Chapter 1: Know Your Enemy
Reveals the various disguises and sources of writer’s block and introduces the keys to “bounce back—quickly and effectively.”
Chapter 2: Start at the Very Beginning
Discusses why new writers are prone to block and why they shouldn’t be.
Chapter 3: Myths from the Meanies
Exposes nine writing rules that can hinder instead of help and then discusses how to set your own boundaries.
Chapter 4: Planning, Scheming, and Dreaming
Shows how knowing why you write and where you want to go with your writing can help you avoid block. Also discusses coping with family pressures.
Chapter 5: Percolate
The chapter shows how writers spend a lot of their non-writing time (i.e. daydreaming) actually writing. In a way. Non-creative types won’t understand but that doesn’t matter as long as you understand why it’s necessary. The chapter discusses the value of a dream journal, having a thoroughly researched foundation from which to write, and people watching. It even shows how to use your favorite sitcom to bash block.
Chapter 6: Kicking the Critic Off His Pedestal
Most of us know our critic rather well. This chapter discusses how to quiet and rehabilitate this foe, and keeping it from making you stop writing to answer questions that can be marked and dealt with later. Learn the value of having an advocate and a pragmatist that will help you work with the critic.
Chapter 7: Your Ugly Notebook
Glatzer asserts that ugly notebooks don’t require polished writing, and you’ll feel more free to write from the heart in a journal that’s not fancy or special. In fact she encourages thinking of this notebook as “your journal’s drunken cousin.” Write whenever and wherever and whatever you’d like and the only rule is that it can never be a chore.
Chapter 8: Self-Doubt and Other Stupid Garbage
Things that contribute to te paralysis born of fear and how to overcome them.
Chapter 9: Change Your Brain
This chapter gives suggestions on how you can retrain yourself so that writing is a reward and not a chore.
Chapter 10: Ohmmmm, Ohmmmm: Dealing with the Stress of Writer’s Block
Discusses a variety of relaxation techniques.
Chapter 11: O Deadline, My Deadline
Lessen a big block by breaking into small pieces, establishing realistic goals and creating a no-fear schedule for completion. Use contests, writing buddies, and short-term personal deadlines to practice for the real thing.
Chapter 12: Dead Ends and Wrong Ways
Six tips on how to get past dead ends and correct wrong turns and how to enjoy the process.
Chapter 13: The Opposite Game
Can you outgrow a story before you finish it? Certainly. The chapter presents a variety of things to try to resurrect or un-stall a dead story before you can it. This chapter includes an index card game that every writer will love.
Chapter 14: Mind Your Own Business
Treat writing like a job—you have to show up every day and produce. For some writers only a solid writing routine will keep writer’s block at bay. But sometimes it pays to show up at a different place, or to talk to new people about what you’re trying to do.
Chapter 15: Your Writing Oasis
How to claim your writing space.
Chapter 16: Branching Out
The chapter urges writers to consider using a different form if a story is stalled. You might need a longer or shorter forum, or it may pay to turn the work into a play or screen play.
Chapter 17: It’s Not You, It’s Me
“The block is what it is—you’re the only variable.” There can be events in your life that leave you no room to concentrate on writing. Glatzer offers this encouragement: “When life gets in the way of your writing, don’t beat yourself up if you’re not able to summon the energy to write. There may well be a time when you are just too drained to be particularly creative.”
Chapter 18: People Who Need People
How to find and make the most of a writing partner and/or group.
Chapter 19: Take a Little Trip
Glatzer explains how a trip to the local megabookstore can get you over a dry spell.
Chapter 20: The $6 Solution: Six Items to Help You Beat Writer’s Block
Discusses items you can buy at your local dollar store that can help beat block.
Chapter 21: Let the Market Be Your Guide
Tracking down guidelines for the journals you love to read (or glean the guidelines from studying the contents) and write to established topics. The market generates ideas. Anthologies can also generate topics (Chicken Soup, Cup of Comfort, etc.)
Chapter 22: Plagiarism is Good?!
The method used in Finding Forrester really does work if you want to get yourself back to writing. The chapter discusses how to do it.
Chapter 23: Please, Don’t Let This Feeling End
Discusses methods you can use to keep the writing flow turned on
Afterword
About the Author