You vs the Blinking Cursor

Everyone knows that, at one point during your writing life, you're going to sit down at your chair.  You have the want and the urge to write, so you open your favorite program to do so - in my case, Microsoft Word - and then nothing comes.  The page is blank, the cursor blinking at you in a teasing and taunting way, and nothing comes.  Your great ideas have escaped your mind.  The character that you want to give this great little scene to has disappeared into the ether.  You're not alone in this.  It happens, as we're all human, but I have some tips on how to get back in the groove.

There is a caveat.  They might not work for you.  They might only work for a short while and then you're back at the blank page with the blinking cursor.  Again, it's common, we're human, but we've got another great resource.  Google is more than happy to help find the writing prompt that will get your juices flowing.  If none of these work, then go there.  Until that time, read on and I'll give you my tips to defeat the evil blinking cursor.

1. Change how you are writing and/or your surroundings.  This is really simple, isn't it?  Yet, I never think about this until I'm lamenting on how I can't seem to write at home.  The answer is "well, why don't you go to Starbucks / outside / somewhere other than home?" and I have that 'aha!' moment.  If you can't change your surroundings due to money or little kids or what have you, then I recommend changing how you write.  Write by hand for a chapter and then type it up.  It is double the work but I've found, when I use this method, that I also edit as I type.

2. Get rid of all distractions unless it will distract you more.  Don't worry, I'll explain.  One piece of writing advice is turn off your internet on the computer you're writing on.  This article, written by Mayr on WritetoDone, has it as number 2 on it's list of writing without distractions.  There are others who will put it as their first piece of writing advice but I only agree to a certain point.

I have tried this advice and it only works for me if the internet is truly gone.  At Panera, depending on the time of day, you can only have their free WiFi for a hour.  In situations like that or a power outage, I write like nobody's business.  When I simply turn off my internet in a place I know that has good internet, like at home, I can't focus.  It gets worse.  I start checking my phone and getting distracted by that.

Also, in a random poll of the WriYe chat room, the three people there all responded that not having the internet doesn't help.  For one of the respondents, they use Google Docs to write.  While that does have an offline mode, she doesn't feel safe using it as there's no automated backup.  So, you can try it and defeat the blinking cursor.  You might try it and be even more frustrated.  Trust your frustrations and let's try one more thing.

3. Evaluate the project you are writing and see if it is less a problem with you and more of a problem with your story.  I am thirteen chapters in on a fantasy novel about the daughter of a scribe who runs away from home and joins a band of thieves.  It is like pulling teeth to write this story and I hate that because I really like the characters.  I need to change something, go back and either change the plot or change a character, and that will change my story.  It'll be something completely different and need a different title but then I'll be writing the novel.  I'll have defeated the cursor of doom and it'll be one more novel I need to edit.  I'm okay with that because, at the end of the day, I want the novel written.  I want to go into the next phase and that involves getting the novel out of my head and onto the page.

My last piece of advice is this - if you have tried all the above and nothing works, then you might need a different project.  You might need to edit that novel that's been sitting in the edit pile for years on end.  You might need to plot out what you will be writing next month or in a few months from now for NaNoWriMo.  Sometimes in order to get down to writing, you need to get away from writing for a bit.  It's not defeat and it's not saying you're not a writer.  You're doing other writer stuff by editing and plotting and that's a good thing.

Well, dear readers, those are my tips for getting past the blank page and blinking cursor.  What are yours?  Feel free to share them in the comments below or, if you try one of my methods, how it works for you.

Until next time, keep on writing (or editing or plotting).