We’ve talked about starting your book, setting up Scrivener, a little bit on conflict, and a little bit on planning. Now we need to talk about the mechanics themselves.
If you’re writing your novel, the question then becomes, how much do you write? What do you write?
Here’s your key – if you sit at your computer, open Scrivener, and stare at your blank page… and nothing happens…
You skipped on the previous steps I just talked about.
You should be able to know what you’re about to write. Michael Hyatt says, “There’s no such thing as writer’s block. Writers’ block just means you have nothing to say.”
I’ll add onto that and say, if you have writer’s block and have no idea what to type, you can’t see your story yet.
I personally can’t start until I KNOW my story. I have to almost KNOW every basic outline point memorized before I can write it.
If you came up with your logline…
Wrote your Save The Cat…
Added in the other 28 or so points…
Set up Scrivener for your novel…
Wrote a synopsis on each index card…
Did your “how does this character impact this character” brainstorming…
You should sit down and write, “It was a dark and stormy night…” and bang out your target word count. You should be able to keep that up for 2-3 months.
Your book should be done.
You need to go back, repeat those processes, and then start writing. If you still can’t write, then you didn’t think this project through enough. Shelve it for six months, start another one.
Now, for a different problem.
My problem with my fourth novel was a simple one. If I don’t like an element of a book, my brain begins to drag its heels on it.
I may be able to see it…
I may know exactly what comes next..
But my brain will begin to procrastinate on it drastically.
Why?
There are certain things that I find completely objectionable. There are things I’d rather not write about. Drug use, for instance. When those things are present, it makes my brain want to avoid the writing part.
If those parts MUST be in your book, get those parts done and out of the way. Otherwise, you’ll start writing about this and that instead of what you must write on. There’ll suddenly be tea parties for teddy bears instead of your novel.
WAYS TO BEAT THIS:
1. Write the parts you hate first.
2. Go to full screen mode in Scrivener to write.
3. If you usually write in full screen mode, then switch to regular mode.
4. Alternate full screen mode and not.
5. Listen to music while writing.
Conclusion
Most writer’s block issues are actually failure to plan issues. Having the proper pre-planning done often eliminates Writer’s block. Find out if your procrastination actually is other issues first! If that doesn’t work, then shelve your book idea, and begin on book 2.
