Writer’s Block Remedy
Three Words And Freewriting
Will Enhance Your Creativity
If you’re a writer, then you may recognise the ‘mind block syndrome’ or MBS, commonly referred to as writer’s block. However hard you try, you just can’t get anything down on paper, it’s as if your mind has switched off from being creative or imaginative.
Personally, when I’m suffering from this mental complaint, I experience a definite physical sensation within my brain; a kind of pressurised, cramped, deadness, a total lack of interest in everything that I attempt to do, and general dissatisfaction with life. I hit that psychological brick wall. It’s an unpleasant, dead-end kind of place to be.
I have known writers remain in this terrible state for months on end. Is there an antidote for the unfortunate writer?
Well, there are two methods I use, but the initial difficulty is to find the energy and motivation to pull yourself out of this mental malaise. Assuming you can do this, here are the methods that I have found useful.
The three-word trick
This is a simple technique. It may sound foolish, but it will help to stir the imagination into action.
Grab a dictionary or a book of synonyms (or both). Keeping your eyes closed, thumb through the pages at random. With a pencil in the other hand, just bring it down on a page to select a word — any word. Do this three times so that you have three words totally unrelated to one another.
Your task now is to kick start your creativity by thinking and writing a story / article outline, based on those three words you have chosen. It doesn’t matter if it sounds ridiculous. The aim is to think creatively, to break the spell of your inertia and write something.
Freewriting
Most of us have heard of freewriting.
Free writing is the process of simply putting pen to paper and writing. You write whatever comes into your head. You don’t stop to check spelling or rearrange your ideas. It becomes an editing free zone. It’s the creativity that is important.
You could, of course, combine this with the ‘three word trick’ but the important thing is to keep writing, blocking out any attempt to evaluate what you have written. As the term suggests, you should feel ‘free’ to write whatever you wish.
Freewriting will help you escape from writer’s block, or it can create a very rough first draft after a brainstorming session to unearth new ideas for a story or article.
Sometimes you may highlight a favourite phrase, sentence, or idea in your freewriting. You may also discover phrases, sentences, or ideas that have potential but need to be further refined and developed.
A clean, white page sometimes freezes even the professional writer.
Freewriting stimulates writing with no pressure of perfection, without losing a specific train of thought or stifling those creative juices.
Once it’s down on paper, it’s much easier to go back and polish your writing.
Many believe that if you practice free writing regularly, you’ll find that words flow easier and you discover your individual ‘writer’ voice.
Even if you don’t experience writer’s block, the two methods explained can force you to be more imaginative, break away from stale thinking patterns and be more ingenious with your writing efforts.
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