As a writer, you are expected to always be brimming with fresh ideas and thoughts and being able to write fluently at the drop of the hat. But we all know that’s not how things always work. While there may be times when you have no trouble with creative expression through words, there will also be times when your brain just seems to turn down all your imploring for some inspiration. It’s like all your creative juices have stopped flowing and you just can’t come up with anything to write. At this point know that you have hit a writer’s block, the unpleasant roadblock that every writer dreads.
Writer’s block is a very much real condition, a condition where a writer feels so stuck and deficient in their creativity that they can’t continue writing like how they normally would. If you are in the middle of producing a work when the writer’s block strikes, you may despise this unwanted interruption even more than usual and would prefer coming out of it as soon as possible. Which is why it’s important to look at few probable reasons why you have hit writer’s block in the first place and now that you have what you can do to come out of it.
Common Reasons Behind Hitting a Writer’s Block
Writing is an activity driven by how your brain functions, or more specifically how the billions of neurons that make up your brain function. It is when these neurons fire that you get that rush of inspiration for writing. When you are suffering from a writer’s block, it is plain to understand that the problem can be traced back to the functioning of the neurons.
Now there may be various causes for why your brain isn’t working as effectively as usual. Even though our brain is segregated into distinct areas, each fulfilling a different purpose, it is still a strongly inter-connected unit. This means that what happens in one particular area may have an impact on what happens in other areas too.
So say if certain distressing emotions have been predominant in your brain for a while, chances are that sooner or later your declining emotional well-being will take a toll on your ability to clearly think and write as well. In addition to these factors associated with emotional health, there could be other factors at play too such as:
- You Have Reached Your Point of Burn-Out
Writing involves a tremendous amount of physical, mental, and emotional investment. As a result, you are bound to feel tired to the point of burn-out when you have pushed yourself excessively on all these fronts. - You Keep Having Doubts About Your Writing
Self-doubt is a sure way to stifle your potential, and it is something that comes in the way of not just amateur and newbie writers but also the more professional and experienced ones. Causing your confidence to waver, self-doubt can prevent one from getting any real work done. - You are Unhealthily Obsessing Over Perfection
Managing expectations is important for every writer, or any person with a creative job for that matter. It’s easy to set a little too high standards for oneself at the outset, the real struggle begins when it comes to actually working and meeting those unreasonably lofty standards. Getting caught up in this obsession over perfection may be what’s obstructing your free flow of creativity. - You are Surrounded With Distractions
If your brain is already cluttered with too many distracting thoughts, you can’t expect it to be instantly fluid when it’s time for you to switch on the writing mode. There’s only so much that our brains can accommodate and process at a time. - You are Unable to Visualize Your Writing
The ability to visualize how your story is going to shape up forms a vital part of the writing experience. But sometimes, halfway through your story, you may feel confused or indecisive about where your story is heading anyway. If your story is something that you can no longer visualize for some reason, then you will have nothing to translate to writing either.
5 Tips to Overcome Writer’s Block and Get On With Writing
We have explored the possible reasons behind writer’s block. Now it’s time we look into what you can do when you want to get past it and get back to your active writing self. Here are some useful tips and methods that you can give a try:
- Just Make a Commitment to Writing
While writing is something that can’t be forced, at times you do need to push yourself to write even when you might not feel up for it. Set a non-negotiable target for writing, say that you have to write something for 1 hour or that you have to finish writing 300 words. Now make sure that you see this target through.The idea is to put your brain into that state of urgency where it is prompted and compelled to generate writing ideas. Whatever writing you manage to get out of this little exercise may not reflect your best work, but you would have at least opened the doors to doing some concrete work. You can always come back and improve whatever you think needs extra attention. - Change Up Your Writing Habits
Consistent writing requires discipline, which means that you do need a daily ritual for writing. This ritual includes where you write, at what time you write, what tools you use to write, and so on. But a ritual that has been kept the same for a long time does tend to get monotonous and banal. Your long-established ritual may just not be effective in switching on the writer in you anymore.In this situation, you should start making simple changes in your ritual for writing. You can try writing in a new environment, at a different time, or using different tools than usual. Any change may be good enough to stir up the dormant ideas. - Take a Break of Any Kind From Writing
Sometimes it is best to take a step back from the writing in order to take many steps forward when the time is right. Because writing is an all-consuming activity, it may be exhausting you in ways that you don’t even know. You can beat this exhaustion by stopping writing for a while altogether, simply taking a break.This break may be any of the two kinds. One where you don’t think about your writing project at all, neither consciously nor sub-consciously. This type of break could be something as simple as sleeping. Or one where you do engage in some other interesting and creative type of activity but you also let your subconscious mind keep working passively on the writing project.Remember, you are not actively trying to think about your writing here. You are devoting your mental faculties to another activity like exercising, painting, cooking, meditating, or any creative activity that you personally enjoy. But you are also not stopping your subconscious from wandering off wildly and springing up with surprising ideas for the project. - Take Pressure Off the Writing
If your writer’s block is being caused because you are inundated with high expectations of yourself or of others, then you need to find a way to dial down the pressure that comes with all such expectations. You may feel like this is easier said than done, but know that it is achievable after all.Imagine a scenario where you would be writing just for the sake of it, not because you want to sell a story or because you were trying to put across a point. View your writing project, not as a means to getting famous or making money, but as something that you love genuinely. Essentially, what you are doing here is detaching yourself from the expected end-results from the project and just focusing on the actual craft. You’ll feel much of your pressure coming off when you start adapting to this perspective towards writing. - Write Whatever Part You Can Write
Every story has some certain and some uncertain aspects to it. The certain aspects refer to the parts of the story that you are absolutely sure of, there’s no changing them or going ahead without them. The uncertain aspects are those parts of the story that are undecided and that you plan to figure out as you go, basically playing by the ear. It is often while writing these uncertain aspects that you are most likely to find yourself in the clutches of writer’s block. Because you haven’t planned out these parts yet.So anytime you feel stuck while penning down the uncertainties of your story, just leave them be for the time and move on to the certainties of the story. At the end of the day, what you want to do is to keep writing. Write whatever that you can at the moment. There’s no rule that says you have to follow a particular order of writing.
How Can Journaling Help Ride Through the Writer’s Block?
Journaling is another form of writing, only more sustainable in nature, something that can be done effortlessly everyday. It can serve as one of the most effective ways to overcome your writer’s block. First of all, journaling regularly is an easy way to practice your writing on a daily basis. And we know that writing is one of those skills that get better with more and more practice. Secondly, thoughtful journaling can prove wondrously therapeutic in maintaining good mental and emotional well-being.
So how do you use journaling to your advantage when your aim is to come out of the writer’s block? AOYL journaling program may have the answer in store for you. This program is based around recognizing the incredible, diverse benefits of journaling. The program emphasizes on using journaling practice to heal through emotional stress, to give vent to deep buried thoughts and insights, and to cultivate a habit of writing without expectations.
The program encourages one to explore thinking and writing from different angles, whether it’s through free writing or specific writing exercises. What the program yields, as a result of these exercises, is a rejuvenated and enhanced state of mind, one that is ready to work more powerfully. The program is effortless in some places and thought-provoking in other places. But the idea remains the same, to help you bring the best of yourself to surface, in your life and in your writing.
This article draws some inspiration from the following article:
https://www.copyblogger.com/outsmart-writers-block/
