Writer's Unblock

Method 1: Just Type

This might sound a tad obvious. Well, it isn't. Sometimes it just does the job to start with a random phrase, and write a scene. It comes easily. You barely have to think. It warms you up for further writing. And best of all, it might even branch off into another, greater idea.

What about the phrase you start with? It could be anything. It could come from anywhere. Spit out the first thing that comes to mind. Dialogue, actions, characters... be random. 

One time I was reading a book for my Spanish class. Many Spanish verbs tell you the recipient, which we don't have in English. Where we would say "he said" in English, the phrase in Spanish translates to "to him he said." So it's kind of backwards. Sometimes it's just easier to translate it as "he said to him" instead of "to him he said". Yeah, confusing. So where does this tie in with getting my ideas? Watch this.

Well, I imagined somebody calling to somebody else."He called to him." I changed the gender. "She called to him." Why is this girl calling to this boy? Maybe he's missing. Maybe she loves him. And maybe, just maybe, the narrator loves this girl, who happens to love this missing boy. Drama llama! Love triangles are always a great story element. See how fast that built up? It could even go further. Why is the boy missing? Who? What? Where? Why? When? How?

A lot of the time, this doesn't even go through your mind as you start typing. The story develops itself. All you do is let it. Now watch what I pulled from that simple phrase:

She called, "Jacob!"  No answer. 

"Jen," I said. "It's time to leave." The golden rays of the sun swept across the valley.

"No," she muttered. "No, it isn't." She said louder. She turned on me. "I need to find him. He won't survive the night, not with those creatures out there. Please." Her beautiful gray-green eyes pleaded with me. I shifted my glance to the valley before us. The sun was touching the horizon, disappearing behind thick forest. I heard a distant screeching howl and desperately grabbed Jen.

"Jen," I repeated. "It's time to leave!" I shook her by her shoulders. "Those creatures? They're gonna hurt us if we stay out here any longer."

She glared at me, angry tears forming on her waterline. How can she be so pretty when she's crying? "You don't understand, Chris! You never did! Jacob means more to me than you ever did and ever will!" She shook out my grasp and turned away.

My heart stopped. Jen, my closest friend. Jen, the girl I loved. Jen, who loved me back but never admitted it. Or maybe she never did love me. Recently, I haven't been able to confirm anything as the truth.

I fought back the urge to yell at her for letting me down and calmly said, "It's time to go."

Jen's eyes met mine and looked down guiltily. We walked back to the compound, our feet softly crunching the grass.

                                                      ~                      ~                     ~

We were greeted with several chipper inquiries of signs of Jacob. No, no, we told them. None yet. I wearily made my way to my sector of the compound. 

"Tea, Mr. Everett?" A young maid walked by me with a cart. "Today we have cranberry apple and breakfast teas. We also got a shipment of lavender cream."

Between Jacob's disappearance and learning I am now the third wheel of mine, Jen's and Jacob's friendship, I am not in the mood for perky maids and stupid shipments of extravagant cream- quite a waste of the compound's budget. I'll have to talk to Eames about that. Besides, the only tea I ever drink is mint. Decaf herbal mint tea with half a packet of sugar and a teaspoon of cream. The time put into discovering the ideal fusion of my favorite drink was enough to pay, why deal with bothersome maids asking what tea I wanted? Another thing to chat with Eames about.

See what I did there. Happened fast, eh? Well, now I got an even better idea based off of that~ but it's almost completely different. There's still Chris Everett. And a compound. And falling in love. ;) But not with Jen. :| Thus Constant Movement was born.