Right hand/left hand

This is my attempt at a useful post. I've moaned about mentioned my tendency towards writers block since this blog was born. And today I thought I'd talk about a method that really helped me with one story in particular. The story Omelette won third place in the inaugural Words with Jam short story competition a couple of years ago, so I feel confident in sharing this method with you.

What you do is swap the hand you normally write with!

That's it. How easy!

This isn't my invention - I read about it, but I can't remember where.

The theory behind it is that writing with the wrong hand makes you concentrate much harder on the actual mechanics of forming the words on the page, which leaves your subconscious mind free to be creative.

Try this:
Start with the sentence When I was younger my favourite toy was...


Remember to write it with the wrong hand, and don't analyse the content - that's very important: don't censor yourself!

When I tried it myself, I managed to pull out a long forgotten incident involving my mum, which was nothing to do with my favourite toy. It's a great way to stop writers block in its tracks.

Part of Omelette written normally...

... and with my left/wrong hand

So, how did you get on?