Help Beat Writer’s Block

By Annette Rey

Beat that blank page! There are lots of ideas out there to spark your brain, to pick up your pen, to place your fingers on the keyboard. Here is one of my favorite ways that works for me.

My local libraries hold a yearly book sale and I never fail to check each of them out. As a writer, you need to investigate the libraries in your area for the opportunity to own books at greatly reduced prices.

I promote this activity for you in your area to help you beat writer’s block. You can pick up books on a variety of subjects you wouldn’t otherwise buy. You can expand your fields of interest and branch out to write in other areas not before familiar to you.

You can find books on the writing craft, but those are a rare discovery at these events (I find libraries to be woefully lacking in books in that category).

If you want to pick up deals on fiction books by your favorite authors there are a lot of those for the offering! But use those books to help you pick up clues to be a better story writer.

If you are a YA (young adult) writer, there are scads of children’s books available. You can get ideas on graphic art, cover art, story lines – and buy books for your kids – all in one fell swoop.

My libraries have large offerings in the categories of history, political science, animals, science, and travel. You can find books that are like new with undamaged dust covers.

These sales give you great gift ideas, too. They even sell jigsaw puzzles and audio books. There is nothing wrong with buying a sale and filling stockings and giving party prizes and donating books to your writer’s group and even offering free books on your blog.

My main point is to use all these books from a writer’s point of view before you do anything else with them. Stretch yourself. Go into unfamiliar areas and genres. Create something from each book whether it is just a paragraph born from a chapter you’ve read about World War II or a short story inspired from a book on bugs!

You will find inspiration when you sit among the pile of books that belong to you. The internet is great – but the feel of my books is greater! I can hold them as long as I like. I can take my time entering the pages and the mind of the writer and come out on the other end with my own slant and new creative thoughts. I can revisit my books at any whim.

Do yourself a favor! Own books! They are packed with your yet undiscovered writing ideas!