Sometimes I get stuck when I'm trying to write, but here's how I beat it.

Writer's block. You've probably heard of it, and probably experienced it yourself. Maybe it was a school paper you sat down to write, but nothing came. Writer's block is like that, but nothing comes for a long time, long enough to make the writer wonder if it ever will come. I know what that's like. It's what happened to me after I came out of the hospital after Wernicke's Encephalopathy.
   Most of the time when I get stuck, it's not writer's block. It won't last long. It's just a wee bit of blank-screen-itis. My mind's way of telling me it's not ready to produce. There is no Ralph the Muse to whap me upside the head with his trusty, rusty tennis racket.
   That's when I start posting on Facebook. I let my mind roam free. Respond to friends. Tell a story or two. I write through the little gap in whatever book I'm working on.
   I think it's actually healthy. I don't focus much on whatever I'm banging out on the keyboard while I'm banging it out (as friends of mine on Facebook can probably tell.) I just have a little fun for a while. What I'm actually doing is letting my mental "back forty" fill up with Sexton stuff.
   When the mental back forty is full, I can usually tell. An image of a character in the Sexton books comes to me, doing something. Or a phrase will appear in my mind, ready to jump start the page, or the chapter, or the scene.
   Then I leave Facebook cold and start writing.

Chapter Sixty-six

   I'm working on Chapter Sixty-six of Sexton Sand, the fourth book in the series Sexton Chronicles. About two thirds through the book, Chapter Sixty-six isn't a pivotal chapter. It's important pretty much only because people have a reasonable expectation to go from chapter sixty-five to sixty-six to sixty-seven. That means I pretty much have to write chapter sixty-six.

Does it seem like I'm stalling? I suppose it does.

I'm just waiting for an idea. It'll come, it always does. Just a little whap upside the head from Ralph the Muse...

OW!

Gotta go. I'm ready.