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| Making your workspace fun helps when you feel stuck. |
Yesterday was a very rough day for me, inspiration-wise. I had a very bad case of blinking cursor syndrome. It's very similar to blank page syndrome, except that it's far more annoying. With the blank page, you feel at least some sense of being justified with your mental freeze. There's a huge, blank space, and that can be kind of intimidating.
Blinking cursor, on the other hand, is worse in that it seems to be mocking you. "Ha ha! You've written all of this and now you're stuck! Loser!" Each additional blink seems to be another cry of "Loser!" from the impudent cursor.
In the past, I've allowed this to conquer me. But today, I had a word count to meet, darn it. So you know what I did?
I made my work space as fun as I could. I turned on my favorite tunes with a good, solid beat. I lined up a few of my miniature My Little Ponies on my laptop.
Then, I shut my eyes and just started typing.
It was amazing how once I didn't see the cursor anymore, once I didn't have the challenge staring me in the face, that the words finally started flowing. Now, I made all kinds of typos, but that is easily fixable.
When I finally opened my eyes, I had fun My Little Ponies to look at, and the awesome beat of my favorite music just kind of kept the fun going.
Suddenly, I was just on a roll and kept going until it was done.
So yeah...just some random thoughts from me.
What helps you with blank page, blinking cursor, and other related syndromes? Share your thoughts in the comments.
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Switching character perspective has been a HUGE help in my case. I started out planning to only have two main characters for POV purposes, but as I got started, I discovered that one of my minor protagonists was perfectly placed for an upgrade to major character, and another will be joining in soon. With two locations and four characters to switch around with, I'm back on track and raring to go. Unfortunately, I'll be delayed tonight with an after-school engagement, but thankfully the four-day weekend kicks off after that.
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