If you’ve never been hit by writer’s block, either by luck or because you’re stuck in… a river in Egypt, this blog is not for you. For the rest of us, read on! Here some survivors of the block, writers found mainly on Facebook, share their thoughts on how to beat it.
About the Block
Valerie Fuqua: You can get a mental block on just about anything. It’s like hysterical blindness. You feel stuck in a no-win situation, so your brain “solves it” by taking away your skill so you don’t have to keep putting yourself in that anxiety-inducing situation.
Angela Cox: The research shows that writer’s block is real, but it’s not just some magical thing that randomly happens. It’s most often the product of too many too-rigid rules or expectations. No different, really, than constipation, right? Too much trying to go through you at once.
Davien Dakota: When it has happened to me it’s usually because something I need to deal with is sitting with me and I need to take care of that before I can play (write) or I’m tired and need to rest. I will usually, without giving myself much choice, address whatever it is and then get back to what I want to do.
Angela Cox: The key is letting go of whatever conflicting rules are getting in your way. But that’s often subconscious. Anything that gives you permission is good. Just do the thing. Worry about fixing it later.
Rose Weiss: I’d say that there are two types of writer’s block: acute and chronic. Acute is the block you feel in a moment. You want to write but all you’ve managed is googling wedding dresses for an hour for a single-word description. For those, it’s time to take a moment and regroup. Do non-verbal play like painting, dancing, or mindless chores.
For chronic, as in you haven’t written in over a month, put the big work in progress away and play with your writing.
Valerie Fuqua: I find doing the opposite of what created the block will fix it. But no one knows how they created their block, so I just tell people to get out of their heads, feed their creativity and recharge themselves. We pile too many expectations onto ourselves as we improve our skills. It takes us far from how we first started loving our writing. You need to get back to the basics and what you loved about it.
1. Let Your Mind Meander
Aimée Walsh: I paint while listening to really loud music to get me out of my head. Sometimes not thinking or stressing about something while doing something else you love or enjoy can help free up space and make the creative juices flow.
Carolyn Greener: I do something silent (no podcast, no music), and different. Do the dishes, throw the ball for the dogs, put up Halloween decorations (in all seasons, lol), sweeping, dusting, weeding…anything that occupies my hands and lets my mind meander.
Vivienne Mills: I just sit and wait. It will pass. In the meantime I let my novel percolate in my subconscious and get on with the rest of life.
McKel Jensen: It sounds weird and you can believe it if you want, but I picture an angel sitting behind me whispering the words in my ear.
2. Step Aside
Joe C. Smolen: I have learned to behave like a matador. I just step aside. That is to say, I always, always carry a little notebook and make quick notes of things that strike me, that are to my mind remarkable. So when I have written myself into a corner, when I am being charged by the bull and know I have lost my nerve, I just leave the ring and begin playing with some other idea. Ha! I might be “out of the ring” for a coupla years! (recent experience, no lie), but I’m always back with a killer idea—pun intended.
Jeffrey Hawkins: Put your major work aside and write (for your eyes only) a side story of something absolutely ridiculous that happened to your character. Why your herculean fighter giggles every time he fights. Or perhaps why your rogue sneezes every time he tries to do something sneaky, causing things always to go wrong. Once you’re done, ask yourself WHY? Perhaps this may prompt you to look at your characters, or your story, from a slightly different perspective, then step AROUND the block and have a little extra fun with your writing.
3. Have Fun
Emma Dilemma: When I have writer’s block, it’s usually because I know the before and after but am having trouble with the bridge in between. What helps me is going back to pencil and paper and just writing whatever I’m thinking about. Maybe it’s “this cannot happen because this” or maybe it’s about how my cat looks really cute right now. Eventually, you’ll start to have an idea that will help you figure out how to connect the before and after enough to write the now.
Lyneal Jenkins: I make rules to get everything rolling. I have to write a minimum of 3,500 words a day. I am not allowed to look at the phone, book, tv until I’ve done over 1000 words. It doesn’t matter if I don’t have a beginning scene, I just start writing. I’ll catch the thread soon enough and I’ll edit the crap out. A lot of the time we get caught up with getting it right and we forget to have fun. It doesn’t matter at the beginning.
4. Change the Scenery
Em Buckman: Have a break for a few days. Talk to someone about it. Explaining something out loud helps me clarify for myself what I might need to do next. Work on something book-related, plotting, character development ideas, or on a different part of the book. Go for a walk in the country or on the treadmill. Creative thoughts often pop in when I’m plodding along.
Nathalie Beuchat: Change the scenery. Grab a notebook or iPad or whatever you write with and go to a coffee shop or somewhere that’s not where you normally write then look for something around you that you can write into your story somehow.
Diane Zenn: All of the above, but also go for a walk, preferably alone with natural scenery. It’s a fact the mind is more active when you walk. The scene you are working on might pop into your head. So remember to bring something to take notes.
5. Walking Helps
A fascinating article in The New Yorker by Ferris Jabr explains Why Walking Helps Us Think. Jabr says, “Since at least the time of peripatetic Greek philosophers, many other writers have discovered a deep, intuitive connection between walking, thinking, and writing. […] Because we don’t have to devote much conscious effort to the act of walking, our attention is free to wander—to overlay the world before us with a parade of images from the mind’s theatre. This is precisely the kind of mental state that studies have linked to innovative ideas and strokes of insight.”
Going for a walk has always been my go-to cure for the occasional bout of writer’s block. In fact, when I was casting about for a topic for this blog, I got the idea while I was out walking with my adorable doglet, Cappuccino aka The Shreditor, who’s *very* good at del-eating my first drafts.
Well, I pondered, I certainly don’t have all the answers to writer’s block. So, let me depend on *the kindness of strangers* and ask my fellow writers for their tips on beating the block. I’m pretty sure sharing our experience can help other writers in the same predicament. So I did ask, and this is the result.
My thanks to all the writers who kindly contributed their ideas. I hope their shared wisdom will give you the fresh start you need to produce great work… again.▼
Learn More
Kate Gordon-Smith recommended the book by Becca Syme (pictured above). Syme: “Writer’s block. Not the world’s sexiest topic, right? In fact, I have no doubt this book will go largely unnoticed, because let’s face it, no one wants to talk about this. Some people don’t even believe it exists. (Those people are wrong, by the way….) But that’s also why it’s so important to understand. Writer’s block is basically the whispered sin in the halls of authordom.”
Wiki: The term writer’s block was coined in 1947 by the Austrian psychiatrist Edmund Bergler. All writers […] can experience writer’s block.[3] […] The majority of writer’s block researchers agree that most causes have an affective/physiological, motivational, and cognitive component.[4]
On Quotable quote
“I have always depended on the kindness of strangers.”
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