Writer’s Block, Series #1: Take a Walk

Part one in a series reminding writers to jump fearlessly into the river of creativity already flowing through us all.

Stand up.

Check the weather and dress appropriately.

Put a mask in your pocket, in case you decide to pop into an inside area and it seems like a mask-on situation.

Scratch your cat under his chin. 

Transfer your coffee to a to-go mug.

Bring a pocket-sized notebook and a pen, or more likely, your phone. You will need something to record your flashes of brilliance. 

Kiss your partner. Tell them you are going out for a walk. Put the word “walk” in finger quotes. It will confuse them.

Enter the outside.

Breathe deeply.

What’s that smell? Tree bark and frying oil. The dim sum restaurant on the corner. The sweet ooze leftover in soda cans ready for the recycling truck. 

Let the walk signs direct your path. Try not to wait at any curb but follow the lead of the little green men. Avoid the bright red hands. They have been sent to warn you, “Don’t come this way. Don’t come.”

The people you pass are other human beings. Just like you, they have whole stories stretching out into the past and maybe the future. They are the main characters of their own lives.

You are making a cameo in the lives of each person you pass. 

If you can walk along a river or a beach, do it. It naturally bisects your view into two parts: water and land. 

Breathe deeply. Breathe in sync with your steps.

Walk quickly to pass the elderly couple holding hands--they are really adorable but also they are taking up the whole sidewalk.

Let your mind wander—but give it guardrails. Don’t think about your to-do list. Don’t think about your word count. Don’t concern yourself with the tone of the email you sent to your second cousin last week about not being able to attend her wedding. These are not part of your creative river. Empty your mind of the mundane.

Resist the urge to listen to a podcast unless it is a staggeringly boring podcast that will inspire your mind to wander. 

When you have a thought, any spark of creativity, be it a new story idea or just a new angle to your writing that you hadn’t thought about before, make a note to yourself. 

“What if her mom had kept the letters?”

“Instead of a twist at the end, everything happens exactly as the old crone foretold—that’s the twist..”

“Add a scene between the sisters that shows that they can get along if they have a shared goal.”

Even a single idea is proof of the river of creativity flowing inside you. Feel the cool water rising all around as you dive in. 

And if it didn’t work and you come back to your keyboard dry as straw—at least you got some exercise.