Completely Random (Also: Overcoming Writer's Block?)

As you can tell by today’s date, today is the last day of June. As the day was approaching, I kept thinking about possible blog post topics because I promised myself that I would write at least one post every month.

But I continued to come up with nothing.

In fact, this is not the only thing that I happen to experience Writer’s Block with. For the past two weeks, I’ve also started a new writing project. And while that’s been going well, I have been encroaching the 20k word mark (as of last night, I’m about 900 words away) and I’m suddenly running out of steam. I have a nifty chart that I made that pretty much gives me a general outline on how the story goes, but I think I’ve officially completed the “beginning”. So now it’s time for me open up a new Word document and start writing some out-of-order scenes. But my problem is that I don’t know where to start.

Back to the blog, though…I figured that I would just include a bunch of random fun things that I’ve been reading on the internet for the past day or so. Sort of like a “fake it ‘til you make it”.

And I realized something as I was thinking about which articles/sites I should include in this post. (Keep reading past the randomness and I’ll eventually tell you what it was that I realized.)

So here is some stuff that I got a kick out of:

1.) Letters between F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway

I don’t know why I found this so amusing. Maybe because I could see myself doing this with some of my own friends.

2.) How old are the teens on teen novels?

When I was a child, I used to look at the “teens” on tv shows and marvel at how grown up they looked. Once I got older, I understood why shows hired older people (something about how it’s easier to sign contracts with people who are 18 or older).

However, I never really took a good look at the models that were being portrayed on YA books. And the website that epic reads used to do this experiment is definitely something that I could spend a lot of time wasting.

For example, just for fun, I tried out the most recent photo of myself saved on my computer (took it back in March) and it claimed that I was 26 years old. Totally threw me off because usually I get mistaken for 18-20 years old. (I’m 22, by the way.)

And what was even more hilarious was that I tested the profile picture of my blog and it claimed that I was 36. Man, lighting is everything, I guess. (This was the oldest that it pegged me as. Every other time was in the twenties.)

So clearly how-old.net has some work to do, but it was still fun.

3.) TIME’s Answers issue

I’m a curious person by nature, so reading all these answers to questions that I never really thought about asking were very enlightening.

Like, I never thought about space having a smell. (It supposedly smells like seared steak or a hot meal.) Or that America’s greatest personal fear is not public speaking, but walking alone at night.

4.) The importance of being disconnected

I was browsing this blog the other day (I “know” him from a youtube channel that I’m subscribed to) and this idea totally makes sense. I can’t tell you how many times I would think of something that would contribute to a story that I was working on while I was in the shower. Also, many times after I write creatively for an hour, I have stand up and walk away for ten minutes to just think. Good stuff.



Anyway, to bring you back to my earlier statement…

I realized that I came up with a blog post topic when I was allowing my brain to do other things. Things that made me laugh and ponder and let my mind roam free with a billion other curious questions. I’ve also been busy having a social life for the past few days (crazy, I know), but it’s forced me to take a break from all things writing simply because I just haven’t had time.

So I’ve decided to give myself permission to take a day or two off from working on my current writing project. Instead, I’ll be brainstorming scenes on how to move forward with the story. I mean, it’s not like I have to reach a deadline; I just have a goal of finishing it sometime in the middle of August. I have to stop being so rigid with my schedule.

In conclusion, I’ve learned to take a step back when I’m struggling with Writer’s Block. To give myself a break and then dive back into it as soon as possible.


Unless you’re one of those people who really is on a deadline. To you, I say: Just keep going.



P.S. Special thanks to YA Highway for leading me to find those entertaining websites for number 1 and 2 listed above.