Last time I talked about distractions.  We got you past that, so first, pat yourself on the back.  I said pat, not crack a shoulder blade!

Now then, time to get to work.  You've got your mindset.  You know where the story is going.  Got the characters all worked out, the world's built, setting's done, plot is..... what do you mean you're stuck?  What's the problem?  Flaw in the outline?  Headache?  Ah, writer's block.

Welcome to phase 2: the brick wall.

It happens more than you think.  You're rolling along at 300 miles an hour.  You're in tune.  It's like you could finish the whole thing in one night.  Then, the wall.  Some little issue pops up and stops you cold.  Doesn't make sense.  You know what happens next.  Why won't it come?

Well first off, take a deep breath before you pull your hair out.  Wigs are pricy you know.  This is a common problem for writers.  Now we gotta work past it.  The trick is how.

Well, one thought is to identify the issue.  WHY are you stuck?  What's wrong?  Is the upcoming action out of character for someone?  Plot issue?  Think about it.  Take pain medication for that headache.  Breath, ponder, breath, sleep, dream, ponder.  You'll get there.  There are so many reasons it could be wrong, and sometimes if you're anything like me, all you have is a cringing feeling when you consider where you want to go with it.  90% of the time, there's a reason for it.  Yeah, you know what's coming, but how exactly is it going to play out?  Okay, protagonist wins, antagonist loses.  How?  Bad guy dead?  Both dead?  Other casualties?  Draw?  What do you need out of this scene?  Forget the pain meds.  You're at your limit already.

Let's talk methods around it.  First option, toss the outline.  "WHAT?!  Do you know how much time I spent on that?!"  Yes.  And look where it's getting you.  A good outline is supposed to help you like a road map.  Thing is, a lot of books get hijacked by their characters, and like and old GPS device, that "road map" needs to be updated to compensate.  So okay, maybe we aren't totally tossing it.  But it may be time to rethink it in light of where you are, and where the story is trying to go.  Maybe the action you had in mind, doesn't work anymore.  Or needs to happen differently to better grow the characters you have.  Two friends on the field of battle.  Maybe they're not as close as they seam, or maybe they are, but an outsider might see a.... shall we say, more volatile relationship.  Or perhaps those two people who were meant to hate each other till the last page, grow to become fast friends.  Hey, I told you, enough pain meds.

Fine, try this.  Rewrite.  Go back to the start of, or just before the trouble scene, and start again.  This time, try a different path.  Or let the characters guide you the way they're pushing.  An architect or a designer will often pull back, shake their head saying, "Nah, not right.  New template please!"  So must you sometimes.  It's like the previous efforts made you aware of the problem, and your story will often help you find a way around it.

Another thought?  Talk it out.  Find someone, or a few someones (though keep the number low), that are willing to listen.  It'd be best if they're friends or family you trust so you can be sure you're getting honest responses.  Plus it's nice to have them to come back to again and again if possible.  Then, talk it out.  How much detail is up to you.  I give a lot of detail, but I know the details will never leave my sounding board.  Another author I know gives almost none.  Your choice.  But how ever much it is, talk out the issue.  Outline the problem as best you can, and be willing to consider the things offered.  Also, be prepared, and prepare your sounding board, for the times where they won't have to say a word.  Just you talking through the problem is enough.  Yet somehow, talking to yourself or a wall just doesn't work.  Or it never has for me.  I don't know.  Maybe it would for you.

Of course there are three things to keep in mind at all times.

1) Trust yourself and your work.
I've written things that at the time seamed wrong, but when I went over it again later, I realized why it was so right.  My characters were living enough to go their own way and to show me why it was the right one.  I owed it to them to trust them, and they have rarely let me down.

2) Some times, stop thinking.
"Oh not this again."  I know, it's becoming a mantra of sorts, but that's because it works!  We all want our works to be these beautiful, glimmering, perfect spectacles of literary art.  We want the words to be perfect, the characters to be perfect, and especially for sci-fi and fantasy authors, we want our worlds to be even more perfect.  That's all well and good, but... you do lose something there after a while.  Make the statute chisel-stroke by chisel-stroke. Don’t use an electron microscope to aim your super-collider to blow off one molecule at a time. You end up losing the flavor of the art you were trying to create.  Step back.  See the art, then make it live.

