FREEING UP YOUR WRITING

Over the next few months the Novel Points of View team will be inviting guest writers to the blog. Their brief is to write a post connected to writing, reading, books and creativity. I'm delighted to introduce writer, Morton S.Gray to the blog as she shares her experience of facing and overcoming the times when the words just don't want to flow.

Victoria Cornwall

Morton S.Gray
Author

We all have times when our writing isn’t flowing. I never like to use the much-worn phrase of writer’s block, as to give the unfortunate phase of your writing that label seems to give it far too much importance. Instead, you need to get writing freely again before the problem becomes entrenched, so don’t give it the courtesy of a name, just move past it. I hear you cry - how? Probably accompanied by much gnashing of teeth, cleaning of the oven and fridge and eating of chocolate and ice cream.

Please be assured that I am not trivialising this wilderness you find yourself in – been there, done that, got several T-shirts.

Try the following methods to get you going again and good luck. This is by no means an exhaustive list, so if you have any other ideas please add them in the comments below – you might just save someone’s manuscript and sanity!

• Take a step back for a specified period you agree with yourself, preferably no longer than a week. You may just be exhausted.

• Rewrite the last scene you wrote from a different point of view and see if that helps you to move forward.

• Have a shower. This never fails to work for me, as evidenced by the soggy opened out toilet roll tubes with writing scribbled all over them in my study.

• Write a short story or poem about one of your characters, or your setting to gain a different perspective.

• Take a walk. It is surprising how often a sight, smell or noise on your journey can evoke a new thought or even a memory that can be incorporated into your work in progress.

• Go out for a coffee and listen to those sitting around you. Write down a few phrases you hear people saying and see if you can write on from there. Examples from my own eavesdropping – ‘Lucy disappeared you know.’ ‘Nothing has been the same since I dropped my favourite mug.’ ‘I just walked in on them …’

• Listen to what you have written so far by getting voice software to read it to you. Microsoft Word now has this capability and I find it so useful, almost as if someone else has written the manuscript.

• Write a character study including backstory for your main characters. You will often find this enriches your story and gives you a new avenue to explore in the plot. Write questions for your characters to answer about how they are honestly feeling about their role in your story.

• Have fun by writing a list of things that can’t possibly happen in the next scene or chapter. This often clarifies what can actually happen.

• Use a timer to reduce pondering (procrastination) time. Begin by writing for five minutes, then do something else for ten. Then write for ten minutes, and so on.

• Join one of the 1000 words in an hour challenges on Twitter. Search the hashtag #1K1HR.

• Draw a spider diagram – put a dilemma from your story in a circle in the middle and then any thoughts about it on branches around the edge. Keep expanding until something strikes a chord for you to write from. I have an example in my second novel for Choc Lit The Truth Lies Buried, where I actually managed to incorporate most of my spider diagram into a scene. See if you can reconstruct my spider diagram from the following extract.

“She searched through a drawer in the old-fashioned sideboard. She had the feeling that Carver was watching her. She was pleased she was wearing skinny jeans and that her back was turned, as she was sure her face was bright red.
     She sat down opposite him with her pen poised over the pad of lined paper. ‘How do you want to play this?’ She hoped the colour had faded from her cheeks.
     ‘Just throw out ideas however silly and then we’ll discuss them. I’ll kick off with “abducted by aliens”.’ He laughed. ‘That’s the favourite explanation my mother and I had for the disappearance of Dad, by the way.’
     ‘Russian spies who had to leave the country.’

     ‘Good one. How about intelligence service operatives?’

       Jenny wrote the ideas in neat columns on the page.

      'You mean like James Bond?’

      ‘Possibly. Your turn, let’s keep the thoughts coming. Don’t think too much, or you’ll dismiss ideas.’

     Jenny sipped the strong coffee and watched the expressions flashing across Carver’s face. She was enjoying this and the thought made her go quiet while she questioned why.

    ‘Come on, don’t censor your thoughts, just throw them out.’

    ‘Okay, some sort of crime, bank robbery, murder, fire, fraud.’

    ‘So, they could have got away with it and been living abroad, South America, perhaps?’

     She wrote South America in capital letters on the page, followed by a large question mark.

     ‘Or they might not have … maybe they’ve been in prison for twenty-five years.’

     ‘Surely we’d have known if there had been a trial?’

     ‘Not necessarily, we were both quite young.’

     ‘True, but I can’t think news wouldn’t have got out. We’d have been teased at school, surely?’

     She rubbed the side of her nose with the pen as she thought. ‘Maybe our dads were witnesses in a trial and had to be whisked away to a safe house somewhere.’

     ‘But wouldn’t they have taken us too?’

     ‘Not sure. I don’t know how these things work.’

     He sat looking miles away for a while and then his face became animated again. ‘Horrid thought, but maybe they murdered someone and fled.’”

Thank you, Morton, for joining us on our blog this week and sharing some great advice. To find out more about Morton, her novels and latest releases, plus purchase links,  just read on ... 

About The Truth Lies Buried

Two children in a police waiting room, two distressed mothers, a memory only half remembered …

When Jenny Simpson returns to the seaside town of Borteen, her childhood home, it’s for a less than happy reason. But it’s also a chance for her to start again.

A new job leads to her working for Carver Rodgers, a man who lives alone in a house that looks like it comes from the pages of a fairy tale – until you see the disaster zone inside …

As Jenny gets to know Carver she begins to unravel the sadness that has led to his chaotic existence. Gradually they realise they have something in common that is impossible to ignore – and it all links back to a meeting at a police station many years before.

Could the truth lie just beneath their feet?

Available in eBook
paperback & audio formats.

Biography for Morton S. Gray

Morton lives with her husband, two sons and Lily, the tiny white dog, in Worcestershire, U.K. She has been reading and writing fiction for as long as she can remember, penning her first attempt at a novel aged fourteen. She is a member of the Romantic Novelists’ Association and The Society of Authors.

Her debut novel The Girl on the Beach was published after she won the Choc Lit Publishing Search for a Star competition. This story follows a woman with a troubled past as she tries to unravel the mystery surrounding her son’s new headteacher, Harry Dixon. The book is available as a paperback and e-book.

Morton’s second book for Choc Lit The Truth Lies Buried is another romantic suspense novel. The book tells the story of Jenny Simpson and Carver Rodgers as they uncover secrets from their past. This book is available as an e-book, paperback and audiobook.

Christmas at Borteen Bay is Morton’s first Christmas novella. It is set in her fictional seaside town of Borteen and follows the story of Pippa Freeman, who runs the Rose Court Guesthouse with her mother, and local policeman Ethan Gibson, as they unravel a family secret as Christmas approaches.

Morton previously worked in the electricity industry in committee services, staff development and training. She has a Business Studies degree and is a fully qualified Clinical Hypnotherapist and Reiki Master. She also has diplomas in Tuina acupressure massage and energy field therapy. She enjoys crafts, history and loves tracing family trees. Having a hunger for learning new things is a bonus for the research behind her books.

You can catch up with Morton on

Twitter - @MortonSGray

Facebook - Morton S. Gray Author 

Instagram - Instagram Profile 

or on her

Website mortonsgray.com