Mental Blocking

Say it’s Fourth and Goal. (If you don’t know football, you think I’m talking gibberish, but I’m really not. It’s the equivalent of the last page of a novel. All this football on TV is getting to me.) Your offensive line is standing in front of you, you quarterbacking. The ball is set; you’re looking at the formation of the defense. You know they are going to rush you, and you need to do the sneak to make it that last little inch that will help you reach your goal, but the defense is there to stop you. You hike the ball, it’s in your hands, and you freeze.

You freeze. Time stops around you. You’re looking at everyone, frozen in position, waiting to be moved, waiting for their turn to be perfected. And you’re blank. The plan you had is gone, the slate is wiped clean.

So what do you do next? You still have to move forward. You still have to make it that last inch to complete the down; because if you don’t, you just wasted all that time, all that hard work and effort. But you can’t think of your next move. You can’t think past the next second. So you take a step back, reading the lines of defense- you’ve only got one chance to make this right.

Suddenly the defense comes to life, rearing up, looking you in the eye, daring you to come forward. Your offense is covered. The beating of your heart, now pounding with all the thunder of elephants stampeding. Your mind is racing. A plan. You need a plan. It comes to you.

You need a Hail Mary.

The finish line is right in front of you. The defense will try to block you. There will be some part of you that feels like you can’t go any further but you have to just do it. Go for it. Take that chance.

So what does this all translate out to? Well if you know football, then you might understand, and if not. You’re the Quarterback- the writer. The defense is everything that you find wrong in what you’re working on, may it be pacing, characterization, goals, motivations, grammar, spelling.. etc. The offense is the meat of your novel. The plot. The characters. The goal line.. come on! You know that one. The football is your pen, keyboard, whatever you use to write. Each new set of downs is a chapter written. But when you get to Fourth and Goal it’s time to do your thing or get off the pot. It’s time to buck up and get the job done.

Mental blocking is a lot like defense. Mentally we get to a certain point and we don’t have the capacity to go any further. It can just be for the night or it can be the novel. You hope its just you, but sometimes no matter what you do, that mental block just grabs a hold and you can’t shake it.

I have to be honest, since working on my contest entry, I didn’t really think much past it. Our Powder Monkey, Lis, graciously agreed to trade spots with me this week, after a frantic email the night before I would need to post. Only because I’ve been writing like a fiend for the past few days to make this deadline for the Amber Quill- Amber Heat contest. I’m one of those writers that waits until the last minute. I’m a pantser and a procrastinator (equals = total slacker), a deadline to me just means I know how much time I have to slack off. I need a deadline to tell me to get my ass in gear and I knew this deadline was going to be hard to meet because of the holidays, but it came up so soon *laughing* Sometimes I can’t even believe myself.

I had this plan (sort of) of what I was going to write in this erotica, and as always, it took on life of its own and now it’s nothing like what I wanted. So I took a deep breath, pulled the fic back out and looked it over (kinda) and thought about where I need to go back in order to straighten it out. Plan to rewrite about 5k. Very do-able for me. Probably 3 hours, maybe. But I’ve got 11 days! 11 days to get this done! I’ve got plenty of time…

I’ve got a problem though. I’m standing on the one yard line, my goal line in plain sight- I haven’t frozen yet. My fingers are still moving, but I’m so close. The mental block is creeping closer, trying to get me to succumb. Trying to get me to write something else. Tempting me away by episodes of Blood Ties and e-mails and good books and movies.

But I’m the Quarterback, standing on the offensive line, pen in hand, last page ready to be written and I will not be deterred. If you believe, you have to keep the faith. The inspiration will come, and if not, I’ll pull back and let the Hail Mary fly.

Mental blocking, you have no hold on me. Defense, fall back and stop stressing me. My offense is game. My Hail Mary is good. This Quarterback is about to do the end-zone dance (though it might require lots of rum and a good, sturdy looking… mast. Yeah, that’s what I was going to say. For dancing. Just a living, breathing mast. To do the horizontal kind of dancing. *grin*)

Ever got to that point in something you're working on (whether it be writing or not) that you just can’t go any further? So what’s your Hail Mary plan? How do you get back on track?