Betty's Tips-Summer 2022

Happy Summer, Dear Readers ...

Summertime, and the livin’ is easy. We enjoy our long days, cook-outs, pool parties, having Brussel and Broccoli home for school vacation, and, of course, working in my garden, getting dirt under my fingernails. Ah, summer. At long, long last. What could be better?

Well, for me, my writing productivity could be better. Despite my best intentions, I have written too few words so far this summer. Certainly, the demands of my kids and my garden consume time, but I have had productive writing summers before. This year, for some reason, I find the joys of summer deprive me of my muse. She flees at the first notes of songbirds, vanishes in the smoke of campfires, buries herself in the seashore sands. How could she? How dare she? But, most important, what can I do about it? How can I coax her back to my shoulder, whispering sweet plot points into my ear?

I know I am not the first writer to have been so abandoned, so I have spent some time seeking the wisdom of the masters and found inspiration! I am happy to share it with you on the chance you are stuck, too.

The first question I needed to answer was what is this thing we call writer’s block? I found a definition on Wikipedia, although I can’t say it gave me much reassurance. Then I found that its very existence is debated by authors themselves at Is It Real? 25 Famous Writers on Writer’s Block.

For practical advice, nothing beats these suggestions from Purdue: 7 Ways to Overcome Writer’s Block. I had never heard of the Pomodoro Technique before, had you?

This Stephen King Quote Could Cure Your Writer’s Block gives us much more than just his inspirational quotation. It examines it—and even gives us a bit of a kick in the behind from Zig Ziglar that I need to remember.

Here are 23 Essential Quotes from Ernest Hemingway About Writing. Although not all pertain to writer’s block, some are exactly what I needed to hear. I must say, however, that I do not know how he accomplished #5. It’s something I cannot do myself—and something other authors do not recommend.

The Paris Review has kindly excerpted On Writer’s Block: Advice from Twelve Writers for us. From this I learned that it’s not a universal problem, but that I am not alone in my predicament and that there is hope, even for me!

Some really famous authors, I’ve discovered, really had it bad, as described in 10 Cases of Extreme Writer’s Block. But when they wrote, wow, they were really something! Writer’s Block: Exploring the Cause and the Cure can help you avoid it before it starts.

This video of 8 Writers Facing the Blank Page has actually convinced me that perhaps I shouldn’t think so much about writer’s block. How cool to think of the blank page, as Margaret Atwood said, that it “beckons you in.” Or to listen to Philipp Meyer, who said, “your critic has to be turned down to zero.” Perhaps it is more a question of psychology as described in The Psychology of Writer’s Block (And How to Overcome It).

Okay. I think I’m ready to get back to my writing. Perhaps I’ll even join Camp Nanowrimo—a summer writing adventure from those who bring us National Novel Writing Month each November. How about you? Perhaps I’ll see you there!

Happy summer writing, everyone.