How Do You Avoid WRITER'S BLOCK? (Rick Bragg Should Learn This)

Laziness. I need to change the code there. Hopefully they will be up and running tonight.

Oh, in a few minutes I MYSELF will be doing something important to avoid writer's block---Walking around for an hour or two. I need to write up a story but, hey, my mind just isn't working right now. So I will walk around for a couple of hours to freshen up the brain cells with lots of oxygen. My confidence in this method is TOTAL. I know for sure it will work simply because it has worked always in the past. So you see, right now I do have writer's block, but I am using one of my methods to get around it. One thing great about these methods is that they are reinforcing. Once you see that they work you relax much more. One of the big problems about writer's block is the belief that it is almost impossible to overcome. Once you learn there are EASY methods to go around the writer's block, it becomes MUCH easier since you don't worry about it. It is that worry that reinforces the writer's block.

One other idea that I want to list here is the problem of getting Writer's Block because of trying to achieve perfection on the first draft. The way around this is to write out your first draft LOOSELY in long hand. Then when you type up the article/story do your editing as you type. It is then that you can correct your spelling, grammar (easy to do on word programs) and cutting out sections of the story. I cut about 600 words off my last article. While typing the story I saw that a section of it was really unneccessary for the story so I cut it by not even typing it up. However, sometimes I will type up the story and see that it is too long at that point and cut sections out at that time.

In the old days editing and re-writing was a real pain because you had to go throught the laborious process of re-typing everything. Nowadays, with the computers, it is extremely easy. Often I will simply cut a paragraph and drop it into another section of the story.

The main thing is to be VERY LOOSE when writing your first draft. That way you can relax and let your subconcious mind work. Under NO CONDITION try to obtain perfection the first time around. However, my first draft (actually just the long hand version on paper) is close to my final draft (which is actually just the typed up version of my longhand).

Basing your characters on real people is the best way to develop characters in a story. I like to create and fully develop one central character, and let that character live his/her life by introducing a "life problem", then the other characters who are necessary to the plot.

I was sort of upset to find Rick in trouble. I have enjoyed his writing in "All Over but the Shoutin'" and "Ada's Man". Both good biographies. I don't believe he had help with those since they were a product of his own memory and the memory of his family members.

Check out Go To The Widowmaker by James Jones. ALL of the characters in the book are based on real people. The main character, Ron Grant, is based on Jones himself and Lucky is based on his wife. Incredible amount of intimate details there about their marriage. I did extensive research on that book and found out some fascinating things. BTW, Jamaica was the locale in the book but the real locale of the events was Haiti. This book is considered the best book about skindiving ever written. I am often amused when divers mention the book to me but are unaware that the author, James Jones, also wrote From Here To Eternity. They just know it is an incredible book about diving.

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