Here’s What to Do When You Don’t Know What to Write About
3 methods that have worked wonders for me on these low days
Even as a writer, there are days I can’t find words in my head.
I sit in front of my computer, ready to type one of the three articles I had chosen and laid out for the day, without anything worth writing. All of a sudden, it seems like no word could be useful to any reader. And what’s the point of writing if it isn’t useful?
It’s not like the articles I’ve prepared weren’t interesting. It’s just that I feel disconnected from them at that exact moment.
I used to blame myself. To think this was a sign I wasn’t supposed to be a writer. I now know it’s wrong. Even the greatest writers blank out from time to time. The difference between them and the would-have-been-amazing writers is found in how they react to these situations.
I won’t lie and say I never struggled. I did. A whole lot. I told myself I could never write well since I’m a non-English native. I told myself my life was boring. I told myself I was nothing more than a basic muggle. I’ve looked down upon myself many times.
And I still feel disappointed by myself when I sit down and can’t write two sentences that make sense in a row. I have, however, learned not to sulk forever.
I woke up today at 6:30 am, planning to write two articles and edit three. I had prepared everything yesterday evening. All I needed was to sit down and start typing. It’s now 10:15 am and I’ve done none of the above. By now, had I followed the plan, I’d have only one article left to write. At most. It frustrates me but that’s life.
I’ve learned to live with it and adapt. Whenever it’s one of those days, I turn to other ways to improve as a writer. I hope they can serve you as well. The goal is for you to never give up.
Remember, great writers are only writers who didn’t quit.
Look into older ideas
Situations like today happen to me about once every week and a half. Sometimes more, sometimes less. Either way, they’re common. My most common way out of it is to look into my list of topic ideas.
I have two documents with a total of about 1,500 ideas of articles. Each day I add a few more ideas so this list is ever-growing. Today, I may not feel like writing about the ideas I had planned but I may also find myself excited by some other ideas.
I write a lot about language-learning. Today, however, I may feel like writing about productivity instead. Or creativity. Or the history of pachinko even!
If you’re struggling with getting the words out, the problem could lie in the topic you’re trying to write about. Try writing about another and see if wors start flowing there.
Take a look outside and inside
I mentioned above I have a list of ideas. Nowadays, I follow James Altucher’s advice of finding 10 new ideas per day. Actually, I don’t. I only do it during the weekdays. Weekends have become a time for impromptu ideas only.
Every day, I give myself up to an hour to find 10 potential titles of articles. Nowadays, it takes a lot less time but I still keep the timeframe intact in case I want to dive further into an idea I just had.
On days I struggle to start writing, I switch my schedule upside-down. Instead of finding ideas after I write, I do it before.
I set in repeat one of my “finding ideas” music — they can go from this, to this and this — and go to my window to look in the distance, letting my mind roam in search of a gem.
Doing this on writer’s block days has two positive potential outcomes:
- I find new ideas and do something instead of staring at a blank page. After a while, my brain starts moving and I become able to write about one of the topics I had planned originally.
- I find ideas that excite me so much I want to dive into them instantly. And so I do.
If older ideas don’t excite you enough to get writing, it could be time for you to take a look outside your window and inside your mind. The novelty of the ideas that’ll arise could be the trigger you so much need.
Force random words out
When I first started to write articles, I often got stuck in the middle of articles. To prevent this, I began using a website called “The Most Dangerous Writing App”. It’s now called Squibler. The concept was “dangerously” simple: keep writing or lose everything.
In the new version of the platform, you can ask for a writing prompt. It’s a sentence (or part of one) from which you can begin writing. It gets you started and you can’t stop before you’ve reached the word count set or until the timer’s done.
These days, I prefer playing around with Authorcise. Kevin Alexander was the one who introduced it to me and I love it. This minimalistic website has one directive that explains everything:
“You’ll have 150 seconds to write and the option to download your work when you’re done, if you’d like.”
Contrary to Squibler, the prompt is always one single word. It can be a noun, verb, or an adjective, but that’s it. From there on, all you can do is let your mind wander for two minutes and a half. It’s so short I usually feel frustrated it’s over by the time it ends. They offer you the possibility to keep going but I think that goes against the point of the platform.
By getting a few words out and feeling that frustration, my fingers often start tingling. They want to keep going but there’s nothing else. That’s when I open the text editor and suddenly find the inspiration to write on a topic I love.
When every word you have wants to stay within you, force some out with one of these platforms.
I’ve followed each of these methods for a long time and they’ve helped me tremendously. I hope you can find a way to start sharing what you have within you as well.
And, in the worst case, there’s always the solution I just did today.
Start typing complaints to yourself until one idea that solves a complaint pops up. Today, the idea that popped up happened to be about typing itself but it could very well have been about how I struggle to learn Japanese 4-character expressions nowadays. Oh, well, there goes another idea for another day.
What words will you bring today? I look forward to reading them.
