Writing therapy.

Welcome to Writing therapy. The part of the blog were we talk, about writing therapy.

To those who understood that reference, you get 10 brownie points .

Writing therapy is exactly what it sounds like. If you are sludging through your WIP or any writing in general. It may be time to assess your passion levels.

If you aren’t excited or happy at all when thinking about your WIP. If you’ve been in a constant state of writers block . . . Then you may want to try one or several of the ideas below.

Please remember that this is all advice. And advice is simply that. Advice. Take what you want and like with a watermelon, spit out the ‘seeds’! And remember that a ‘seed’ for you may be a yummy pomegranate seed for somebody else.

So in a complete nonsensical order, here’s some writing therapy ideas for you.

• 31 Word prompts. Take random prompts off Pinterest. Dialog-Scene-etc. and then everyday just write ONE of them out. If you’re on a roll, go ahead and do more! You do you, boo.
• Speaking of prompts, scattered below are a few to loosen up your constipated imagination. Remember: not everything you write you have to use. So maybe just go with one of these prompts for a fun writing project and then go back to your WIP.
• Alternate universe(s) What if they were in the Marvel or DC universe? Would they have powers? Would they be part of S.H.I.E.L.D. or any other organization? What if they lived on the moon instead of Earth? What if they were the same yet slightly different? Swapped jobs or families?
• Make them Barista’s! Make them lawyers, astronauts, The Doctor’s companion, make them a wizard or make them a lizard. Find out what they would be like and play around with it. Would your romantic plot/sub-plot still occur? Would your hero and villain have ever met if they were Baristas? If they did, are they employees at vying coffee shops?

• Start a side project. Seriously. Please do this. If you are tired of writing and it feels like a chore. Then take a break! Start that project(s) that have been on your mind for a while. You’ll probably start noticing the passion for writing reignited. Who knows? Maybe a couple chapters into the side project you’ll have that break through for your WIP.
• Notebooks. Fill ’em. I currently have around 22 notebooks. All of which have separate book ideas in them. I finally took a day or two and just sat down and brain dumped everything into their pages. It doesn’t have to be a complete outline or detailed anything. But just get it out of your head. It’ll help.
• Start and Finish a small story.
• Let it SUCK.  The goal of the first draft is to get the sand into the sand pit. You are not creating castles right now. That’s the job of the next draft and the draft after that. So. Let it suck. You can fix it later.
• Dialog prompt to control a scene that you may throw away!
• Fantasize your story if it’s a contemporary fiction.
• Place your fantasy characters in the real world.
• Find their passions.
• Find your passion.
• Morning pages. 10-20 minutes every day of just writing nonsense. Whatever is on your mind. Put it in there. Until the chaos is gone or the time runs out. I did this years back and got to the point where nothing was in my head except, ‘blah. blah. Boring. Blah. Food.’
• Take a story seed and just write.
• Journal. Get your thoughts on a page with real ink and paper.
• Try Manuel writing. Go to a coffee shop or a park with a journal dedicated to your WIP and just write.

• Try to get inspiration for your writing. Go on Pinterest and search for random crap. Make a board and pin things that remind you of your WIP and give you an itch to write a scene. Go to a museum and find a piece you admire, go to the zoo, to the park, go sit on your patio, go sit under a tree, lay out on a blanket, visit your local squirrels, just get out. Take your mind off of it and relax. You may find that that’s when inspiration hits you and you scribble down ideas on your phone.
• Take the week off and instead of writing, fill your time with reading. Go on a ‘blind date’ with a book. Test yourself. Treat yourself. You may find that reading might spark your passion once more. As John Green says: “Reading is the only apprenticeship writers have.”
• Outline.
• Go out and take pictures of things that remind you of your WIP or characters.
• Forget about the rules. Dump ’em out. Go on Bunny trails. Let it SUCK.
• Edit through to where you are at in your story. Especially if you have the itch to.

• Write what you’re excited about. I’m currently juggling five or so novels. But that’s my process. My map. Your map to writing is unique and amazing and probably really different than mine. And that’s wonderful. 

That’s all for writing therapy for today. tune in next time.