Overcoming Writer's Block

Post 1: Overcoming Writer’s Block (Sep. 15, 2015)

Have you ever gone to write something—an essay, an article, a homework assignment—and not known where to begin? You go to the piece of paper or computer screen and nothing comes out. You feel “frozen” (no, not the movie). If so, you’re not alone. Many students or writers at some point experience what’s commonly known as “writer’s block.” While this doesn’t fall in the top 10, or even the top 50, fears, writer’s block can be a significant problem for students and would be writers.

The problem lies in pre-writing.

Today I want to throw out a couple tips that may help you overcome writer’s block and help you get started.

First, part of writer’s block is a mindset. What if I don’t have anything to say? What if no one wants to listen? It probably won’t be any good anyway. It’s got to be perfect, or it’s not good enough.

No. Writing, while it can be work, can also be play.

Let’s try something. Think about this: What do you care about? What moves you? What are the things you’ve noticed today? Thought about? Wondered about? What are you curious about? What’s one of the first things you saw this morning when you stepped outside? Take a few minutes to make a list.

Have you written a couple things? Good. It wasn’t that hard to write those things down, was it? Was it related to the assignment you were supposed to work on? Who cares! The important part was starting the process.

Think of it this way. When a runner gets ready to go for a three mile jog, she doesn’t just walk out the door and start running. She walks around for a bit, lets her muscles warm up, stretches. When she starts running, she starts slower than a normal pace. In college, I jogged with a girl who would start much slower than I did initially, but she could blow past me once she warmed up. Before I met her, I had always started fast, and then couldn’t figure out why I was getting shin splints. She taught me to warm up, to ease into the running to avoid cramps, shin splints, and other injuries.

The same thing is true with writing. Give yourself the freedom to start slowly, to warm up. Here are some things that work for me:

1) Journaling.

I’ve kept a journal since I was a kid. Sometimes it’s nothing more than what I dreamed the night before, what I ate, who I talked to that day, a snatch of conversation. Sometimes, on bad days, it’s nothing more than, “I don’t know what to write,” over and over. If you’ve never journaled, I recommend starting, five minutes a day . . . about anything. You’ll be surprised the things you discover about yourself and the world around you. You’re not writing for an assignment when you’re journaling; you’re writing for you. At first, the five minutes may go painfully slow, you may not have anything you can think of to write, but stick with it. Five minutes isn’t much time, and then you can go on with the rest of your day. But what I think you’ll find is that the five minutes slip by, especially after you’ve been doing it a few times, and by being in the space for ideas to come through your brain and onto paper, you’ll find a lot more to write about than you originally expected. I can’t say enough about journaling.

2) Find when works for you.

When do you do your best thinking? Is it in the morning over a cup of coffee? At night before you go to bed? Take advantage of these moments by keeping a notepad, note cards, or an app nearby that you can jot down random ideas or ideas for a project you’re working on. This will prime the pump for when you sit down later to spend more time with a project.

3) Exercise.

                When I was in grad school, I would often go for a walk at the nearest park while I was thinking

about a short story I was writing. I’d notice the trees, the squirrels and birds, and soon I’d let my mind wander. My body would be moving, but my mind would be free to think about the story, or whatever it wanted to focus on for the day. The key here was to pay attention to where my thoughts were taking me, to let the story unfold like a mental movie. I’ve found that dishes are also a great time for this, or when I go driving in the car. What do these things have in common for me? I’m doing something physical, something I don’t have to think about or focus on, which frees my mind to be creative. It’s creativity unleashed.

I hope these ideas help and have gotten you inspired to keep reading. Thanks for reading, and please be on the lookout for future (bi-weekly) posts.

Feel free to email me or comment to begin a discussion with other members. This space is primarily designed for tutoring and helping people grow, so if you know anyone who is likeminded, please let me know! Happy writing!