Writing Tips And Tricks
Writer’s Block: Overcoming A Writer’s Worst Nightmare
Learn how to deal with a writing slump, with these simple and unique tips
If you have been writing for long, you’re probably no stranger to the crippling embrace of a writer’s block. While many believe it to be a myth or simply an excuse to get away from writing, many writers both professionals and amateurs have experienced it at least once in their professional lives.
As a writer, experiencing writer’s block is like a nightmare situation! Like a Demogorgon to your El or Agent Smith to your Neo, writer’s block simply keeps getting in the way of your masterpiece. So here are some ways to defeat your writer’s block and get your creative juices flowing.
What Exactly Is Writer’s Block?
In simple words, the creative slump or the overwhelming feeling of being stuck in the writing process, and not knowing what to write is writer’s block. The block impedes the writer’s pace and they may feel stuck, unable to move forward, or write anything new. Anyone can face writer’s block, whether you’ve been writing for years or simply getting started out. What matters is that some steps are taken to deal with the block, because if it is left unchecked it can put a stopper in your writing for weeks or even months together!
What Are Some Common Causes Of Writer’s Block?
Writer’s block can happen for varying reasons and the causes can be quite subjective as well. Some believe that writer’s block is simply an indication of no talent or laziness, well that’s certainly not the case.
Some of the most common reasons majority of writers face writer’s block are:
- Anxiety and Fear — Some writers struggle with the fear that their work may not be good enough and worry excessively about the criticism it may garner. On the other hand, some others fall down the rabbit hole of comparing their works to those of other writers in a negative light. Instead of viewing other works as learning material, they begin self-doubting their skills and creativity.
- Timing — At times an idea has simply not stewed for long enough to translate onto paper. It’s just not the right time to write, and all you need to do is give yourself a short break, while your brain works in the background weaving some amazing ideas to use for your piece.
- Perfectionism — Some writers just need everything to be a certain way. They set high standards for themselves and refuse to hit ‘submit’ unless the piece reaches their expectations. Not every work you write will always be perfect. Some days you’ll have you’ll be at your creative best and some other days your article might get by as average.
Some Solutions To Overcome Writer’s Block
Here are some tips and tricks to defeating the monster of your writing nightmare.
Try A New Hobby
If you have longer deadlines and some time to spare, then you can take a small break from writing. Do something else for a few days, perhaps try making art or going dancing. Whatever you do doesn’t have to be something grand, even something like trying a new recipe or catching up on your reading can be considered as alternatives to do in your break.
Then try writing after a few days. The break should provide you enough mental relief from the seemingly mundane task of writing every single day.
Do Something Mundane
If you don’t have longer deadlines and work to submit an article or page per day, then taking a few days’ break is simply impractical. Instead, take a short break and do something mundane, like your laundry or go for a walk, or listen to some good music.
While it may seem that you’re not doing anything worthwhile, your creative side is now free to explore new ideas and conjure up some great ideas!
Declutter Your Workspace
Sitting at the same desk, with the same laptop, on the same chair, and looking at the same wall or poster every single day may cause the writing process to seem monotonous. A perhaps wacky way of dealing with writer’s block is to enhance your workspace. If your workspace is cluttered with trash and unwanted items, and just looks disorganized as a whole, that too can put a damper on your writing mood.
Try decluttering your writing space and you could even add some pretty aesthetics to it like some fresh flowers or colorful post-its with funny jokes or some artwork that you made. All of these will enhance your mood and perhaps even inspire you to write something.
Freewriting
When you’re writing for work, all of the pieces are grammatically correct, with sound vocabulary, in a particle tone of voice, and follow a certain format. These restrictions may seem imposing, especially if you’re dealing with writer’s block. Freewriting is basically writing without holding back, with no restrictions on grammar, syntax, sentence structure, or vocabulary.
While most of it may not be useful later on, it will surely help you push through the block.
Re-read Your Work
Have you ever felt stuck in the middle of writing your article? At such times it may seem like you can’t figure out a way forward or even around the article. The best way to deal with such instances is to take a short break, de-stress by doing some hobby or a mundane activity, and later on re-read your entire work with a fresh mind.
Re-reading your work helps put you back in the mindset of your article, and makes you realize if you’ve gone off track or if some ideas are not illustrated clearly.
Create A Deadline
As you’re battling writer’s block, there’s a good chance that procrastination may creep up on you as well. For those writers who are aware that they may end up procrastinating, creating a deadline for yourself even if you’re dealing with writer’s block may be helpful.
The deadline demands your focus, forcing you to come through with your writing.
Push Yourself To Write (Even If It Turns Up Bad…)
Believe it or not — the best way to deal with writer’s block is to write! Every writer is aware that the first draft of your article is never the final draft. If you strive to write a perfect first draft, you’ll never get past your block. Instead, start writing smaller pieces of your article, irrespective of the grammar, the vocabulary or whether it sounds good or not, put down the words.
If you get stuck at some difficult part, skip it and write the easier portions. This will force you out of your writing rut, and get you back in the groove. And once you’re back to your writing mindset, you can read through the first draft and make all the necessary changes.
Try Prompt Writing
Prompt writing is something we all have done in school. Remember when you’d be given a topic and were told to write continuously for 15 minutes? That’s prompt writing. Pick out any random topic, whatever piques your interest, and just write for 15 minutes straight. Don’t worry about grammar or sentence structure as long as you keep writing.
Since the topic would be of your liking and you’re not imposing any format restrictions on yourself, this exercise should get your creative juices flowing and get you back to your work!
Start From The Easier Parts
When you’re writing an article, there’s no hard and fast rule that you have to start writing from the introduction, then move on to the main content, and close with a conclusion. If you find some points from your main body seemingly easy to approach and write, you can start there. Whichever parts of the article seem interesting and fun to write, complete those first. This will get you back in gear with writing and eventually get innovative ideas flowing into your mind.
Use The Pomodoro Technique
The Pomodoro Technique was developed by Francesco Cirillo. According to him, people are most productive in a 25-minute time slab, no more no less. Decide on the part of your article you feel interested to write, set a timer for 25 minutes and start writing.
Do not stop writing until the timer goes off, after which you can take a well-deserved break. You can continue this pattern until you either complete your day’s work or feel like you’ve overcome the block and can write without the timer.
Use The Title-Question-Answer Technique
This technique provides a creative way to push through writer’s block all the while writing something! You start with drafting ideas for various headings and subheadings that your article or chapter will have. This first step is quite interesting and fun and can alleviate any pressure you’re feeling about writing.
Once you’ve got all your titles in place, put down questions below the titles. Essentially, turn the titles into questions. You can use a number of ‘Wh-’ questions like who, what, when, where, how, and why.
The final step is to think of answers to these questions. You’ll come to notice that you’re drafting questions, some of the answers are already coming to you. And when you re-read your questions you’ll get some ideas that can be possible answers. These answers will aid as keywords or key points in framing your content underneath each heading. They will act as markers that you can follow until you get into a writing pace with ideas freely flowing without hindrance anymore!
Summing Up
Each piece of content starts differently and while some may come along quite quickly and beautifully, some others may have their ups and downs before turning out to be an average piece. Every writer is different and for each, writer’s block is a subjective experience demanding subjective solutions. So try out various possible solutions and try some more, what truly matters is not to give into the creative blockade and stop writing altogether.
