My Cure for Writer’s Block: Never Stare Down a Blank Page Again

If you’ve ever lost a whole morning — and your mind — staring aimlessly at a blank page, as the cursor mockingly winks at you, this is for you.

I’m going to share my cure for writer’s block. So you can effortlessly mine your brain for better ideas. Get them on the damn page, and get on with your day.

Doing this saved me countless hours when I was getting squeezed by multiple retainer clients.

And I still do it to this day.

So, what’s the big idea?

Take a page out of the manuscripts of legendary writers like Stephen King, Mark Twain, and Ernest Hemingway. All three of them wrote some of their most successful novels entirely by hand, with pen strokes instead of the tapping of keys.

Even though they all had access to a typewriter or computer.

Before I go on, let me be clear:

I am not suggesting you inscribe all of your writing by pen and paper and then tediously transcribe it to your laptop.

That’d be a bigger waste of time than my ex-wife’s parole board hearing.

What I am saying is that brainstorming with pen and paper allows for a more creative free flow of ideas.

This is not my opinion, it’s backed up by scientific research.

A University of Indiana study showed writing by hand unleashes creativity in the brain that can’t be unlocked by typing.

MRIs conducted on volunteers showed conclusively that writing by hand increases neural activity in certain areas of the brain often associated with meditation.

So, the next time you’re staring into the abyss of the blank screen, arm yourself with a pen and get reacquainted with the arcane art of forming letters by hand.

I think you’ll be surprised by how quickly you enter the “flow state” when you write your outlines and rough drafts with the full range of senses that the sterility of a machine deprives you of.

Usually, within a few minutes of scrawling my chicken scratch on the pad, I’m imbued with the essence of an idea worth chasing down the rabbit hole. At the very least, a plan begins to take shape.

Once I’ve got my hook, I map out the key points of what I want to say and add notes for things I need to research before diving into. Once this is done, I’ll either hammer away on Millie’s keys or tap dance my fingers across the keyboard of my laptop and have the first draft done in about thirty minutes, give or take.

Job. Done.

Low tech is the new high society

We welcomed computers, tablets and NSA backdoor surveillance into our homes with the same imprudent enthusiasm we now express for AI.

But have they improved our writing? I doubt it.

Much has been written about the decline of craft in literature, and if you accept that indictment, I submit that technology has played a critical role in that decline, as a witting accomplice to culture’s culpability.

But it’s more the effect on the mind that concerns me than just our diminishing vocabulary and degrading prose. Our way of thinking and expressing ourselves has become more machine-like, less artistic and open-ended.

Whether you agree with that accusation or not, there is an abundance of research that supports my claim. Either way, try writing by hand.

Here are 8 reasons why you should:

1. Digital is distracting. Creative thinking happens when the mind has time to wander undistracted.
2. Writing by hand stimulates your brain. According to Forbes, an Indiana University study found that freehand writing stimulates the brain in three distinct areas that typing doesn’t — and has a similar effect on the brain as meditation.
3. Writing and drawing by hand slows you down, which leads to more precise, intentional sentence structure. The speed and ease of typing have tricked us into believing that convenience isn’t the enemy of quality. This remains untrue, as excellence still takes time and focus. “Perhaps the greatest thing about handwriting is that the very act of doing it forces you to focus on what’s important. It is, in essence, a moment of mindfulness,” neuroscientist Dr. Claudia Aguire writes at Headspace.
4. Writing by hand enhances learning when compared to typing. Researchers at Princeton and UCLA found that students learn better when taking notes by hand, in part due to what scientists refer to as “concept mapping.”
5. When you write by hand you increase ideation. A University of Washington study showed that “when children composed text by hand, they not only consistently produced more words more quickly than they did on a keyboard, but expressed more ideas.”
6. Scribbling is fun. There’s a reason you did it when you were a kid. Craft is tedious and arduous. In the early ideation stage, you need a little room to mess around and make mistakes. Polished ideas begin with rough ones.
7. Writing by hand improves cognition. Psychology Today outlined a myriad of cognitive benefits to writing by hand, including comparing its effect on the brain to playing a musical instrument. Pretty cool.
8. It makes you more succinct. When you can’t hit the backspace key, you are forced to choose your words more carefully and write more concisely.

Most everyone has a notepad lying around. Try putting it to use for something more important than jotting down mundane meeting notes or making fake hit lists to leave out when the in-laws visit. You might just find that your writing gets better.