There are many ways to fight writer’s block, find inspiration
Don’t feel like writing? Join the club. Sometimes life is too busy and our brains are too crowded with schedules, appointments and commitments. Sometimes we lack ideas or confidence. A clear mind allows room for inspiration, but how can we banish the mental detritus?
Nature can nurture, so heading for an unpeopled locale can be helpful. For Riversiders, Sycamore Canyon, Box Springs Two Trees Trail or the UC Riverside Botanic Gardens (on an off day) are favorite locales.
Mount Rubidoux has become too popular, so I head for an old quarry nearby, a steep short climb that offers a view of Fairmount Park north into the San Bernardino Mountains. The breathless climb clears my head, as does the view. Ideas spring to mind as I read the graffiti on a ledge and scan the weathered bits of debris discarded by a previous visitor.
On the return trip, I have a view into a long string of interesting backyards: The large carefully tended garden of edible greens, the tree house and dog run, the basketball hoop and jacuzzi, the flower bed and statuary. After three decades of journalism, I prefer fiction, so I people these yards with imagined characters and protagonists, good and evil. Fairy tales come to mind, waiting for new interpretations.
When I do write nonfiction, it’s mainly memoir — usually current — since the twins who live with us are 15 with everchanging stories. Versions of the past are more likely to creep into fiction than memoir.
When ideas fail to appear and confidence fades, online opportunities are easy to find. Google “writer’s block” and a plethora of help is on the way. The first time-honored piece of advice is to write every day for 20 or 30 minutes — it doesn’t matter what it is — before beginning the day’s busy schedule. This can magically evolve into an hour or more of writing, bypassing perfectionism, fear of failure and a lack of ideas. Julia Cameron says so in “The Artist’s Way” and so does
Fred Meyer on Writer. com, where he discusses “Creative Writing Anxiety: What It Is and How to Overcome It.”
For those who are energized by in-person connections, Inlandia Institute in Riverside and San Bernardino offers a full schedule of writing workshops and author’s talks. Writers who have written and published their work often have a great deal to share. “Poets & Writers” magazine offers online and local in-person workshops and classes, but it’s necessary to sign in and establish a profile on pw.org.
A monthly in-person writers’ group keeps me writing. Sometimes the fourth Saturday of the month sneaks up on me and I must scramble to find a piece to bring to the Redlands meeting. Fortunately, I have a habit of jotting down ideas, so I choose one to polish into a flash piece worth sharing. We write in different genres — memoir, short stories and my speculative flash fiction — which keeps the meetings varied and interesting.
I’ve tried peer writing groups, but I benefit most when the meeting is led by an experienced instructor, in my case author and writing coach Bruce McAllister. Once the other writers voice their impressions and McAllister offers his suggestions, I can take my latest story home to hone into a piece worth submitting to an online magazine.
Which brings me to my biggest inspiration: deadlines. As a former journalist, the rush of adrenaline to finish a feature story and now, a flash fiction piece, leads me to my keyboard.
I no longer have newspaper deadlines, so I watch for due dates for online contests and magazines. They’re easy to find with a browser. Some have entry fees, but others are free. When I Google “flash fiction contests,” I see “Flash Fiction Magazine,” which lists “18 Best Flash Fiction Contests (2023)” and “4 Best 100-Word Story Contests (2023).”
A couple of longtime favorites that have published my work are “Prime Number Magazine,” which offers a free 53-word story contest in addition to longer stories, and “Writer Advice,” which, in addition to contests, offers writerly advice if you want it.
Donna Kennedy was a writer for The PressEnterprise and an English instructor at San Bernardino Valley College. Her writing has appeared in anthologies and online magazines. She and her husband, William Linehan, are authors of “Queen of the Salton Sea: Helen Burns and Me.”