Old School

Remember a couple of days ago when I mentioned being frustrated with the writing process?

Turns out all I needed was a pen and some paper.  I've spent the last few nights staring at my screen, not sure where to go next.  I tried brainstorming, outlining, free writing, none of it got me anywhere.

Today I grabbed my notebook and a pen and tried again.  Somehow the ideas popped right out.  I sketched out the outline of what I had so far, leaving blanks for where I was stuck.  I just started jotting down ideas until one stuck.  After that the rest just kind of fell into place.  Now I've got the direction I needed to connect the major plot points.  I'm sure a lot of the specifics will change but I feel like I have a map to get me out of the dead end.

There is just something about pen and paper for me.  I'm a stickler for fine tip pens too, can't write with anything else.  The feel of the pen drawn across paper is incredibly satisfying.

I could never write an entire book or even a short story that way though.  My handwriting is atrocious and only gets worse the higher the word count. It really seems to work for note taking, brainstorming, outlining etc.  For some reason I always want to do everything on the computer but I guess I need to embrace my inner anachronist (Is that even a word?  Who cares it is now).

Do you have any tricks or tips for getting unstuck, any favorite "old school" techniques that you use?

Sláinte!

Dwight