On Writing and Storytelling: Writer’s Block…and How I Deal With It…(Or Try To, Anyway)

How do you deal with writer’s block?

Honestly, it depends on my mood—and the day! If it’s a workday (I try to keep my muse gainfully employed Monday through Friday and let them enjoy some well-earned laziness on the weekends), my approach to writer’s block is a bit of an art form itself.

Let’s rewind to my New Hampshire days, from that frosty December of 2023 to October 2024. Some days, the weather was so miserable it looked as though the sky itself was suffering from writer’s block. Add in a dash of blues or a sprinkle of stress, and sometimes I’d find myself staring at my Reunion: Coda manuscript with the enthusiasm of a cat confronted by a vacuum cleaner. My usual tricks— playing classical music, flipping through How to Write a Romance for clever prompts, or even sipping hot cocoa with a pensive stare into the void—sometimes fizzled out. And snow days? Pure nemesis. Normally, a brisk walk in the sun shakes my mind loose, but when it’s blizzarding and colder than a penguin’s pinky toe, a stroll outside is the absolute last thing I’d suggest.

When I hit a wall in a story, I often turn to my trusted Amazon Music app and queue up albums that echo the mood of what I’m working on. For Reunion: Coda, the dulcet tones of “Kiri Sings Kern” became my lifeline. Jerome Kern’s classics—think “The Way You Look Tonight,” “All the Things You Are,” “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes”—weren’t just background music; they practically wrote scenes for me.

If that doesn’t work, I’ll try writing exercises from my stack of how-to books, or dive back into an old manuscript for some ruthless editing and glorious rewrites. True, it’s not as thrilling as conjuring up a fresh scene, but hey, progress is progress. Sometimes, beating writer’s block just means showing up, tinkering, and reminding yourself (and your muse) that even on a snowy day, the words will find their way home.