Writing Through the Woods: Getting Around Writer’s Block

Margaret Atwood knows how to write. She’s tackled literary criticism, poetry, dystopian novels before they were trendy, and more. So of course I take note of her 10 rules for writing. One I like in particular:

“Don’t sit down in the middle of the woods. If you’re lost in the plot or blocked, retrace your steps to where you went wrong. Then take the other road. And/or change the person. Change the tense. Change the opening page.”

I had this problem a lot when starting on one of my current projects. I kept circling back and trying different things. For a while it felt like I was going in circles, but I eventually found my footing and have kept moving forward in the draft since.

Make sure to check out Atwood’s other tips. And for more on getting stuck in the writing process, Laurie Halse Anderson has a post up today about conquering various forms of writer’s block. That means no writing excuses over the weekend, guys!