I Can't Think of a Good Title

It took me awhile to write this today because, even though I have a small list of things to write about, I couldn’t think of anything to write. This is known as Writer’s Block. It’s an affliction of the mind, where the brain tries to fish from its usual pool of thoughts and ideas and comes up empty.

Fishing is actually a pretty good metaphor for writing. You sit at the keyboard and throw a line into the recesses of your brain and wait for an idea to take a nibble. Once the bobber starts to…um…bob, you carefully draw it in by examining its logic; “Could that really happen?”

Once it’s out of the water, it can be examined more carefully. What are the implications if this is true? What if this happened instead? How does this affect the other characters? How much research is this going to take and is it worth the effort?

Sometimes the idea won’t work for one reason or another and you throw it back and try again.

Usually it can fit somewhere; even if you have no use for it now, it would probably fit another story at another time. The important thing when this happens is to write it down somewhere. You can’t count on having the same idea twice; if you forget it, it’s probably gone for good.

Sometimes you get several good ideas; it’s like one of those fishing days where fish keep biting every time you put the hook in the water (I’ve never had one of those days while fishing, but I hear it sometimes happens). Words flow and hours pass and before you know it, 2000 words have been added to the story.

Every now and then you land a monster; inspiration strikes and something that’s been missing is suddenly made clear, or a major plotline or character arch just appears out of the blue. These ideas give you enough meat to feed your writing for days.

But then there are the silent days, when you’ve had your line in the water for what seems like forever and nothing happens. You change spots and cast again, and still nothing happens. There’s nothing worse than a blank screen. So you type something. Anything. “Once, when the world was young, a chicken flew out from behind a…” Then you realize it’s crap and erase it. You start again. “Call me Billy Bob.” Delete. “I can’t think of anything so I’m just going to hit thesekeysuntilsomethinghappens,dammit.” Delete.

The best thing to do when this happens is do something else. Try again later. Just don’t wait too long or before you know it 15 years will have passed and you will be in the exact same spot you were before.