Even though I find drafting to be a stymieing task, I recognize its enormous importance - the revision process, which far exceeds drafting in clarity, cannot take place at all without the groundwork laid out by drafting.
One of the many ways that I get writer's block when I'm drafting is when I'm not really sure about what I'm trying to do. I'll intuitively stop mid-paragraph when part of my brain has realized that I "just don't know where I'm going with this," and then I'll be stuck. The word-spicket valve closes, and I can't move forward. There's only one way out of this situation for me: I have to think.
To get past this kind of writer's block, I have to get up, get away from my computer, and devote concentration and effort to power my imagination. I'm a particularly visual person and a visual writer. My brain, in the words of an artist friend of mine whose brain works the same way, plays "movies" in my head when I imagine things. (His sister's brain, he says, is different: it thinks in words, like reading a book, which is nothing like my experience.) These "movies" in my head are the only way I'm able to figure out the details of what I'm trying to narrate in my story. When I have this conceptual or imagination-starved writer's block, knowing what I'm trying to narrate is the only way to fix it.
My spouse is training to run a 10K foot race in a few weeks, and I've been joining her on a bicycle. Going out on the roads with her this past week has been good for my process because it forces me into a situation I both can't escape and in which my brain is freed up from writing so that I can finally get some imagination/conceptual work done. In other words, getting out of my apartment gives me a chance to think about what I'm trying to do. The other day I was just chattering to her while she ran about the last writer's block I had and what the problem was, and suddenly it hit me in a eureka-style flash how I could solve my characters' fast-approaching logistical problem.
Prior to that moment, I had been unable to figure out how I could get my protagonists from point A to point B without re-writing everything I'd already done. This was a problem that was impossible to solve when I was at my computer, staring at my text, trying to draft and think at the same time. I devised a solution very quickly when I was able to devote 100% of my concentration to it.
Beyond the brain benefits of getting out of the house, I also recommend exercise to everyone I meet (not just creative recluses!) because of the incredible quality-of-life benefits. Exercise encourages your body not only to regenerate and maintain your physical health, but also to release endorphins, which truly make a difference in how you feel. A sedentary lifestyle will degrade your ability to create, because your quality of mind depends on your quality of body. Paradoxically, expending energy on physical exercise gives you more energy to use (by prompting your body to expand your reserves).
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