Help me welcome author Lisa Pelissier as she shares about overcoming writer's block.

People ask me, “Don’t you ever have trouble writing? What do you do if you get stuck?” Honestly, I’m rarely stuck, and I think it’s due to several factors. Some of them are habits or practices I’ve established. Some of them are just a result of the ups and downs of life.  I thought it might be helpful to list them so I can help the readers of this post on their own writing journey.

Tip #1: Write Badly

When you feel like you can’t write, do it anyhow. It doesn’t matter if you can’t think of an idea. It doesn’t matter if you feel like you’re making huge mistakes. It doesn’t matter if there are plot holes, your characters are misbehaving, or you accidentally killed off an essential character. Later, you can edit what you wrote. You can’t edit what you didn’t write.

Tip #2: Write in a Specific Location

I write at coffee shops. I prefer to think of it as “renting office space” rather than “paying exorbitant prices for coffee.” I’ve been doing it for so long now, that when I get to Starbucks, my brain automatically shifts into writing mode. By establishing a habit, you can train yourself to be productive.

Tip #3: Write Something Else

Is your story stuck? Don’t know how it should end? Or maybe you know how it should start and how it’s going to end, but you can’t figure out how to get from one to the other. It’s fine to put down what you’re writing and work on something else. I have one book I’ve been writing off and on since 2020. I picked it up last week, and the ending came barreling out of me. Four years after I began to write, my middle-grade fantasy book, Speechless, will be a reality. In the meantime, I’ve written and published seven fantasy books and have another eight (not an eighth book—eight more books) in the works—in several different series. Being stuck on Speechless didn’t mean I was stuck on anything else. I shifted gears and worked on other things until I was ready.

Tip #4: Live Real Life

Real life is the inspiration behind any book. Real people are readers. The more you participate in life, the more stories you will have inside you that need telling, and the more you’ll want to share them. I’ve been through a lot of hardship in my life, and for a long time, I couldn’t find much time to write. Because of that (and hardship), the times I did write were fruitful. I liken it to someone forcefully squeezing a toothpaste tube without taking the lid off. The combination of extreme pressure and the lack of an outlet results in explosions of color bursting forth when someone pricks even a tiny hole in the side. In other words, without the hard things, I might not be writing today.

About Lisa:

Lisa Pelissier lives in Oregon where she is a homeschool mother of four and self-published author of five middle-grade fiction novels, as well as two early-readers' chapter books and a YA fantasy novel. Lisa owns SneakerBlossom Books, offering Christian, classical homeschool study guides and curriculum. She also works as a freelance copy editor, copy writer, and virtual assistant. She blogs at EleventhWillow.com, a site she and two friends started for Christians parenting the mentally ill. In her spare time Lisa enjoys making art, playing the piano, and singing.

Connecting Online:

Website: https://www.sneakerblossom.com/ 
Email: sneakerblossom (at) yahoo.com
Blog: https://www.eleventhwillow.com/ 
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lisa.pelissier.author 
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lisaedkela/ 
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/edkela/ 
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Lisa-Pelissier/author/B08794GCR1