The Secret to Writer’s Block: Color

Requiem for a Dream In Blue: 

Using a Color as the Inspiration to Break Through Writer’s Block When Describing a Scene

My first novel, Arriving Through Time, was inspired by a recurrent dream that I had when I was a teenager.  It was a dream that woke me up in a cold sweat.  The dream was clear and vivid.  The images didn’t fade and go away like a “normal” dream.  They stuck with me.  Over a year later, I had the exact same dream.  It was like déjà vu, except when I was asleep and with an event that never actually happened.  Then, two months later it happened again.  The first two times everything was in black and white, but the third time was different.  The third time, I saw the brightest and most beautiful shade of blue piercing through the monochromatic color scheme.

It was like in the book The Giver by Lois Lowry (spoiler alert) when Jonas realizes that certain objects that he comes across are different than others.  He doesn't know how they are different, he just knows that they are.  He sees an apple, his friend Fiona’s hair, and then a sled.  You realize that the difference is that Jonas is now able to see-to know and experience- the color of red.  Imagine if you were only able to see the world in black and white and suddenly you saw the color red, how impactful that would be.  The scene with the sled is especially powerful.  Reading his journey, you can picture the bright red sled on the crisp, white snow.  The ability to see the color itself is important and beautiful.  Here’s a link to goodreads in case you haven’t read it yet:  https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3636.The_Giver?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=BBftbPoolk&rank=1

So, yeah, that shade of blue from my dream stuck with me. Twenty years later (time finds a way to fly by) I found myself on a tour of a cave with three of my very good friends.  The cave was filled with impossible shapes hanging from the ceiling and popping up from the floor.  It was dark, gloomy, and a little bit scary.  A ways in, the cave opened up into a giant cavern with a beautiful pool of water right in the middle of it.  To show off the magnificence of the place, small lights were strategically placed to illuminate the ripples.  The color that appeared was a bright and beautiful shade of blue.  It was the same blue that I had seen in my dream, all those years ago. 

I took that as a sign and right then decided to finally write my dream into a story.  I went home and started thinking about what I would write.  I started researching some of the ideas that I had.  I wouldn’t actually write my first word for another five months, but that blue was the inspiration that I needed to get myself together, and start writing.  Sometimes when I would get writer’s block when writing a scene, I would look back at those pictures from the cave.  It would bring me back to that first time when I saw that brilliant blue in real life.  It would remind me of my dream and I would start writing again.

I ended up incorporating both the cave and the shade of blue into Arriving Through Time.  It even made its way onto the cover of the book.  So if there’s a certain color that stands out as important to you or your story, use that as inspiration.  Here are some ways on how to do that:

• Go online and search for photos that highlight your chosen color.  Try googling for “beautiful blue nature” or “beautiful blue picture background” 

• Search through your own pictures and make yourself a mood board.  Fashion designers and artists often make mood boards to give them inspiration for a collection.  These can be physical or digital.  If you are interested in trying digital, try https://www.pinterest.com/ (which you can set to private) or https://milanote.com/.  Why not use this same method to help frame a chapter or scene in your book?

• Change the screensaver or background on your computer to highlight your chosen color so that every time you sit down to write, it’s the first thing you see.  

• You can even surround your workspace with objects of your chosen color for a little extra writer’s block inspiration.  Try putting a vase of flowers, other books, or even toys/legos near your writing space that display your color of choice.   

There are endless opportunities to try something new and find something different that works for you.

So, the next time that you feel like writer’s block is keeping you from starting to write, try some inspiration from the color blue or another favorite color of your choice instead. 

I hope that these ideas help you to break through! 

Found a great source of inspiration that worked for you? Let me know!

Still getting writer’s block?  Tell me how I can help!