Full title: Conquering Writer's Block and Summoning Inspiration: Learn to Nurture a Lifestyle of Creativity by K.M. Weiland
I’m possibly not the best person to review this book, because I don’t really suffer from writer’s block. If I get stuck on one story, I go work in another for a while until the solution comes to me. At any given time, I may have 4-8 major projects on the go and another 10 or more on the ‘back burner’. But what works for my ADD brain may not work for other people, and especially, folks on tight deadlines who MUST get one specific story written.
However… I’m not 100% sure K.M. Weiland is the right person to WRITE this book, since she quite plainly confesses in it that she doesn’t believe in writer’s block either. What she does believe in is hard work to achieve results, and in this book she offers a host of practical tips for authors to get their creative juices flowing, no matter what.
The key point I took away from the book - and the one I’ve found works best for me as a writer - is preparation is key and procrastination is death. Get prepared. Plan what you’re going to write. Think about it during your non-writing time, and when you sit down at the keyboard you’ll hopefully have words ready to flow.
As for procrastination - well, it should be obvious that if you never start, you’ll never finish. If you’re a serial procrastinator, there are some useful and writing-specific tools here to help you conquer that, but as usual a journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step. Write one sentence. Write for five minutes. Do it every day and eventually, you’ll have a finished novel. Most of all, you have to believe in yourself as a writer, and accept that first drafts always suck. Just get that first draft down so you can start the process of turning your story into something that shines.
As I said at the top, this book was never going to be all that useful for me. However, that doesn’t mean it can’t work for you. If you need strategies to beat writer’s block and get yourself into that writing groove, this could very well be the most useful book you’ll ever read. I’m giving it four stars.
