Let Your Writing Magic Flow
by Sarah Hamer
As a writing instructor, I often get asked about how to deal with the terrifying writers’ block. It’s usually from someone who had a great idea at the beginning of their story – swashbuckling heroes and heroines who have to rescue someone else from a dragon or fall in love or save the world. But their creative mind has dried up and they have no idea where to go next. The ubiquitous blank screen haunts them, and sleepless nights are usually right around the corner, especially if there’s a deadline looming.
But I don’t believe in writers’ block.
Instead, I believe in magic. Not the Harry Potter or A Discovery of Witches type-magic, but the magical imagination that lives within us.
After all, we’re writers! We have the ability and privilege to invent characters who can tell the human narrative through our own experiences. We get to express things in writing we might never share otherwise. We are allowed to laugh and love and cry and hate simply through waving our magic wand (also known as a pen or pencil or keyboard).
Find your magic.
I don’t know where your magic came from, since we all have our own creation story, but mine burst forth when I was a small child. I used to get in trouble for telling stories but now I get paid for them, and they feed my soul. It’s almost as if opening that vein and spilling my blood on the page purges worries and fears. In fact, reading books has taught me more about life and how to find solutions.
And, isn’t that what writing is best at?
Your own hero's journey.
After all, almost every story – from every continent, every culture, every time period – follows the same pattern, the one Joseph Campbell called “The Hero’s Journey." Characters, based on the human condition, start with a problem they can’t solve and, through a series of lessons, trials, tribulations, victories, and lumps and bumps, our hero/ine learns how to solve that problem, with lots of adventures to go along with it. How better to teach a child, for instance, how to deal with the fear of heights then to see that little train who “thinks I can” and discovers that it actually can?
That’s where the magic works the best. We create story after story that can show a path out of a problem and help others to do so also.
So, is it really writer’s block when we get stuck?
Or are we really just not allowing ourselves to allow the magic to flow? This doesn’t mean that, just because I think a story isn’t truly a story without a dragon in it, that it isn’t good. We all have our own likes and dislikes and shouldn’t try to force ourselves into someone else’s box. Besides, if we all liked the same book, there’d only be one.
We all have our strengths and our own stories to tell.
Writing is a magical journey into worlds and characters that we can only describe to others, even though they live in our minds, and the technical getting-it-on-the-page part is only a small side of the process. Don’t worry about all the "isms," "asms," and spasms of "writing rules," about a story being perfect (there’s no such thing!), about creating the next best-seller.
Instead, let your imagination flow. Create amazing -- and magical -- stories that resonate with your heart, that make your spirit soar. Stories that ignite the imagination of the readers. Because that empty computer screen will fill itself as you tell YOUR story.
Do you know where your magic comes from? Do you have your own personal hero's journey? Share them in the comments.
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About Sarah
Sarah (Sally) Hamer, B.S., MLA, is a lover of books, a teacher of writers, and a believer in a good story. Most of all, she is eternally fascinated by people and how they 'tick'. She’s passionate about helping people tell their own stories and has won awards at both local and national levels, including two Golden Heart finals.
A teacher of memoir, beginning and advanced creative fiction writing, and screenwriting at Louisiana State University in Shreveport for over twenty years, she also teaches online for Margie Lawson at www.margielawson.com and for the No Stress Writing Academy at https://www.worldanvil.com/w/classes-deleyna/a/no-stress-writing-academy. Sally is a free-lance editor and book coach, with many of her students and clients becoming successful, award-winning authors.
You can find her at info@mindpotential.org
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19 comments on “Let Your Writing Magic Flow”
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Wonderful, inspiring post, Sarah! I also don't believe in writer's block. When I'm stuck, I go up to the metaphorical mountaintop and look at the big picture of my story. Usually, after some contemplation, perhaps a few walks, and maybe a hot shower or two, I realize what's missing, what my creative subconscious has been trying to tell me.
As a young boy, I loved to pretend while wandering our backyard, imaging myself in grand stories or on fun adventures, and that urge to "pretend" was the seed from which my writing sprang. The hero's journey for me leads to my characters bringing together found family, and connecting, as well as healing the world (fantasy) or solving a mystery to restore order (cozy mystery).
