In Which I Cure Writer's Block By Washing The Dishes...

If you've been writing for any length of time, you've experienced it.  It's as common as the cold and suggestions to alleviate the dreaded menace are as abundant.

It's writer's block.  The point at which you can no longer see past a wall that seems to sprung out of your plot.  Or the inability to put words down on a blank page.  It can be terrifying.  It can be debilitating.

And it can be cured.

The trick is not in finding the one method to cure writer's block.  The trick is finding the one method that works for you.  There's a reason writer's block has so many suggested cures - because they all work in different ways for different people.  Some people swear by taking a break from a project.  Some people need to plug on through.  What way works best for you?  It's an answer only you can determine, but you have to actually try different methods first.

Here's what I have found works best for my writer's block (and it's shockingly simple):  I do the dishes.  It's an absent minded task, that allows me to focus on the problem in the inner recesses of my mind.  I literally daydream while I scrub my dirty pots and pans (of which there is an endless supply).

I have story epiphanies that move me past my writer's block.  And I get the kitchen sink shined.

Bam!  Double win.

What works for you?

Mandi Thomson is an avid reader and writer of speculative and dystopian fiction.  Though Canadian at heart, she tolerates the freezing northern winters while dreaming of sunnier tropical places.  With three young children and husband in school, life is anything but boring.

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