Happy New Year everyone, and welcome to 2012's first blog post for ROI!  Now, onward to today's topic.  

One of the more interesting things I've been discovering lately with working on my latest book is a new way to tackle writers block.  It's probably one I'd used before but completely forgot about, and it takes most of the stress out of writing, which is a leading cause of writers block.  So what is this wonderful new solution to writers block?

Well, I've discovered that a large portion of my writer's block has come from biting off more than I can crew and trying to think through the entire book all at once rather than simply letting the writing flow.  Often I would know where I was and where I wanted to go, but not know how to get there.  So I would panic and stress over the book as a whole, trying to be some "super writer" and put the whole idea together in my head at once.

Sorry, but that doesn't work.  If I've learned anything from being a writer, it's that books and stories evolve over time as you work on them, and even if you have the book completely plotted and outlined in advance, things can take a different course as you work on it.  This is especially true as your characters mature and you get to see the story unfold as you write it.  Sometimes the writer is just as surprised by the results as the reader will be.

So my secret to tackling writers block is simply to only focus on the current scene, and the one directly following it.  Sometimes just focusing on the current scene is all you can handle, and you then promptly have to ignore what's coming up and not think about it until you get to it.  Sure, it's still a wise idea to keep a roadmap in your head of what's coming later on in the book so you don't write yourself in a corner.  But don't fuss about every single scene or detail.  The purpose of the initial rough draft is to get the story on paper.  After that you can tweak or fiddle all you want, even rewriting whole sections in order to achieve your end goal.

But when you're working on the initial rough draft, focus on just the current scene and the one after it.  If you do that, you'll be surprised how much easier your writing will become, and how your story writing will flow from scene to scene.  In no time flat you'll have your finished rough draft, and you'll be shocked how easy it was.  

Well, that's all for this tip.  Keep your eyes peeled for more in the future.