Learn How to Avoid Writers Block (for the most part)

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There is no doubt: writers' block sucks. It's a writers' worst nightmare, especially when all you want to do is write that darn book. Some people might claim they know the cure to writers' block but don't believe them. There is no such thing. It's as simple as: if you write, you're going to experience it. However, I have discovered a method for myself that helps ward off the wall for a longer period of time. I call it. . .(drum roll please). . .The Outline.

Everybody has a very different method for planning their plots out. Me? I write a partially detailed synopsis of each chapter in a notebook. The first time I ever wrote a book, I didn't write an outline, which consequently happened to be my worst mistake ever. I spent months rewriting the plot because I was an idiot and didn't have a plan. Not to say that writing without a plan is bad. I think it honestly depends on how you write best so if winging it works for you, use it, even if it doesn't work for me. The next novel I wrote (keep in mind that I haven't published any of these novels yet), I was somewhat wiser and decided to at least attempt to outline. Call it cheating if you'd like, but the book I wrote during NaNoWriMo was actually planned during the entire month of October. For each chapter, I would write the synopsis of what major events happened and I would also occasionally write out a brief version of a scene if I knew what it would entail. For this reason and only this reason, was I able to breeze through my NaNoWriMo book in a month and a half. Okay. So, maybe it was more like draft 1.5 but I completed it and that's what counts.

In the conclusion of all things, this method seemed to keep writers block from plaguing me quite so often. Of course, no matter what, writers' block is still inedible and happens to the best of us. I still have my days where I want to bang my head off a wall and chuck my Mac out the window. Also, creating an outline may not help you with writers' block as it has helped me. All writers have different methods and ways that they go about things. However, if you are having troubles, I sincerely hope this post will help you. Just remember, even if you only squeeze out 100 words that you'll probably end up deleting later while editing, it's still considered progress. Just keep writing!