Tricks for Writers

Not tips for writers, you'll notice. Tricks! I thought since I am now the proud owner of a writing award - thank you Elizabeth Spann Craig - I would stop being nostalgic about my youth and write something about writing. What a concept!
I am a normal, lazy person. I don't really believe in the concept of laziness you understand. I believe it is always at the heart of it - fear or didn't want to do it anyway. Be that as it may, I have some tricks for getting myself over the muddy wallows of writing a novel - or anything else too. Sometime in my murky past I wrote publicity pieces for a company I owned. I also wrote for a weekly newspaper. I would get tired of churning out the publicity pieces - using the same trite and tired phrases that soon became leached of all meaning - 'rising star', 'world debut', master technician, great depth of feeling, blah blah blah. In that world, to get over my laziness - I would write something totally bad. Remember that these were the days before email so I almost never got caught writing that the upcoming pianist was a social disaster who didn't know how to put his pants on right let alone inspire confidence in his ability to tackle Mozart. So that was a trick to get me going.
Nowadays I need a different sort of trick. Though getting mad at stubborn characters is still something I might use from time to time. Here are some more:

1. Title a chapter. Just call it whatever name pops into my head - to give you an idea, for The Rock Walker, I had titles such as 'Sinatra', 'Home', 'Jellied Salads', 'Remorse', etc... giving myself one word was sometimes all it took to move the plot forward even if I eventually chucked the title.
2. Imagining myself entering the space of the novel and asking questions like "what's going on here?" "how come you look so sad?" and listening for the answers.
3. Imagining the location and see what stands out - what is in the landscape that needs the attention of the protagonist?
4. Inventing a new and absolutely fun character - that has carried me through lots of muddy wallows. Especially to find characters that aren't what they appear to be - old ladies who are wildly adventurous, young men who are persnickety detail freaks, 9 year old girls who are mad for war games, etc...
5. Pretending I am my character's therapist and asking them what they want to change.
6. When really crazed - I invent wonderful rooms - quirky ones that tell a lot about the character. My main character has an obsession with decorating so she always notices the spaces of the people she interviews (she's a cop).

How about the rest of you? Any weird and wonderful ways you get going when the wallow beckons?