I’ve suffered from writer’s block. Unravelling the cause can allow fresh words to flow – sometimes. If the problem lies in the story, the block may be evidence that I’ve strayed from the plot and need to rethink where I’m headed. Am I forcing characters to do something they would never do? Have I stumbled off the path and landed in a thicket of doubts? Imagining the scene from a different point of view can help me find my way. Sometimes.

During one case of writer’s block, my character was standing outside a house he had purchased for a woman decades ago. Why was he there? He had been exiled from that city and only recently returned. He had other business to attend. Yet he stood outside that house, in the dark, as unable to move on as I was. So, I wrote that he questioned himself about being there, just as I was also questioning why he was there. Then I let him go up the steps to the porch and knock on the door. The woman he had known was not there, but a scene evolved in which he interacted with a young man. After writing that scene, I was able to continue on with the original plan for that chapter. Several chapters later, to my surprise, I realized that the young man was my main character’s son. Sometimes, just writing anything can defeat a block. Tell yourself that you can always delete it later and keep writing.

Blocks that rise from what’s happening in the real world are more difficult for me to overcome. I lived in Seattle when I first began writing and was lucky enough to join a small group of writers. Every Wednesday, the four of us would meet and read, discuss and edit each other’s manuscripts. It was marvelous. But it ended for me when I moved to the east coast.

I kept in contact with one of the writers in the group – with what’s now considered “snail mail”. A hint of how long ago I moved from west to east. We exchanged letters regularly, but without the Wednesday deadline for new manuscript, it was easy to forgo working on my novel and become involved in everyday distractions. More disciplined than I, she sent me her manuscripts which I was happy to edit. She also nagged me to keep writing. Eventually, her persistence worked. Over the years, email was a more efficient way to send manuscripts to each other. We could return edited versions in a day. I owe her for pushing me into finishing my first book, Sheever’s Journal, Diary of a Poison Master.

My latest encounter with writer’s block occurred in January. I was working on a second novel, a continuation of the story, though in a more traditional format, with Sheever as one of the characters. My friend’s third book had just been listed on Amazon. She and I texted each other, both of us excited by her accomplishment. I ordered a copy of her book. She wanted to read the chapter I was fussing with, chapter 20, for I had told her that I wasn’t sure if I had gone “off the rails” or not. The only way I could figure out how to write the scene was to be in the point of view of several characters, and I was concerned that a reader might be confused. This was a Friday. She emailed me an edit of the partial chapter on Saturday, told me not to worry, said everything was clear. On Sunday, she died. Chapter 20 remains unfinished.

Can I move past this block? It’s the end of May and I haven’t yet.