Cure for Writer's Block-Eleanor Kirk

What no wife of a writer can ever understand is that a writer is working when he's staring out the window. - Rudolph Erich Rascoe


It always seemed you're inspired in the weirdest moments of the day. Whether it's when you're about to fall asleep in math, watching that extremely annoying, dripping sink, or microwaving your dinner. And suddenly,  a character is rambling their story out endlessly in your head and you know you have to write it down right at that very moment. Burrito forgotten, math teacher ignored, dripping sink no longer of any importance, you rush to your notebook. Sometimes you make it in time, sometimes you don't. If it's too late, and the character has lost interest in you, you have to wait for that next, incredibly lucid moment when the next story strikes you.

For me, writer's block happened as often as I breathed. So all you writer's out there who are suffering from this dreaded condition, you're not alone. But hold your cheers, I was recently informed of a cure. Give it up for Eleanor Kirk's very helpful cure for writer's block!


1. Read over what you’ve already read for that story. Pick out a character and write their personal diary. Pick out a sub-character and write their personal diary. Swap all the romantic relationships around and see how that works. If set in the real world, transfer to a fantasy world or put your character a few hundred years back in time. If set in a fantasy world, put your MC in the real world. Stuff like that – it helps. If it doesn’t help, progress to stage 2. 

2. Make trouble for your characters! And I mean serious trouble. For the main characters/good guys. And seriously – this one gets the thoughts pouring out – kill off one of your characters – not the MC, but it has to be somebody on the “good” side – like the MC’s best friend, the cute little brother, the main romantic interest, the person they all respect who holds the answer to everything, the genius who can get them out of every scrape, the one with the ability to kick ass when it comes to the bad guys... the possibilities are endless. Planning the death scene is enough to get things going again, let alone the problems they have to face afterwards. Just a word of caution – if the story’s set contemporarily and in the real world, it might be a bit farfetched to kill somebody off. 


***WARNING!! ONLY PROGRESS TO STAGE THREE IF YOU ARE IRRETRIEVBABLY STUCK EVEN AT THIS POINT!!*** 

3. Translate your book into a different language – Spanish, French, German, Latin, Esperanto, Martian.... DO NOT wimp out after just a couple of sentences. It will only work if you do a sizable chunk, so make sure you do at least a chapter. The amount is different for everybody. Believe me, writer’s block will seem like nothing after this – unless you’re bilingual, in which case the trauma of this method won't affect you at all. Before you ask, I translated a thirteen page long chapter into Latin once. I have never had a problem writing since. And my chapters are now a sane length as well.