Stuck in the middle? 7 ways to refresh your muse

Do you know that feeling when your fingers itch for the keyboard and you want to write sooo bad, but you can't seem to be able to get through that one difficult scene? You try to start, but freeze every single time. The brain loses its functions. And everything inside you is screaming, "I will never get through this!"

Stuck

Well, these are some of the things that might help you get through it still, no matter what.

1. Create a mood board.

Put together a visual representation of what will happen in that particularly difficult scene or chapter. You can search for images and put them together on Photoshop, Paint, Pinterest, or even your current writing program. You can pull out the good old glue and scissors and go mad on your ancient collection of magazines.

Just thinking about the scene in a new way and quietly pondering about it when letting a different part of your brain work along with your hands gives your writing new life.

Here's one of mine for my fantasy MC Aviela:

2. Listen to music.

Either find an awesome playlist that represents the mood of the coming scene or create one yourself – again, the same effect as the mood board. Don’t even start writing right away. Sit back, close your eyes, and relax. Your characters will start their interactions as music breaths life into their nostrils. A romantic ballad may give your characters a sweet, heartbreaking, adorable moment. An epic computer game song will spiral into a terrifying fight scene.

3. Get out of the office.

Or wherever you tend to write. If the weather is nice, sit in your backyard, in the nearby park, or drive to the beach. If it’s cold and nasty, seek warmth in a cafe. You may not even write at first, but let yourself observe the people around you. Honestly, there are amazing characters and fascinating human interactions all around us. Sometimes a writer needs a reminder that life doesn’t only happen in our heads.

4. Read outside of your comfort zone.

Do you tend to only read within your genre? While that’s a good idea, I have found that it can give some really exciting, new perspective to dive into something completely different for a while. When I was working on my horror story, I happened to read a romance novel. Even though the emotions were quite the opposite, I still learned a great deal about how to describe those deepest, most guarded feelings we all have in unusual situations. Reading a memoir might help with your space-age hero see things in a more realistic light. Giving a contemporary YA novel a go might help develop the description of your epic fantasy sidekick into something more tangible.

5. Watch a movie.

It’s much the same as the previous point, but also a great learning experience, because the story isn’t spelled out for you. You can use your watching experience to later mark down the plot, it’s acts and various stages. Think about what drives the story and why you were so drawn to it? How did the actors play out their character’s reactions? Plus, the way movie blurbs are written gives some good tips for once you need to do the same.

Just try to not get stuck in the binge watching cycle! ;)

Random words

6. Spit out random words and phrases.

You sort of know what should happen in that chapter, but can’t even come up with a timeline? Mind map it! Or just pen down random words and phrases that come to mind. As an example, if I had to write the tale of Little Red Riding-Hood, I would scribble down this:

Red. Cloak. Something evil. Flashing teeth. Sun’s rays through the leaves above. Crispy forest path. Thumping heart. Gran’s in danger. Violet flowers peeking through emerald moss. Scraped knee. Running. Tiny hut near the flowing river.

These phrases aren’t even in the right order, but already an image appeared in the reader’s mind. Now all you need to do is sort out what works, line them up, and connect the dots. Et voilà!

7. Do something creative.

Writing is creative, but it uses a different part of the brain than singing, drawing, or even playing with small children. They all fall under the same region, but the mind needs to operate within distinctive borders when doing each of these things. Yet, they are all close enough to each other to stimulate that little writer’s spot we all have up there.

I already mentioned mood boards and visuals, but anything creative works. Concentrating on knitting, decorating your garden, or even organizing your pantry will help you rest your mind a bit, all the while awakening daydreams that will later develop into writing.

The brain works best when it doesn’t know it’s working. That’s why we get all these awesome ideas when showering or laying in bed, waiting to fall asleep. The brain doesn’t like to be forced. So give it some leeway, and then reel it back in when it least expects it! And ta-dah, you have added a few thousand words to your project like nobody’s business. Well done! Sit back, enjoy that tenth cup of coffee, and praise yourself. Maybe you need just a little more distraction, I mean, creative stimulus before moving on to that next chapter…