Ping-Pong Balls

Writer's Block. It hits every writer in one way or the other. Just last week I read on another writer's blog about her difficulties linking two scenes. So I know I'm in good company when I stare at my computer going, "What comes next?"

But this month, I've been participating in a program through ACFW called "Novel Track: Writing." I committed myself to meeting a word goal for the month and now I have no choice but to push through writer's block and not allow it to stop me for days at a time. "Must put words on paper" has become my mantra. This has helped a lot. I may hit a wall and need to stop for a while, but I keep thinking about what will happen next. While I run--"If he goes here and sees this person . . . "--while showering--"What if she tells him . . . "--while fixing dinner--"If he reacts by . . . " The next day when I sit down at the computer, I know what happens next. This race to meet a word count forces me not to sit back and wait for the ideas to catch me but to chase them down instead.

And, when I feel really stuck or need more ideas, I bounce ideas of my husband. For some reason, this idea of bouncing ideas off him has created an odd image in my mind. I visualize tossing ping-pong balls at his forehead. Now I've taken that image to imagining the ping-pong balls with questions or ideas written on them. Fortunately, we don't own any ping-pong balls, so my husband's forehead is safe. And sometimes, just the act of imagining the conversation, with ping-pong balls, helps me work through whatever block I'm dealing with.