Writer’s Block by Pete Walsh

Sometimes one wakes in the morning with an unexplainable cold sweat or their teeth won’t feel squeaky after a good cleaning with a fully charged brush. It’s at times like that Pete knows he will experience that little understood and largely untreatable phenomenon known as ******* ***** (we agreed not to print it here – Pete is feeling sensitive).

Describing how he overcomes the problem is his intention here. He speaks of nothing specific because it is impossible to be so, as each and every one of us is unique.

What Pete does is to forget the usual claimed remedies. Huge amounts of money spent on ill-prepared weekend writer retreats, Halloween parties in March. Shoplifting jaunts to Harrods on Saturday afternoons are not for him, or exhausting oneself taking inspiration from strange cloud forms, old postcards, sniffing white powder or supping six tinnies of super cheap supermarket cider.

What Pete does is to take a piece of work from his files and whether he is happy with it or not, whether or not it has been published - he takes the piece apart and reworks it (it’s usually a piece that’s been sat in draft for several years). He might change it structurally, putting the end at the beginning, may change tense, change narrator, change narrative style/voice, transpose character responsibilities antagonist/protagonist, setting, time of day/year, the weather, making hot become cold, wet become dry. The possibilities are limitless. It is almost always a fruitful exercise and Pete often enjoys a glass of wine to celebrate.

  

Pete expresses his thanks and promises to try to overcome the shyness.

Pete recently published an ebook title on Amazon and is a regular contributor on The Unofficial 'Brit Writers and Writers Everywhere' blog