Advice for Stuck Writers: Just Do It - One Word in Front of the Other

"Perhaps something within you seems to be taking a rest today. Write anyway. Something will appear. It will be worth writing, and worth saving. You will be glad you wrote today."

- Susan Shaugnessy, Walking on Alligators

The Nike shoe company is best known for this phrase: Just Do It. It's sound advice when it comes to facing the blank page. There are days when I sit down at the keyboard and despair. There's nothing there. Whether the weather's sunny or overcast, blustery rain or warm and comfortable, my Muse is asleep. Those are the times to grab her by her skinny little wrist and shove her into a chair at the kitchen table. Thrust a coffee or tea cup into her hand. "Drink," you say. "We've got work to do."

But it's not always that simple. Sometimes life gets in the way. Sometimes it's a hard scrabble just to reach the starting line. Maybe you're afraid that if you try to write with nothing in your head, nothing in your heart, the creativity bus's engine stalled out or weaving, driverless, down the highway, you'll create something so unspeakably horrible that your computer will crash, your ink pen will crumble, and your Muse will give you the most awful of dirty looks, pack her bags, and go off for a permanent vacation in the Bahamas.

But probably not. Probably it's not that extreme. And if you write something substandard today, so what? You've written. You're a writer. Even the greatest writers of our time have had days where the Muse was just not giving up any inspiration no matter how hard she was cajoled or threatened. Don't threaten your Muse, by the way. Damon Knight wrote that poking a story idea too often when it's simmering on the back burner is akin to telling your chess opponent what moves to make all the time. Eventually you'll be playing by yourself, and your Muse will be sipping a girly drink on the beach.

If there's one thing writing for National Novel Writing Month taught me, it's that I can sit down and Just Do It. Day after day, word after word, I sit there and type. What's next? Pick a character, a situation, a potential conflict, and expand on it. Maybe your protagonist suddenly loses his favourite teddy bear. He has an important meeting today and that teddy bear is his good luck charm: without it he's toast! Well, get to it! Write about him looking for the teddy bear! Maybe he'll find he doesn't really need it. Maybe he'll be abducted by aliens. The choice is yours. Well, yours and your characters'. Don't forget to let them guide you.

So don't be afraid to write when you feel empty. In "The Artist's Way", Julie Cameron says, "Leap and the net will appear." Have confidence that that net's there when you need it. And you're allowed to write non-stellar things from time to time. Just keep writing. One word in front of the other.