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Let’s say you’re writing and you get stuck.  It happens, even if you’re intensely creative, knowledgeable and modest.  Here are a few tricks to help you get started again.

1. Switch problems. Generally, writer’s block sets in when a hero has resolved a problem and it’s not clear where the story is headed.  Are there any problems left?  Could you introduce a new problem?
2. Switch solutions. Have your hero try to look at his problems in a new way.  Maybe he has to use ingenuity instead of brute force, or diplomacy instead of coercion, or careful planning rather than impulsiveness.  (For example, the latest Heroes episode forced Hiro to set an old-fashioned ambush rather than stop time).
3. Add a complication. Last chapter, it may have looked like the hero’s solution worked perfectly.  Well, that was last chapter.  What went wrong?
4. Switch scenes. “Meanwhile, thousands of miles away…”  Moving the story very far will probably feel disjointed at first, but you can later add a smoother transition as you determine where the story is going.
5. Switch perspectives, as a last resort. Sometimes, writers pick an angle because it’s conventional.  “I want to write about a magical university, so my story will be about a young wizard who studies there and eventually saves the world from great evil.”  Harry Potter used that angle quite well, but it’s not the only possibility.  What if you told a story about the teachers?  Or campus security? Or the admissions office?  Or the Ministry of Magic?  Or the bad guys?  Or the broom-flying instructors?  Or the headmaster?  Your story almost certainly has many such possibilities.  At the very least, any of these perspectives could add another chapter to help you develop your Harry Potter character in a different direction.

Expecting perfection from the first draft will probably paralyze you. On the first draft, the most important thing is to write something and then you can turn it into a coherent, clean masterpiece later. When you’re writing the first draft, it may help to think of your job as giving your internal self-editor material to work with rather than writing a story fit for public consumption.

Here are a few suggestions to avoid perfectionist impulses during the first draft…

1) Don’t edit.

2) If you get stuck on what happens in one part of the story, summarize it in a few sentences and move on. You can fill it in later.

3) Commit yourself to writing for at least 30 or 45 minutes. After ten minutes of accomplishing little, you will hopefully start to feel frustrated and lower your expectations. “Maybe this line is good enough.”

Over the past 6 weeks, our staff has written over 20,000 words of writing suggestions and advice, bringing us to about 45,000 (not including rewrites or deleted words). At this rate, we might actually have a manuscript-length compilation by the end of summer, but a manuscript for a nonfiction writing guide rather than the superhero comedy we had sought to write. I feel like I’m running out of time on this project.

CADET DAVIS: non-fiction’s a tougher market and both readers and publishers have higher standards. Also, not having been published will be a major liability. Right now, I can envision that you would pitch the writing guide to publishers as a freakishly prolific reviewer’s take on what makes sci-fi and fantasy books work, particularly in the superhero literature submarket.

JACOB: Oh, come on. We can do better than that. For example, you could slot me 10,000 words for a quantitative analysis of which titles are most effective…

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