One of the greatest banes of any author is writers block.  It's that dreaded moment when you most need to write that you find yourself unable to.  Any writer who's worth their salt gets it, sometimes frequently, and sometimes strongly.  Even I've been suffering from it a bit lately.  But in struggling through this most recent episode of it, I've come across a rather interesting discover.  Writer's block is fixable.

Now you're probably thinking "Well, duh, it always goes away eventually."  This is true.  But knowing the reasons for writer's block will make it do so even faster.  In some cases you can actually kill it and get on with your writing right away.  So let me lay out for you a few of the reasons authors get writer's block and the things you'll have to do to fix it.

1.  Stress

Believe it or not, the biggest killer of writing inspiration is stress.  I discovered this one out in vivid detail lately due to a rather not so fun episode I was going through in my life.  I remember several different situations where stress completely killed my ability to write.  Now I'm not talking about the "back to the wall, you'll die if you don't write" kind of stress.

This can be something as simple as family issues, or work related stress.  To write at your best your mind needs to be clear and you need to be relaxed.  If you can't do both of these, don't write, as you will just be fighting against futility.  Sure, you might pull off some interesting stuff, but it'll be substandard to what you could write if your mind was clear, and all the stress was gone.

If you naturally live a stressful life, find ways to decompress before you write.  Maybe put yourself in isolation away from anything that would cause stress, including family, bills, job, etc.  When you step into your writing cave, you need to officially step OUT of the real world and totally, completely, without reservation, immerse yourself in the world of your writing.

In short, you need to completely clear your mind of everything pertaining to real life, no matter how pressing it may be.  One way of picturing this is to think about the Narnia series where the four children stepped through the wardrobe in book 1 and became completely engrossed in the world of Narnia.  They didn't care about WW2, or the house, or anything.  They literally left it all behind and immersed themselves completely in Narnia.

That's what you have to do to get rid of stress.  Now it's not easy, as you'll quite readily find yourself thinking back about your real life, and the multitude of problems that you're dealing with right now.  Don't do it.  Just forget about it all for a time, as though it doesn't exist, focus on your characters and your world, and then just write.  You'll know you've achieved this when you finish writing and are shocked at what you're walking back into when you return to reality.

For some it would be the equivalent of "living in the moment".  Kids do it all the time.  As adults we should relearn this technique and put it to use in our lives, and our writing.  Don't worry about the past or the future.  Concentrate on the present, which is your book, and pour all of your energy into that.

2.  KISS

Sometimes inspiration can be killed by making something too complicated.  If you push yourself too hard to come up with something jaw dropping, all you'll end up with is a bruised jaw and nothing good to show for it.  Good isn't forced.  Good comes on its own.  I've fallen into this trap numerous times.  Often I find that situations where I'm stuck on what to write are the ones where I'm trying to make it too complicated.

Case in point.  I had a story once where the puzzles were highly complex, and the details of the scene enormous.  I got part way in and found myself suffering from a case of personal oneupmanship.  IE, each puzzle had to be progressively more difficult, which resulted in me taking more time to explain the puzzles than it did to solve them.  I eventually simplified the whole scene down from two chapters to a handful of paragraphs, and in the end it came out better than the original drawn out version.

Also, don't detail load your scenes.  This is sometimes known as info dumping.  It's where you put WAY too much detail into a scene, often far more than is really needed.  The best way to avoid that is to get in, do what you need to, and get out with the minimum amount of information necessary to make everything work.  If you want an example of this, compare JRR Tolkien's writing to that of CS Lewis.

Tolkien info dumped (just look at his scene descriptions for a very obvious example), however CS Lewis did not.  So always remember that the simplest approach to a problem is often the best.

3.  Health

If you're not healthy (ie, sick, in pain, etc), writing becomes infinitely more difficult.  This is because it will take away from your focus on your work.  I've had many times when I've been writing and so sick that I'm on the verge of passing out or in a lot of pain.  It's made writing an incredibly difficult chore.  When you're having to put part of your concentration towards breathing (or wheezing in some cases), it leaves that much less available for writing.

Aches and pains do the same thing.  They rarely allow you a moment of peace and quiet.  Instead, like kids, they jump out at you and want your immediate and undivided attention.  Sometimes weakness, caused by any variety of illnesses, can be a huge distraction as the fatigue associated with it often keeps your subconscious, and more importantly your brain itself, busy doing other things, leaving it little left over for writing.

So if you find yourself unable to write, and you're sick, go get some sleep, take your pills, or do whatever you have to in order to restore your health, because if you don't, you'll just end up with a great big chain dragging you down and killing your inspiration.

4.  Tired/Lack of Sleep

If you don't have enough sleep to recharge your brain, you won't be able to write well, if at all.  The human brain requires time to recover from its daily activities.  Typically this is seven to eight hours a day of good, quality sleep.  I'm not talking just shuteye time.  I'm talking about lots of deep, REM sleep.

