Writers Block. I keep being asked about it and I have little response to give. But here is the truth.

I have only ever had writers block once so I am, perhaps, not the best person to look for advice from.

Once, many years ago, due to a computer crash, I lost an almost complete novel. It was backed up to floppy discs (I said it was many years ago) and I had sat them too close to a radiator and there was no way to recover the book. In a fit of Pique I swore to give up writing. Three years of writing a good novel lost on a twist of fate. I gave up writing for nearly three years.

Or at least that is what I told everyone. The real truth was that I was so despondant that I really did stop writing for over a year but when I decided to go back to it, none of the writing I produced made any sense. Everything I wrote, when I reviewed it, was absolute crap. I had lost my voice. It was gone, my ideas silly and trite. I resumed writing poetry, something I had not done in years and it was also crap (though some would argue it was crap in the first place).

A friend (an English professor and writer) suggested “Just writing”- it is an old creative writing technique.

Start with one word, one question. “What”, “Where”, “Why” etc and just repeat it over and over to your self. Add one glass of wine. Two is too many. and then just write what comes into your head. Keep on writing through the rubbish and eventually you will come up with a story. A year or two later I published the novel “Twisted Sisters”. Which starts with the word “What” and my ramblings thereafter. It won three awards (none of them prestegious) but was shortisted for the “Booker Prize” which is.

I cannot say that this method would work for everyone but must recommend it as it worked for me.

Best of luck getting over the hurdle.

This cover features on a much later edition. I think the novel is now delete. Tis' rather dated now but worked well for me at the time.