Writer's block deserves a good beating

To write well you must train. Build up those skills and use them daily. Sometimes, though, your writing just seems listless, even puny. Happens to all of us.

Try this:

I sometimes play games with myself while writing. For example, in a piece about boxing movies, I used boxing-related verbs and nouns throughout, but for the most part not while referring to boxing. I talked about the camera circling the actors, but not the boxers circling each other.

A good half of the verbs in the piece had some connection to boxing. When writing about the fight scenes, I dodged the obvious and the cliches, saving those punchy words for the rest of the piece.

This made use of the related words (corner, ring, glove, knocks out, spars, punch, rope, feigns) more interesting and less obvious. A few readers picked up on the technique; most probably didn't. The game forced me into using some words I wouldn't normally use -- and turned off the author auto-pilot.

Another fun thing is to adopt a character's voice. Maybe someone you know who has an interesting way with words or maybe a generic voice, like a film noir narrator. If you're writing about President Obama, sneak in some of his typical phrasings or expressions. Don't overdo it, though -- this is just between you and you.

Anyone know any good games? Please leave them in the comments.