5 Problems All Writers Face (And Their Solutions)
Overcome them and become one of the greatest
Writing is incredible.
It enables you to create new worlds, entertain & inspire people, and look into your psyche. All at once. But at the same time, writing confronts us with 5 problems, which we often use as an excuse to avoid it.
We have to stop that.
How? By knowing and overcoming the most common problems.
Writer’s block
Let’s start with the biggest: the inability to write, which is called writer’s block.
At some point, we all experience writer’s block. Some think they have nothing to say; others don’t seem to get their words straight.
No matter what we do, we don’t get into the flow. We get frustrated, start editing while writing, and get even more frustrated.
For a brief moment, we think about throwing our laptop at the wall, then remember it was expensive, and we’re already struggling with money.
That’s how it feels.
But although it doesn’t seem like it, it has a simple solution.
Seems counter-intuitive? That’s the reason why it works. Whenever you experience writer’s block, write MORE instead of LESS.
Why?
Because by writing more, you overcome your block. You get into the flow of writing again.
How?
Type away what’s on your chest. Don’t worry about its usefulness for publishing and if you need to edit it. Just write down whatever comes to your mind.
To overcome writer’s block, write some more.
Loss of motivation
It’s easy to lose motivation as a writer.
Because motivation is fleeting, it isn’t a switch you can flip.
Some days, I could write about anything, and it makes sense. On others, no matter what I write about, it all results in one word: rubbish.
Ready to get thrown out with the empty can of beans.
But you know what? That’s normal.
I’ve experienced this many times before while working out. Some days, I could do 100 push-ups. Others, I can barely do 15.
The solution?
Doing it anyway. Yes, even if it feels like the least natural thing to do now. Even if you feel like your words don’t make sense and think about getting hair transplants because you ripped yours off the head out of frustration.
Don’t trust your motivation; trust your writing habit.
No time to write
In many ways, being an adult isn’t fun.
Sure, you can go to bed whenever you want. And you can finally buy alcohol yourself, without asking a more or less friendly stranger to ignore the law in your local supermarket.
But it’s so difficult, too. Think taxes, think obligations, think earning money. This doesn’t leave much time of the day.
Which comes in handy as an excuse not to write.
That’s a problem.
Because time won’t appear, reminding you:
“Hey, I’m ready to get used.” (wow, this sounds wrong.)
It doesn’t work that way. You won’t find any time to write.
You have to make time to write.
This might be painful. Ask Ajodedi Awosika, who wrote in his lunch breaks, while working corporate. Ask Eve Arnold, who writes in the early mornings, while working corporate.
Or me, who partly writes here instead of for clients, resulting in less income.
When writing is essential to you, you’ll make time for it.
Handling negative feedback
If you write, get ready to eat some dirt.
In the past, only editors told you your story sucks. Now, it’s random people on the internet.
Don’t get me wrong, Medium is a fantastic community, and it seldom happens here if you aren’t Tim Denning and get called out by random people.
But at some point, you’ll get negative feedback in the form of a weird comment or rejection from the publication you wanted to get in.
Everybody does.
When I started writing, I got countless rejections from possible clients. It took me more than 25 to land my first client.
The same goes for getting into publications. I got more rejected than accepted over the years.
The solution? Trying it anyway, even when it’s difficult.
Accept your rejection, embrace it, get better, and try again.
It’s like life. You’ll try something that doesn’t work. You’ll learn your lesson, improve on it, and get better the next time.
Don’t give up, try again. And again. And again.
Distractions
I repeat: writing is incredible.
It helps you understand how fascinating looking at a white wall can be. It can be why you write entire novels in the shape of text bubbles with your friends but not a single word in Typeshare.
Distractions can be everywhere. When I start writing, I sometimes look at the planes in the sky, the plants in the window, and even my socks, but not on my laptop.
Even worse, when you have your phone close by.
We lose up to 40 % of our productive time because we keep switching tasks. That’s horrendous.
The solution is simple: get rid of distractions.
That’s why writing in planes is so effective (not while looking at them).
Turn off your phone and put it in a different room.
Close every other program or website on your laptop.
Sit somewhere where you can’t do anything other than look at a boring white wall.
When writing, allow yourself no distractions.
We all face these 5 problems, but if we:
- write some more
- make time for writing
- make it a habit
- try again &
- get rid of distractions
there’s nothing that can hold us back.