3 Simple Yet Powerful Ways to Break Through Writer’s Block
There’s no need to be anxious as a writer when your imagination and ideas dry up. Sure, your creativity levels may drop and reduce productivity, but it doesn’t mean you’ll never write again.
Breathe!
All writers, even the most prolific ones experience writer’s block. It’s a part of the gig. There may be times you’ll be able to meet the exorbitant demands of production. You’ll have a reservoir of ideas, dialogues, headlines and other creative points. Other times you’ll find yourself staring at the blank computer screen, unable to generate a single idea. You may even question your talents and existence as a writer.
Don’t worry about it. Those top-notch skills you acquired before writer’s block are still there. They’re just on a hiatus resting while you dabble in your season of learning.
The hiatus can be long or brief and the length of time it takes for you to return to writing those breathtaking articles, stories and other written pieces in your niche depends on one thing — you.
You’ll need to be proactive and patient. Think of this time as your enrollment in a course called resilience. Here you’ll learn to recoil through a blurry and stagnant stretch in your writing career.
I’ve taken this course several times.
Perhaps what sets apart the resilient from those who collapse under pressure or fall prey to avoidance and other writing ills comes down to determination.
How hungry are you? Are you determined enough to start writing again?
If so, prove it.
A writer who is determined to overcome writer’s block will do just that. You’ll find and use the tools and strategies needed to navigate this uneasy part of the writer’s conundrum until you’ve safely arrived at the shore of production again.
How do you get out of the sea of writer’s block and make it back to shore?
Here are 3 powerful ways to help you cure writer’s block:
Change Your Scenery
This is important. Nobody needs the stress of staring at a blank page or computer screen for another second. Instead you may need to change your scenery and I’m not talking about a picture frame with an inspiring quote on your desk.
You’ll need to do better than that.
Don’t be afraid to take a break and come back to your writer’s nook later. Go for a walk, to your local library or a coffee shop. Sometimes new scenery and the situations that come along with it will help to jog memories or revive fresh ideas for writing that next piece.
Stories and ideas are all around us. They live in our experiences and everyday interactions. The kind barista who helps an elderly woman with an order, parents pushing their kids on a swing at the park or the librarian who reminds you of your childhood — all these experiences can ignite inspiration to write.
When you go outside your familiar setting for a change of scenery, you may just find yourself coming back to the screen or paper with more than you expected.
Find Inspiration
Don’t wait for inspiration to come to you. Go find it. Perhaps you have something or someone you admire such as a favourite author, a historical figure, a musician — the list goes on. Revisit their life stories or achievements and write about whatever thoughts or impressions come to mind. For those writers fortunate enough, inspiration may simply dawn on you without the extra effort, but for others you’ll have to actively search for it in people or concepts that stimulate your imagination. You can find inspiration from, but not limited to the following:
- quotes
- photographs
- music
- books
- movies
Don’t be afraid to revisit a chapter from a book that made you reach for the tissue or play a song that gets you tapping your feet. Review photographs that make you think about life, nature or anything else you need to help generate ideas for writing.
You can even watch a movie to capture new ideas for a character in your fictional stories or document questions and responses you’ll want to share in an article.
Don’t limit where and how you can find inspiration to help you fill that blank page.
Write
This probably seems paradoxical. Some may even stop and question “Wait, you’ve been struggling to write and the best way to overcome the struggle is to do the thing you have trouble doing in the first place?”
Yes!
You have to start somewhere or you’ll never start at all neither will you know what ideas, stories and other wonderful written pieces could have emerged in that moment. Start to write or jot down notes about anything.
If you’re still stuck you can do a writing exercise. There are plenty of them online to encourage you to put the pen to paper or your fingers to the keyboard.
You may have all the good intentions to make your writing flourish or to emerge from the abyss of writer’s block, but without action behind those intentions, it’s useless.
There is a famous proverb that explains if you give someone a fish you feed the person for a day, but if you teach someone to fish you feed that person for life.
Take out your fishing rod and go catch those ideas, headlines, stories and whatever else you’ll find to write about.
You have control to revive your writing process when it comes to a sudden halt. Remember to stay calm and that you don’t need to stay stuck in that uncomfortable space one second longer if you change your scenery, find that inspiration and start to write.
The creative juices may begin to flow faster than you expect and who knows, you may even write the next best seller.
If you like this article, you’ll probably like this one too:
