Switching Genres to Get the Creative Juices Flowing

Lately I have had trouble with my novel as I discussed in my last post.  In that post I talked about finding inspiration and that this can occur through various avenues.  My inspiration came from another budding writer and their commitment and passion to writing that encourages them to write everyday.

I think that it is all to easy to get caught up in the day-to-day tasks that we all have that it becomes harder and harder to write when we keep finding excuses.  So after my last post, I sat down to my novel, however, I just couldn’t get the creative juices flowing.  So instead, I decided to write something completely different.  I decided to write a short story.  Some time ago I found the website called Short Story Ideas.  This website assists writers with short stories.  It even goes as far as generating scenarios for you by providing you the location, theme and provides an object to play a part.  An example of one scenario; a swimming pool is the location, revenge is the theme, a deck chair is an object.  This can aid short story writers and those (like me) who suffer writers block on occasion.

So the scenario I chose to write a short story about was of a completely different genre to my novel.  My novel is fantasy and I chose to write a romantic short story.  There reason that I chose romance as a genre was because I felt that I needed to writer some dialogue.  I am at the stage of my novel where I am putting together all the background and foundation of the story that I felt as though is was turning into an essay!  And that’s not the way I want to feel about my novel.

So hence the switch to romance.  And you know what?  Once I started writing, I got passionate (quite appropriate for a romance novel isn’t it?) I was enjoying myself and I didn’t feel as though it was a chore.  It started to turn in a first chapter and not so much a short story.  I was able to belt out over 4000 words with no effort at all, such a change from the struggle I was having.  Over the past couple of days, I really feel as though I really accomplished something.  While this may not eventuate into a novel, the main thing is that I’m having fun writing it – and no writing is bad writing, it all helps towards honing your skills as a writer.

So my question to you is:  What do you do to overcome your lull in creative juices?