3) Keep writing.
I know I'm one who isn't a fan of "Write no matter what", but you do need to keep at it.  There's a difference between not writing every day and not writing at all.  If you let a wall stop you, you'll find yourself hip deep in unfinished works because you didn't fight hard enough through that wall.  Writing takes a lot of dedication.  You want to make it work, then you gotta work yourself.

Trust me, it's worth the headaches.

You've been sitting there, staring at a blinking cursor so long you want to do some curs-ING of your own.  You want to write, you really do.  But you can't think no matter how hard you try (or try not to try, which doesn't help).  Your mind is fried, your butt hurts, your eyes are bleeding, and you have a copy of Halo 4 that's still in it's shrink wrap.

Or

You're just tired.  Not really "in the mood".  It's kind of there, but the thoughts aren't really aligned.  You know you really should get something written.  But it's not that easy.  You're sick of fighting with it, and you have a copy of Halo 4 that's still in it's shrink wrap.

Both times, let's be honest, you're probably cracking into Halo within the next ten minutes.  And why not?  You're justified.  You "earned" it.  Right?

Uh, no.  "WHAT?!"  Hear me out here.

There is a time and place for "fun".  Anyone stuck in the first situation, it might be time to play a mission or two to get you head out of your own world.  "Wait, you go from a computer screen to video game?"  Sure, at the right time.  Though I understand your thoughts, and even agree, to a point.  Society is hard on video games, and who can blame them?  You hear stories of gamers dying of a blood clot because they sat in their chairs all day.

But the game is just one choice for us.  And that's what I'm here to talk about.  Choices for us writers.  We all have those days where we know we should write, but we really don't want to.  Yet, we find times where we also want to write, but can't.

Let's talk about the second first.  Writers and agents will preach for hours about "keep at it.  Write something no matter how bad."  Uhm, do they know how bad that writing can be?  Well, okay, they do, and they're right most of the time.  But I've found many times where I'm better off taking a break.  And I don't mean a day long break.  I mean, step away, get into something else, and forget what the *bleep* you were just thinking about for an hour or two.  Before you start raging at me I'll go on record here and say; no, video games are not the only choice.  You can; go on a walk, work in the garden, paint something, go shopping, change the oil in the car, work out, whatever.  Anything that you can do to get a mental reset going.  Let your mind step back and let the world you built live.  Games work best for me.  An author I know goes straight to her garden.  Nether choice is "wrong".  It's what we need.

As for the other situation, sorry, you gotta find a way.  I know, wrong answer, well, welcome to the life of a writer.  There comes a time when you gotta commit to the world of BIC.  Errr, that's Butt In Chair, not the pen company (thank you high school teacher that first told me that).  It's sad to say, but even if the world of writing is just a hobby, it still requires work and lots of it.  James Patterson didn't become world renowned because he was in the top five in his gym class.  He had to work for it.  Even the least among us must fight the good fight to write the good book.

"*Groan* But it's so hard."  I know it is.  Believe me I know.  But if it were easy, it wouldn't be worth doing.  Also, if you keep giving in to the "want", you'll find yourself getting more and more upset because that book soon-to-be-blockbuster-movie you're working on is taking FOREVER to write.  And your Halo work will suffer too because you're so frustrated you get pissed the first time you die.  Not exactly an effective balance.

So what's your balance?  Come on now.  Been a while since I had any comments.  I want to hear from some of you.  When your work, be it fiction or what ever you do, gets trouble-some, what do you do?  Or what are some of the things that try to pry you away from said work, and how do you fight them off?  Share some ideas.

Or a confession or two.  Lord knows I've failed the self-control battle a few times.  Been known to dive for Halo like an Olympic gold medalist rather than work.  Then my mom threatened things.... we just won't go there.  :D (just kidding.)

Here’s a conversation for you.

