line.

Cluttered brain . . . take a break. If you have too many words colliding  in your head -- sort of like a circus run by a crazed internal editor -- and anything romance-related just makes you feel like you ate too much candy, then go outside and take a walk. Read some non-fiction for a while. Blast some music and dance until your dog's scared of you (Am I revealing too much here?). Play with numbers, even if it's just to balance the nasty checkbook. Snag your child's coloring book and try some Crayola therapy. But, above all, come back to the writing. It's too easy to get out of the writing habit, and that's not what you want.

         What the heck is "voice" and how do I get one of those?

Okay, that makes sense, but what exactly is voice? Why does no one adequately define it? Because it's already defined as itself, and because everyone already has one. It's the way you naturally put your words together -- the stories you tell and how you tell them, the words you choose, the inherent rhythm and style of your writing. It can be casual and hip, staccato and gritty, flowing and descriptive, or anything around or in between any of the above. Writers lose their "voice" when they concentrate too much on the nuts and bolts of a sentence and forget the original meaning and feeling of what they're trying to convey. Or if they're trying to write something they don't feel or in a way that's not natural to them. The resulting work often sounds forced or awkward.

So how do you discover your true voice and hone it into something that's distinct and marketable?

Nothing can replace the experience of writing, writing, and more writing; it's the only way to discover your own strengths, build on them, and grow confident enough to let your voice tell the story unhindered. However, reading your work aloud can help in your journey of discovery. It's a great editing tool, too. It helps you identify and nurture proper rhythms and sounds and how they connect. If the words say what you want them to say, and if you don't find yourself pausing, stuttering or running out of breath when you read them aloud, then you're probably right on target.

The Rules

Yes, do become proficient in grammar rules, hone your writing and plotting skills, listen to the industry professionals. Absorb all of that, and read, read, read. Then, when you sit down at the computer to write that first draft, put all your hard-learned information and facts on the backburner and trust in your subconscious. Take that leap of faith and focus everything you have on your story and your story alone. Those rules and their influence are there, and they will impact your work in their own way  -- both now and later, while you're editing. But if you keep all the rules and recommended structures in the forefront of your mind, right from the start, you doom yourself to shallow stories and bland conformity. Not exactly the definition of "fresh voice."

One last bit of advice: Above all, protect the joy of writing. It sounds simplistic and silly, but if you let this go -- if you lose your passion for writing and what made it magical for you in the first place -- then everything you write will go flat. If preventing this fate means you must occasionally pen a silly lyric or write a short story that you know you could never sell, then do it. The freshness of the experience will bubble over into your more marketable work anyway and give it new depth and life. So protect it. Protect the writing, protect the creativity, protect the joy. (Sermon over.)