Shower (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Lately I’ve been taking a lot of hot showers. Why? When I’m writing, I sometimes get stuck. A hot showers helps to get me unstuck. I’ll get up from my desk, head over to the bathroom, and get the hot water cranking. There’s something about that soothing warmth running down my body that frees up my thinking. I’ll just stand there and daydream. Sometimes I’ll hum a tune or make up words to a song. I have to do something that takes my mind off of the book I’m writing in order for my brain to kick in. Then before I know it, I’m thinking about my manuscript. I won’t even realize it at first. It’s weird.
This past week I’ve been stuck a lot, hence all the showers. I had a lot of false starts. I’ll come out of the show thinking I’ve got it cracked only to find out I didn’t crack shit. An author I know mentioned that she kept bathtub crayons in her shower to take notes on the wall. I thought that was a much better idea than what I was doing—writing on the soap scum build up on the sliding glass door. It’s not a lot of scum, just enough to write in.
Walking is another way I free up my mind but it’s been too cold lately to walk outside. So five showers a day it is. How do you guys get unstuck?
I give myself permission to write bad stuff. It’s much easier to revise something than nothing.
When I’m seriously stuck, I go for the big weapon — I call up an evil friend to brainstorm with her.
What else helps? Good coffee, a little Bailey’s Irish Cream, music, reading or rereading a great book, and deadlines. I start writing when I know somebody’s going to read it.
Sometimes, though, my best ideas some out of nowhere, when I’m washing the dishes or putting on my socks. Blam, there it is, the missing puzzle piece.
Don’t wash yourself down the drain!
I also 2nd Holly’s suggestions. Irish cream ftw.
Yes, that Irish cream really fires up the brain cells!
But how do you stop at one?
That’s some great thought starters Holly. I’ve had a couple hit me when I’m doing the dishes too. I think has something to do with zoning out.
I love a good hot shower!
I don’t get stuck for ideas, but I do get the editing “blahs.” Lately I’ve chased those away by writing something new. That’s where my Wizard stories both came from.
I have found that no matter how hard I try, if I’m not ready to work on a particular project, it just won’t happen. Not because I’m procrastinating, or because I don’t know how or what to say, but just because. Make sense? I wait it out!
With fifteen years in the ad business. I learned quickly that if I wanted to keep my job, I had to meet the deadline. It was a good skill that I picked up and appreciate now. At the time, I just bitched and moaned like a baby while I wrote.