Dale,
My favorite place to let my imagination flow was a small "storage" room in a quiet, solitary part of the huge house I grew up in. It was safe and comfortable and far away from the chaos of five competitive and boisterous brothers and sisters. There, my dragons and knights and self-sufficient ladies surrounded me with magic.
Thanks for the post! I just had a lovely trip "back" in time.
I don't believe in "writer's block" as a malady that strikes writers either. I do believe that the experience of an inability to write is rooted in a real problem that writer is experiencing in life (physical, emotional, or financial stress). Resolving or reducing those stresses usually restores the ability to write.
As for magic...for me, the magic begins when I deliberately "rub" two or more ideas together. That sparks something inside and I enter the flow. Being in the flow, feels like magic. And I'm addicted to that magic so if the flow slows I search for more ideas to rub together. It used to be when the flow felt elusive, the fear I had lost that ability mades it hard to re-achieve flow state. Now, I trust that by continuing to write and experiment with the friction between different ideas, I will find the right spark and that the magic will return.
Good for you, Lynette! I believe trust in ourselves is the real magic too. Along with that quantum field where all ideas live. We just need to reach out our hand...
Thanks so much!
Sarah - you are always spot on! I love your wisdom. So much resonates with how I feel and the way I write. Thank you for your inspiration when we get 'road blocked' and think we can't do it. Hugs!
Thank you, Chrissie! I'm so fortunate in my multiple and amazing teachers who never gave up on me.
And, taught me the magic. 🙂
It's my belief that when I'm stuck in a story, I either need more time to think or I've made a wrong turn somewhere. I turn around so I'm not staring at the words and think about the character, situation, and purpose for the scene. If it's not fulfilling the purpose, it won't work in the story. I change things then.
I started with my own imagination and TV. I learned a lot about writing dialog from TV. Many of the stories in my head started as fan fiction, or me putting myself in the story with the characters. But I evolved a whole world from there.
Another word on writer's block. If you don't refill the well with life experiences of your own (your story) and with works by others, be they film, art, written works, or even nature, your well may run dry. Find the magic elsewhere and it will feed your muse.
Very good point, Debbie! Refilling the well is probably the best thing we can do. And, honestly, my best "magic thinking time" is in the shower. The flow of water seems to scrub my brain clean of doubt and worry that "it's not going to be good enough."
Thanks for posting!
I believe that writers are made -- by grief or trauma or love -- but definitely by strong emotions and strong experience. But I think the gift of seeing stories from those things is a gift. But like any gift, we have to sit down and do the work / learn the craft / give it our time and focus.
THEN the magic will arrive.
Absolutely, Jenny. Some people want the magic to happen with no work. Learning our craft and putting our butts into the chair are so important -- but many want to skip past that to the acclaim and money. Doesn't work that way!
Thanks for the post!
Thanks for this empowering post, Sally, and for your thought-provoking questions.
My magic comes from my amazing dyslexic brain.
Way back in the day, I was taught that dyslexia was a problem. My solution was to realize that dyslexia allowed me to write my heroine's journey.
Leanne, I've been talking to more and more people who have discovered that dyslexia or ADHD or whatever they've been diagnosed with is a blessing. They may not have fit in the educational boxes, but they have discovered "magical" powers others can only dream of. Your brain works the way it's supposed to, doesn't it? Good for you!
The late Robert B. Parker said, "You need your toilet fixed, you call a plumber and he says, "Can't work today; I have plumber's block." Nope. Writing can be hard, but you do the work.
LOL!! Love this, Terry! Yep!
I feel this, Sarah! For me, the magic often comes when I start listening to the characters and I take time to play in my world and experience the emotions flowing through it. That's where the magic is for me.
Yep! We have to listen! To the characters and, just as importantly, to ourselves.
And it is magic!
Thanks!!!!
very insightful
Thank you, Denise!
As an offbeat humor writer and aficionado of standup comedy, I craft my stories with a setup, middle and punchline.
When I get stuck somewhere along the way, it helps to ask myself (silently), ‘How would Ali Wong, Steven Wright or even Monty Python unstuck this?’