“I’m getting stressed out.”
“Why is that?”
“It's my characters.  They won’t talk to me!   They’re doing things that don’t make sense, and they won’t tell me why!”
“Why?  What are they doing?”
“John’s running off into battle alone.  He doesn’t even know he does it, but he won’t say why.  Mary is nuts about wild forests, Dick has a temper shorter than an eye lash.  They’re all doing these things, and they won’t talk to me.”
“Well, maybe they don’t want to share.  We all have our secrets.”
“But I need to know their secrets, or I may have to kill one.”
“Kill one?”
“I have this feeling that I have to kill one of them.  I don’t want to, but the inner voice says we have to in order to create tension and emotional impact.  I say we can do that without the death, and he says ‘NO!  You want them crying their eyes out.  You want them to mourn.  You have to kill him.  And you have to do it dramatically, and brutally.’  I think he's wrong, but I don't know.  We fight so often now it's hard to tell when he's actually got a good point.”
“I see.  Who are these people again?”
"Oh, they're just the voices in my head."
*silent nod*

As a call goes to 911 asking for a straight jacket, stat!  Just who is this crazy person anyway?!

He's an author.

Don't laugh.  It's not that far fetched.  I know one author who stopped talking about her fiction with her therapist because he thought she was nuts.  I'm dead serious.  Had her on meds, counseling, the whole nine yards.  But talk to any author like that, and they'll not only meet you in your delusion, they'll mention bouts of their own with their characters, settings, and especially the "inner writer".

So, what?  Are all authors crazy?  Well, that's a matter of opinion isn't it?  Let's think about it for a second.  I regularly talk about "fighting" with "the writer".  He doesn't like a name.  This detail just doesn't work.  This situation is just... out of species.  You'd think I was schizophrenic.  It's all metaphor, but in its own way, it's all real too.

It's not something that can be easily explained.  I'm not sure it can be difficultly explained.  As an author, my characters "talk" to me.  Remember the YA story I'm trying to sell about wolves?  I had quite a few "conversations" with Luna about why he did the things he did.  Same with my current project.  My characters do things, say things, and sometimes it takes a while before they tell me why.

"Wait, so you have active conversations with your characters?"

And there in lies the problem with explaining this.  Do I sit down and really talk to me characters?........  Can I get back to you on that?

"It's a simple question."

No, it's not.  Well okay, I don't talk to them like they're sitting across a table from me.  But it's... it's more like I suddenly understand what they're thinking.  Or one night when I'm thinking through an event, I'll hit on their thought, and like a detective who just solved a case, I'll look up and say, "now that explains everything".  So do I talk to them?  No.  But they do communicate in ways that to most non-writers sounds like I'm losing my mind.

To say nothing of the police department.  After watching episodes of "Person of Interest" on CBS, I sometimes wonder if homeland security has a file on me.  "What do you mean?"  Well let's see, in the last six months alone, I have looked up info on:

Neo-Nazis,
Neo-Nazi secret codes,
Radiation exposure and it's effects,
Diseases that threaten both humans and animals,
How to treat and/or transmit rabies,
Military protocol,
Military tactics,
How to build miniature weapons,
IED (Improvise Exploding Devices) designs,
Poisons that affect humans and animals,
Poisons that affect just humans but are harmless to animals or visa versa,
Ecological disasters,
Torture techniques,
Ways to start a war,
Ways to commit murder under cover of a military operation,

Show that list to an FBI agent, and just try to tell them it's harmless.  Don't give any other details.  Just give him the list and say it's someone's recent Google search history.  Record it while you're at it.  I want to see his face when you do.

And then, whooo, just when you find some kind of sanity.  My next project is a sci-fi, as in other worlds and alien races.  Now I have to build entire WORLDS!  And each one is very real to me (or will be when I'm done).  I can tell you culture, type of world, traditions, all kinds of things.  None of it's real, but I'll tell you about it like I've been there!

And finally, if you value your own sanity, don't get too in depth with a fellow author in the midst of a project.  Otherwise you may find yourself dreaming about a conversation like this one.