1 Perfect Trick to Break Writer’s Block
Take your characters to the Grocery Store
Philip read the handwritten note.
Eighteen linear feet of shelves, six feet high packed with a cornucopia of condiments, the variety he had never truly contemplated, stared back. There were at least eleven varieties of yellow mustard set at eye level, with grainy browns and golds arrayed on the shelves above and below in some hierarchy of color, texture and price he could not decipher. The ketchup looked simpler until he started to read the labels; low sugar, no sugar, organic, vegan, kosher for Passover, etc.
Did people actually make kosher cheeseburgers? Was that a thing? How could they get that to work with the milk and the meat in one sandwich? What kind of bun would they use? His mind started to spin.
Grappling with the gravity of his decision he revisited the note, looking for reassurance, but there was none to be found in Gerard’s looping cursive. Ketchup, Mustard, Mayo gave him not a clue as to what combination of sauces or dressings would bring satisfaction to his mate. He felt flush in his face and hot around his collar.
Philip scanned the aisle one last time, seeing not the individual bottles but the spectrum, a rainbow of red yellow and white. He crumpled the note and stuffed it back in his pocket, mumbling.
“You’re going to have to get them yourself Gerry. I don’t know what you want.”
Have you ever gotten to a point with a character that you are having trouble fleshing them out? You have an idea of who this character is, but you just aren’t sure of their voice or their motivations? Maybe they’re a secondary character in your story and you haven’t focused on them yet, and now you are faced with putting them in an important scene. Why are they there? How would they act? You just don’t know.
Not knowing a character well enough can easily lead to paralysis in your writing. For me, it’s a sure fire path to writer’s block. For years I had trouble working this out, but I’ve found a shortcut in my own process that I’ll share with you. The trick I’ve been using is to take my characters on a grocery store run.
No, seriously.
If you follow me on Twitter (@RW_Igloo), you’ll see I’ve talked about it numerous times. This advice has never failed me, and has helped me produce some of the richest characters I’ve ever written. Here is how it works.
Write one page about your character going to a grocery store. Here is a list of questions to get you started:
· What store are they going to? The supermarket? The farmers market? The gas station that only sells milk? The ship’s commissary? The black market behind the drive thru?
· How would they get there? Alone on their Schwinn ten speed? With a group? Drive? Walk? Fly on their hover board?
· What are they there to do? Restock their hand me down mini-fridge? Get ingredients for Mama’s sauce? Steal a pound of salt? Buy a frozen turkey that fits in a catapult.
· How would they move through the store? Browse the cereal aisle looking for the best toy? Attack like their on a shopping spree? Squeeze the avocados when they pass, even though they hate guacamole? Read the signs for special prices? Head down in a list? Phone to their ear?
· What are they buying? Fresh produce? Pounds of peanuts? Cat food for a puma? The last bottle of triple distilled rose vinegar imported from their estranged mother’s family vineyard in Monrovia?
· What are they carrying around? A purse? Pushing an empty cart? Manhandling three cases of bananas on their overly broad shoulders? A Louis Vuitton coupon sorter?
· How would they pay? Counterfeit twenties? Jar of pennies? Visa? Oh, they don’t pay?
· How do they leave? Reusable bag in hand, munching on organic granola? Twelve bottles of high end moisturizer tucked into a baggy sweatshirt? Laser guns aimed at an old lady’s head, slowly backing into the parking lot? Racing through the stock room on a forklift?
By the time you’ve finished writing your grocery run, you’ll have worked out so much information about your character you’ll easily have pages of notes. These seemingly mundane decisions should give you a clearer picture of who this character is, how they move, and how they interact. While this is good, what is most important is why? Your search is not for the perfect box of cereal, but for character motivations.
And this is why you are not yet done. This exercise is only one page. Look back. Have you overwritten the detail and lost the character? Go back and try again, making sure you capture not only the details, but the core of this character Why do you care about them? Why should the reader?
The details are important, and it’s fun to turn this exercise into something more, but by rewriting to keep the grocery run to a single page you’ll force your mind to decide which details are most important. Just like shopping for pickles, readers don’t need to know every ingredient on the label, but they care about the taste. Treat your characters the same way and you’ll add flavor to your work.
These details might not make it into your story, but they’ll give you a recipe for rich characters and you’ll never look at the grocery store the same way again.
Gerard’s white Prius pulled into the fire lane of the Stop and Shop. He punched the flashers, grabbed his leather bound coupon holder and rushed out, not bothering with a cart or basket. His mouth never stopped moving, bouncing from Maroon Five lyrics to his nonstop personal narration.
“…dammit Phil all I wanted was Mayo, Ketchup and Mustard. Is it really that hard? I just wanted a cheeseburger.”
