Craft of Writing: Attack in the Opposite Direction

Dear Reader,

My brother was in the Marines. One of the expressions he brought back from his time during military service was "Marines don't retreat. They attack in the opposite direction." Sometimes writing gets really hard and you may have days like I do, where you just want to light the whole thing on fire and go take up underwater basket weaving or something else entirely different. Those days, give yourself permission to "attack in the opposite direction."

Often, when we're blocked it is painful to keep pushing and pushing on that block to try to force it out of our way. It is better to just stop and do something else for a little while. A tactical retreat from the project gives that part of us where the story comes from a chance to rest. It gives us a chance to do something completely different and relax a little bit from the stress of being blocked. As we are busy with something entirely and utterly different (rearranging the living room or folding laundry, for example) our subconscious mind is working on the problem and ticking away at building ideas for us.

The important thing to remember is that after you 'attack in the opposite direction' you maneuver yourself to attack the problem again from a different angle. In battle strategy, this is known as a flanking maneuver and it can lead to a decisive victory. I've been stuck for weeks on how to write a battle. I shelved book seven to work on another project. Now I'm beginning to get some ideas for how to finish up that battle. I think I am about ready to come back to book seven and wage that war of words with the creative block.

Don't give up on your project just because you are blocked. Take a break from it. Put it aside for a little bit and work on something, anything else for a while. It may be that a short break is all you need. I've had scenes I was stuck on how to finish that had inspiration on how to solve them hit as I was folding laundry. Sometimes a little longer break is needed. If you're not working to a deadline, that longer break can be as long as you need it to be. I had a book that I took a year off from working on because I absolutely hated it and felt that it was nothing more than word vomit. After that year, I came back and finished it out to discover that it actually wasn't half bad, it just needed some polish and a few plot holes patched.