Must-Try Writing Techniques For Fiction Authors

Writer's block. The plague of all writers. Though some would have you believe that there's no such thing and that it's simply a lack of imagination or drive of the writer.

Don't believe that lie.

Feeling as if you are blocked as a writer is a part of creative burnout and is perfectly normal to experience every once in a while.

As a writer you are bringing entire worlds and lives into existence, it can be mentally draining.

Take a break and recharge, but if you must push through try one of these techniques to help you achieve your daily word count.

Pomodoro

Pomodoro is an amazing technique time management method . This technique is useful for not only writing but for getting any task done that you don't have the drive to do. I use this technique daily to help with writing, folding laundry, and cleaning.

It gives you a set amount of time to work without getting distracted and then a short break as a reward.

Pomodoro's can be done in many increments with the standard being 25 minutes of work with a short break of five minutes or a long break of 15 minutes.

A simple search online will give you endless Pomodoro timers to meet any need and aesthetic. 

Prompts

Not sure where to go in your story or not sure where to start a story? Start with a writing prompt, these can be something important to include in a scene or something to help you get to know your characters better.

• Have your character pick up a random object and fiddle with it
• Describe what your character sees out the nearest window
• What was your character's favorite Christmas present 

Free Write

Free writing or stream of conscious writing is where you write down everything that comes to your mind and you just keep writing it until you get into the flow of writing and then you can just keep going.

Grab your keyboard or a pen and piece of paper, a set a timer for a five, ten, or as many minutes as you have to spare. 

Don't stop writing until that timer has gone off and most times you'll find yourself continuing to write even after the time has ended.

If you don't then at least you wrote out something for the time. 

Dictation

Maybe you have the thoughts and ideas in your head, but you just can't get them out onto the page. 

Well, try to talk it out instead. 

In this day of technology, you are able to speak your thoughts out loud and a program will transfer them into written words for you to come back and work on later. 

And you will have to work on them, if you haven't used a voice-to-text program before just know that it does not catch everything you say perfectly. You may have said that she tucked the pig into bed, but your phone picked up something very different. 

Skip Around

Stuck on writing that first chapter since the whole writing world has swooped down into your ear to remind you that if your first sentence isn't perfect nobody will ever read your book?

Skip it.

Write what happens after that or write the last paragraph. 

Writing doesn't have to be done in chapter one, chapter two, or chapter three order. No one is going to know if you write your novel chapter three, chapter 23, and then chapter 18. 

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These techniques are simple and can add some variation to your writing to keep away the dreaded writer's block or just implement a new technique into your writer's prosses. 

Try one or try them all, the important thing is that you keep writing.

With love, 

B.K xo

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