A Trip Around the Block

It's one of the most common questions I get asked, it's been posed again - and it's proving very timely, given my experiences of late - so I thought I'd answer it.

(Or try to - with my own solution, anyway.)

It's our familiar foe, writer's block.

Of all the emails I receive, the issue of the dreaded block comes up time and again. And I've been suffering it myself of late.

I'm thinking about branching out from crime, into writing for young adults, so I've been toying with some ideas. I think I've got a basic decent premise for a story, but the ending has been eluding me for days, and it's getting frustrating.

What's most annoying is that I know there's an answer - it just won't come to me. It's as though it's skipping around the fringes of my mind, always just out of reach, continually sticking out its tongue and mocking me.

Know that feeling? Be it with writing, something from work, or a personal issue? I suspect we all do, it's a part of the curious job of being a human.

So, here's my solution -

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It's a tough one, but hard learned and it works - to walk away and do something different.

For me, that tends to be a stroll around the magnificent River Exe, to feed the geese and swans (hence the picture, from earlier in the year), and take my mind off what's been bothering me.

I find that if you play the problem at its own game, start teasing it instead of letting it make all the running by mocking you, then it does tend to stop playing hard to get and give itself up.

So, today is dedicated to leisure. Having a walk, reading a paper, enjoying a pint by the fire in an inn, just ignoring the issue, and seeing if it feels suitably shamed to stop messing me about.

Let's just hope it works... but at least I'll have an enjoyable day, whatever.

This will be my last blog before Xmas, so here's wishing you a splendid one - entirely unblocked and absolutely enjoyable.