Physician, heal thyself. This adage offers a no-nonsense approach to curing self-diagnosed diseases. As writers, words equal health. When they fail us, we diagnose ourselves with a horrendous disease called writer's block-a vague, overwhelming, and occasionally insurmountable verdict. When I experience periodic writing problems, I refuse to accept such a diagnosis.

Instead, I delve into the underlying causes, breaking down this all encompassing disease into distinct, treatable ailments. I have identified seven different conditions that afflict my writing health. Each disorder manifests specific symptoms that can be cured by targeting them with relevant treatments.

Character Mutiny

• Apply firm discipline. Extensive planning in the prewriting stage will give your characters a steady direction and could prevent the little darlings from straying from the course you map out.
• Know what they intend to do before they do it. Examine your characters thoroughly before starting to write. Conduct interviews. Create character journals. Employ detailed character sheets. The better you know them, the less likely they are to surprise you.
• Consider changing your POV character. A different character might be easier to control and less likely to stray. Consider mutiny as a signal that your characters are unhappy. Selecting a new leader could bring them all back into line.
• Go along for the ride. Continue writing to discover where your characters are headed. Maybe they know more than you. You might like the results or gain additional insight. If you end up dissatisfied, analyze what you have written, then revise and edit.

Pickled Plotination

• Graph a story arc that shows tension and resolution for every plot and subplot. This will enable you to keep them all separate and follow their progress with ease.
• Color code all the scenes related to each story arc with different color markers, and review one color at a time. Look for lost connections needed between plots; untangle cumbersome twists; eliminate unnecessary duplication.
• Write backwards. For exceptionally complicated plots, outline your plot from ending to beginning to ensure your plot lines finish where they need to.
• Impose structure before you write- use outlines, note cards, or story boards to guide your writing rather than allowing it to grow haphazardly.

Word Wrangling

• Permit yourself to write a terrible first draft. Allow the story to flow freely; revise and edit later.
• Immerse yourself in your fictional world. Steep yourself in the setting; listen to your character. Write from inside your protagonist's skin. If you experience the story from the viewpoint of a kindergartener (or a leprechaun, or a prince) the right words will materialize organically.
• Don't embellish your prose for emotional effect. Let emotion emerge from action, scene, and dialog.
• Establish voice in your writing-character voice, not author voice. Allow your character's personality (demure or bold, sarcastic or supportive) to pervade the entire scene, not just the dialog.
• Edit for style. First drafts bite. Polish your word choices and develop stylistic nuances later.

Elective Mutism

• Determine your focus before you begin.
• Select one or two significant elements such as theme or character growth. Type them on note cards and dangle them, like carrots, over your writing area as a constant reminder of your desired outcome.
• Create a storyboard to chart and manipulate story variables, organize your characters and themes, and gather the scattered chaos into manageable form.

Creativity Dementia

• Impose order on the chaos. Employ any and all structured stratagems capable of confining the raging flow and channeling it into readable prose.
• Journals, word maps, idea webs, outlines, synopses,
• Print out the gibberish and engage in an old fashioned cut and paste session with real scissors and tape. Manipulate the words manually and wrestle them into order.
• Ruthlessly trash anything that resists organization.

Keyboard Crapola

• Think story and only story while writing.
• Consider the audience, the market, and the editor before or after the first draft, not while writing it. Pre-writing strategies or later revisions can address your publication concerns.
• Turn off your internal editor and turn on your muse.
• Allow your story to speak to you.
• Write for yourself first.

Blank Paginitis

• Write anything. Write everything. From grocery lists to an essay on why you want to live in Hershey, PA. Just show that blank page who is boss.
• Don't write. Pre-write. Create and interview a character. Rewrite a scene from a borrowed story.
• Employ writing prompts as warm ups.
• Go to boot camp. Never approach a blank page unprepared. Have a writing plan ready-outline, story board, character sketch, plot line, etc.
• Once the page is no longer blank, slip unobtrusively into writing fiction.

Refuse to apply a terminal diagnosis of writer's block to your writing woes. When difficult periods arise, and they will, closely examine your writing for the specific aliment involved and treat it accordingly. You will be writing again in no time.