10 Tips for Dealing with Writer’s Block

‘Writing is easy:  All you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead.’ Gene Fowler

And don’t I know it? I’ve just had a really horrid couple of weeks battling with the dreaded WB – Writer’s Block. No matter how enthusiastic I’ve been – no matter how much of a positive outlook I’ve forced on myself – every time I sat down to write something my brain ground to a halt. Nothing moved. All was still; apart from the ideas slipping inexorably away.

Where were all those wonderful phrases, arguments and intelligent expositions that cantered through my thoughts as I lay in bed awake at 2.30 am? All gone.

Writer’s block is a pain and a nuisance and the most effective panic-inducer I can think of. The only comfort being that it happens to everybody. So, how do people cope with it?

To find out – and as a practical exercise in banishing the wretched condition – I Googled around to see what others suggest. And this is what I found.

1   Free-writing

A popular suggestion. Sit down and just write for ten minutes. Write anything – sense, nonsense, whatever. The idea is to write without stopping. If you can’t think of anything to say, one friend says he just writes ‘blah, blah, blah’ over and over. He says it works for him

2 Mind Mapping and other Graphic Organisers

Very useful for sorting out ideas and making sure you’ve got all the information you need. Sometimes when I hit a brick wall it’s because I haven’t got the info, because I haven’t asked enough of the right questions. Simple as that.

(If you’re not familiar with these visual mapping organisers, do look them up. Hmm… could be a good blog post, there.)

3   Don’t even try Mind Reading

This is my insight, sparked off by the last point. I can find myself going round and round and round, trying to double-guess what the client wants to say. Well, STOP! Go and ask! It works.

4   Start anywhere

You really don’t have to start at the beginning, go on the middle and end at the end. A piece ends up like that – but it doesn’t have to be written like that. And a website is very unlikely to work like that, anyway. Start with something you know well, or something that’s straightforward.

5   Remember: ain’t no such thing as a Perfect Draft

Perfection just doesn’t ooze out onto the page at first try. You might have to write something out in a wordy fashion, and then polish, pluck and perfect until it’s as you want it. So don’t wait until the perfect phrase comes into your head. Go with second-, third- or fourth-best, and massage it into shape.

6   Do something different

It’s good practice not to sit too long at the computer, anyway. But when you’ve got cognitive snow-blindness it’s not a bad idea to get up and walk around, have a coffee, feed the cat, walk round the block. Do something physical to break the state.

7   Make it the first thing you do in the morning

If your problem is getting started, put aside the first hour of the day for your project. Don’t look at emails. Don’t make phone calls. Don’t do any of the 1001 other things that just put off that starting moment. (I was going to write ‘the evil moment’, then I thought, let’s keep this positive!)

8   Just write headlines

Forget the content for the moment. Create a long list of headlines: short, long, plain, clever – just get them out on the page. Some you’ll keep; some you’ll turn into subheads; some will have to go. And some will inspire you to start writing.

9   Use a timer

Great tip from Angela Booth in her post Time Your Writing Life: use the Pomodoro Technique: ‘Using a timer stops you messing around. If you know you’ve only got 25 minutes to write something, you get on with it and write, you don’t dither. You’ll find that inspiration happens when you’re writing, not when you’re thinking about writing. Using a timer helps you to show up for your writing – and showing up is all you need to do.’

10 Be calm – keep calm

I know that’s easier said than done, and that looming deadlines are overpowering. But panic just isn’t a great muse. So be kind to yourself. Don’t beat yourself up.

What do you do to get over the dreaded WB? Any hints or tips, just put them in the comments and we’ll share.