Even the most prolific writer is waylaid on occasion by writer's block. Three techniques to bust the inner critic, regain the attention of your muse and help you write.

Everyone who considers him- or herself a writer knows that dreaded moment when inspiration runs dry, your story starts to seem tired and your characters dull. This is the point at which successful fiction is broken… or made. When writer’s block hits, there are three approaches you can take. Read on for perspective on these approaches as well as ways to bust writer’s block before it takes hold.

What do You do?

When the dialogue isn’t coming or you start to get bored, which approach do you take?

1. Give yourself a break and stop writing (“I’ll come back to it, really!”)
2. Keep writing until you hit your stride
3. Try something new

Take a Break

Amateur writers, particularly those who compose fiction, sometimes feel that they can’t write if the muse isn’t in.

Sometimes taking a break can breathe new life into a work of fiction. Fresh air, exercise, and interaction with real, living people are vital to a writer’s mental and physical health, and can only benefit their writing. Sometimes, however, “taking a break” can turn into an afternoon watching tv, followed by dinner and drinks with friends, followed by a week without glancing at your novel.

Few professional writers will admit to taking breaks from their latest novel when the going gets tough. Making a livelihood from writing takes talent and inspiration, but it also requires more than a little perseverance and determination.

There will be troubled moments in the process of writing any work of fiction. If you came up with a great story idea in the first place, then you are capable of surmounting whatever problems it may throw at you.

If a short break (no more than an hour or two or, if your schedule demands it, a day at most) is not enough to relieve a spate of writer’s block, turn to one of the following two techniques right away. Writer’s block only grows more daunting if left untended.

Keep Plugging Away At It

The take-no-prisoners approach to writing suggests that if it isn’t working, you pound away at it until it does. Fear of failure or fear of success can hold you back from writing that, if you only begin, becomes easier within minutes.

At best, you may find your block evaporating as you write.

At worst, you will have written one bad scene that hopefully leads into a breakthrough new scene. The choppy, frustrating parts can be rewritten in editing. Sometimes persistance is the only way to invite inspiration to return.

Write Something Different to Entice the Muse

Putting a troubled piece of prose aside to write something completely different takes your focus off of the puzzle that is troubling you and allows your brain to stumble across the very thing you needed to keep writing.

Some authors recommend “free writing”: sitting down with a pen and paper, or a new document on your PC, and writing anything and everything that comes to mind as quickly as you can, without stopping. Free writing is an excellent way of “priming the pump” to get writing flowing more quickly and with ease.

In The Artist’s Way, Julia Cameron recommends doing three “morning pages” every day. If you don’t have anything to write, start by writing “I don’t have anything to write,” as many times you have to until another thought occurs. Then write that thought. Keep going for three pages, fifteen minutes, or until you feel inspired to work on your opus again.

Free writing on a randomly chosen subject can help kick-start creativity.

So can putting aside a troubled novel to speed-write a short short (or “postcard”) story – 100 to 500 words that will take minimal time to compose but gives you the chance to escape thinking about your novel for a few minutes and come back fresh.

Best of luck!