Out of Inspiration to Write? Stop Blaming Writer’s Block
A change of mindset will serve you best
If you’re a writer or aspire to be one, you are likely familiar with the term. Writer’s block has been around since 1949, says the Merriam-Webster dictionary, as a meaning for a writer’s ‘inhibition’ to write.
If you ever needed to finish a writing task, chances are you have experienced it. You went through the desolating feeling of helplessly staring at the white page.
I experienced it often in my Academic writing but never called it writer’s block. For two reasons:
- this is an English term, and English is not my native language
- after I learned about writer’s block, I’ve always associated it with creative writing
For me, it meant the inability to write due to a lack of inspiration or creativity that haunts fiction writers trying to figure out a new story. It was more of a problem for fiction writers. Nothing to do with Academia.
But is writer’s block a real thing? Is it the same for fiction and non-fiction writers?
It seems to depend on who you ask.
Writers’ Views on Writer’s Block
Some writers say it comes with the job; others say it is nonsense.
A Literary Hub compilation of 25 authors’ opinions showed that everyone has their own interpretation and view. Three authors say they never experience writer’s block, and nine despise the term and say it is an excuse.
Among the other 13, some view it as a natural part of being a writer, and some are more suspicious of the term. But each author has a different reason for their less productive moments:
- boring, flat minded
- nothing interesting to say
- wrong topic
- dread writing
- laziness
- avoidance
Maybe, the term became so commonly used that it is often abused.
Let’s take these two last reasons for writer’s block — laziness and avoidance — doesn’t it remind you of something else? Like procrastination?
The Views of a Science Writing Coach
Stans Smeets, a teacher of Communication in Science at Leiden University, says procrastination and writer’s block have a lot in common, as both:
- Lead to delaying or withdrawing the writing
- Come from the fear of not being good enough
- Get worse when combined with perfectionism
In his experience, students use writer’s block as an ‘instrument to remain in paradise,’ an excuse when they fear the writing assignment. They claim that they don’t understand the task, or that it is unrealistic, or they lack the ideal conditions to accomplish it.
Sounds familiar?
We all went through it in school–there are some writings we just don’t feel like doing. Maybe we are not interested enough in the topic and lack the motivation to research and write about it.
Smeets found the main reasons for his students to resist writing tasks are due to:
(1) the immediateness of having to do it right there
(2) the pressure of their piece being read by their mates
These feelings are normal, especially when you have no previous experience with the type of project, topic, or audience. But when you let them paralyze you, then you are blocked.
There are good news, though. We can beat procrastination. And if procrastination is part of writer’s block, maybe we can beat it too. At least partly.
How to Deal With Your Block?
This is what we really want to know, right? And Smeets offers two main steps to handle the problem.
Step 1: Recognize the Block is Inside
First, recognize that you are looking for excuses and then try to get to the source of your resistance to writing.
Inspiration is a myth, a lie we tell ourselves to explain why other writers are better or more productive than us. Writer’s block helps us feel special — like we are competent but suffering from a problem outside our control.
Step 2: Identify the Causes
Do not treat the symptoms, but the origin of the problem.
- Lack of experience?
It might come from not having learned effective writing strategies. Sometimes we might think we lack the talent to write and give it up altogether. But maybe we only lack proper training.
Smeets’ training focuses on delivering a neat final writing project as much as on the best strategies for every step in the process to get there.
For example, their first assignments are to rewrite sentences from students from previous years. This will avoid the confrontation with the empty page and give experience in dealing with imperfect versions.
- Too much perfectionism?
Perfectionism is a question of self-management. You are focusing on the problem instead of trying to solve it.
What to do instead:
- Think about what you want to achieve. Define your goal; the steps to beat the block and start writing.
- Make sure your goals are realistic and reachable. If you set goals you can’t achieve, you won’t succeed, and thus your fear will increase.
- Think about what is stopping you from achieving your goal. Why can’t you write? If you are getting destructive thoughts, like “I will never be a good writer,” try to change them into more positive ones, like “I will do my best and learn from the feedback.”
In the end, resistance to writing is a self-defense mechanism that makes us more cautious to avoid the failure we deeply fear. But failure is also a learning opportunity. We should see it as feedback that we can use to improve.
This will help you change from passivity to action. Because, in Smeets’ words:
“…writer’s block is a myth that enables the blocked writer to feel victimized by external factors. He himself remains innocent of any involvement, and thus develops a passive attitude towards the problem.”
Tips From Other Medium Writers
I’ve searched a bit around Medium to check what other writers do when they get blocked.
Ken Palmer has similar points to Smeets, and gives us nine hacks to handle writer’s block, one of which is to give yourself a deadline. Having a limiting date for writing and editing will reduce the time for procrastination and perfectionism. Many people, including myself, work better under the pressure of a deadline.
But what if the fear doesn’t go away?
If writer’s block is due to fear of failure and maybe even shame, why not use this limiting belief as inspiration for a new story, as Thomas Page McBee suggests?
Or trick your brain out of the paralyzing fear. Here are two strategies I found refreshing, from Kawandeep Virdee’s compilation:
Victoria Ichizli-Bartels proposes approaching writing as a game; Laura Todd Carns suggests pretending your writing is not that important (among other tips).
Other Medium writers advise on how to find ideas for writing.
Charlene Fate suggests engaging in activities that spark creativity, such as taking pictures, coloring, drawing, or painting.
Amber Radcliffe gets inspiration from tarot cards. Maybe any type of painted cards could help. Have you ever played this card game called Dixit?
One of the solutions Herbert Lui offers is to do offline research, meaning talking to other people. Talking to friends or meeting new people is a great way to stumble upon new questions and topics you haven’t thought about before.
My tip: write the easiest part first
This is what I’ve learned from my academic writing.
In a research paper, these are the methods and results — the sections for which we usually have all the information. After writing these sections, I would know more or less what I needed to write the rest of the paper.
The results are also the core of a research paper. What is central to a blog article? It is the message you want to pass out.
So, if you are procrastinating, or blocked, take some time to define the goal of your writing. Why are you writing it?
Define your core message and write it down. It will be easier to write the rest of the article around it.
What are your tricks to fight the resistance to writing?
Do you invest in getting more creative?
Or do you focus on setting a more rigorous routine?
