You know how, when you finish that memoir, novel, book of poetry, and all of a sudden, your realize it’s done? Over?

Maybe your writing is in the hands of an editor. Maybe your work is already published (Hooray!). But now?

Perhaps you’re all-too familiar with this phenomenon called writer’s block. Maybe you feel the agony of it now because any new characters at your door aren’t knocking loud enough for you to hear.

You miss forming words into sentences and sentences into paragraphs and paragraphs into a manuscript. You long to taste new words on your tongue and massage them between your fingers. But they are out of reach. I’m included in this category of empty blockheads.

Perhaps, for novel writers, we should start with a real block. Each of the six sides holds the secrets to starting anew.

Side one: Think of a cool protagonist.

Side two: A badass antagonist.

Side three: The inciting incident. Is it dangerous? Emotional?

Side four: The setting. Dark? Beautiful?

Side five: Devise a plot around sides one through four.

Side six: There’s a theme in there somewhere. What is it?

Don’t know about you, but I’ll be tossing my block around for a while until it hits me in the head.