It's the time of the night when you dream.  Those dreams are your mind's way of data processing.  It takes everything that you did during the day, sorts it out, and files it into the appropriate places where it can be used later.  Studies have actually shown that lack of it affects how you think, react, create, and much more.  For some people four to six hours is the most they can get.

But if you're a writer suffering from writer's block, often it's best to get your full eight hours, and maybe even a few naps during the middle of the day.  I actually get my full eight hours, plus a few naps during the day.  But I find that my naps usually only occur on the days when I'm really applying myself to my writing, or some other highly cognitive activity.

Usually I'll be working away at something, find myself getting tired, and thus take about a one to two hour nap.  When I wake up I almost always find myself refreshed, and my mind clear and ready to continue writing.  It's almost like my mind is doing a mental reset, allowing me to clear my thoughts and start fresh again on what I was working on.  It has an incredible ability to really kickstart my writing after a brief bout of writer's block.

5.  Quiet Time

Writing requires an incredible amount of isolation and the ability to work without interruption, background noise or other distractions.  If you can't get it, your writing will suffer, period.  Zoning our the world around you can often help, but not everyone is good at this, and being unable to block out everything, they found themselves distracted by even the simplest things.

If you can't completely block out the world, then find somewhere in your home or office that is as noise free as possible and setup your writing there.  Even if you can't do this, there's still hope.  Noise canceling headphones are priceless in a situation like this.  Just turn them on, start playing some gentle background music, or even music appropriate to the scene you're writing, and use that to get your separation from the world.

I've actually been able to use this trick before to literally zone out everything around me.  I found that I didn't hear the door, or the phone, or even my mom standing right next to me talking.  Sure, some things you'll want to be listening for and paying attention to (especially if you have small kids), but for the most part your writing time should be your private, quiet time so that you can think clearly and come up with ideas.

6.  Let it stew.

Sometimes the best thing to do is walk away from a book and let your brain chew on the idea for a while.  Maybe you could write an outline and figure out what you want to do from there using rough details about the plot and story.  A friend of mine plots it out on a series of white boards.  I sit down behind the computer, or on a piece of legal pad, and write out the highlights of the story without diving into any great detail.

Others have used a mixture of these techniques, or even completely unique ones.  I know one author who has a scale model of his fantasy world, complete with character models he uses to visualize what he's going to write.  But most often it's just best to close the book, walk away, and let your brain chew on it.  If it does nothing with it, scrap the idea and try something different as the idea has no substance.

That's often what I do.  If my subconscious doesn't like it, then it moves on to other things.  Contrary to popular belief, your subconscious is a strong influence in how you write, and WHAT you write.  It's not some second class citizen of your cognitive realm.  It's a chief player.  So sometimes you need to hand creative control over to it and let it do some of the work for you.  Forcing it to do anything it doesn't want to do usually ends up getting messy, and you end up with lower quality work.

It's also your subconscious that is the seat and root of all creative ability.  The conscious mind lives in the moment.  The subconscious mind lives in the past, present, future, and numerous other realities all at the same time.  So make good use of it when writing, as it's your best friend, and not an unwanted neighbor.

7.  Visual Aids

Visual aids are often instrumental in helping you write, and in breaking writer's block.  As I mentioned in the previous section, one author I know uses a scale model of his world to help him write his books.  I'm one who prefers to use pictures to help me visualize characters, who they are, what they're doing, and much more.  By having these you can more easily form the character in your head and keep them consistent throughout the book.

I've also found that they give you a foundation on which to allow your subconscious to form ideas.  It'd be like making a snowman.  You start out with a little snowball as the foundation, and then you build onto them using more and more snow until you have a complete snowman.  Visual aids work the same way.

8.  Act it out

Believe it or not, sometimes the best way to break your writers block is to literally act out the scene.  Literally become the characters, think like they think, talk like they talk, and go hog wild.  This is where a private room or writing location comes in handy.  You can go all out with your acting and live out the scene without feeling embarrassed or disturbing others.

If you don't have that luxury, then simply live it out in your mind like being a part of a dream.  I've been in the middle of a busy room and did this, not openly in a way that would disturb others, but in my own mind, talking it out quietly to myself as though I were the character I'm writing about, and my body is merely the dictation machine.  Believe me, it works.

So don't feel silly doing this.  This is your characters and your world.  If you can't live in it, you can't properly write about it.  So the more you engross yourself into that world, and the more you engage the story, the more easily the writing will become.

Conclusion

Now this is only a basic list of ideas for breaking your writer's block, as there are a TON more unique and interesting ways that people use to get back into the writing groove.  But if you don't have something that specifically works for you, give these a try and see if they help you to get back into your creative stride.  Some of these won't work when it comes to more technical writing, but many of them will still help even with that.

I hope this guide has been helpful to you and allows you to break the dreaded writer's block, and begin creating again!