Unblocking the Writer’s Block

Jul 21, 2007

Writers Block

You can get rid of the writer’s block simply by making small changes in your working environment. Writer’s block is not a mental thing and it doesn’t mean your muse has left you. It’s just that there are some physical and mental walls that are stopping the waves of creativity from hitting your shores.

The writer’s block is a myth. When our brain is full of distractions, when it is stiff with conscious and unconscious thoughts that don’t let us work, we think we’re suffering from the writer’s block. The greatest of writers have gone through similar excruciating phases, and numerous times in their lives, especially after a shock or some sad experience.

As professional writers, copywriters, content developers and bloggers, a writer’s block is a luxury we simply cannot afford, myth or no myth. Don’t feel like writing? Too bad, someone else will. Our clients pay us, so we must write, and write well. Our blog readers expect quality posts day after day, week after week, and if we don’t write well, they move on to other bloggers, perhaps never to return back. Oblivion is the easiest thing to achieve when the world around you buzzes with competition. Recognition and visibility, especially on the Internet, is very hard to attain, and very easy to lose. So writing is a show my friend, that must go on.

Actually what you need are triggers. You are a dynamite of writing talent; it’s just that, sometimes there is no trigger, and very few times things burn on their own. Here are a few triggers you can use to blow up your writer’s block:

Maintain a list of topics and ideas

Maintaining a list of topics and ideas always helps when you feel you’ve got nothing to write about. As you visit various blogs, websites and online forums, as you read magazines, newspapers, novels, and even marketing pamphlets, ideas keep coming and going and we don’t even realize that. Tune your mind, train your mind to grab the ideas and then store them in your ideas file. Sometimes merely looking at your ideas file can give you new ideas. You can use any word processor or a spreadsheet tool to store your ideas. Use Google Docs if connectivity is not a problem. Use note pad. Heck, you can even use the normal pen and paper to jot down the great ideas.

We often lose countless writing opportunities because we don’t organize our thoughts for future retrieval. Develop the habit and you’ll be writing like crazy (this, I should also tell myself!).

Read

Reading is a mental stimulation. It is an exercise for a writer. It creates the right inner space where your writing can blossom with flexibility and abundance. All great writers are voracious readers. Musicians listen to music when they are not practicing or performing. Players watch the other players’ games when they are not practicing or playing.

Reading, especially good reading, motivates you, because by nature we always want to either emulate or better people in our field: writing, in this case. Reading also makes you wise, it makes you intelligent. It gives you new thoughts and ideas to ponder over, to write about. Reading helps you form your opinion, and when you have your own opinion, you want to express it, and in order to express it, you write.

It’s not necessary to avail expensive books to expand your intellectual horizon. The Internet, provided you know how to find and recognize it, is a cornucopia of wisdom. Visit websites, blogs and online forums. Exchange emails with the experts of your subject. Develop your own community or a support group. Even half-an-hour of well-focused reading can open your blocked channels of creativity.

Feel enthusiastic

Not all subjects are interesting and stimulating, especially while copywriting for various clients. A few days ago I had to write for a client that sells moving pads. You use these pads when you are moving your fragile stuff to the new location; if you put moving pads around your valuables, while packing, they don’t break or chip. I needed to write around 400 words and after 100 or so words, I had nothing more to say. I felt sleepy, I wanted to surf the Internet and read all the interesting stuff available out there, I wanted to download some songs from YouTube, I mean, I wanted to do anything but work on that copy.

Then I remembered about the time when we were moving from our old house to this new house. How excited we were. My wife and I had to build everything from scratch. We had nothing - no money, no furniture, no appliances, not even utensils. At that time our daughter was just 3 months old and we were both trying to come to terms with all the new things happening to us and around us. But that was an exciting time. We were so happy to move to this house; so windy, so sunny, so spacious, and so our own. I remembered packing all the precious little things we had, for instance, a 17-year-old National Geographic magazines collection, our daughter’s newly-purchased clothes and sheets, a couple of table lamps, our computer, my wife’s collection of audio cassettes; we didn’t want these things to get damaged during the move.

When I thought about all these things, I felt so enthusiastic that I finished the moving pads copy in ten minutes and my client was thrilled with the result.

When you want to write about something, feel good about it, feel excited about it, think of it as a great opportunity to prove yourself. Write and make a difference. Think how your writing can help someone increase business. Think how your writing can help someone realize his or her goals. Think how your readers are going to benefit from it. Think about the money you are going to earn because of your work and how this money can help your family, keep it out of financial troubles, keep it secure. If this is not motivation, what is?

Socialize

Writing is a lonely job, especially when you work on your own. This too can stunt your thinking nerves after a while and stop you from writing. Develop a circle of friends, whether online or offline and interact regularly. This will not only relax your mind it’ll also rejuvenate it; you’ll feel motivated to perform. Motivation is a fuel for creativity. Even if you don’t have friends around you you can use one of the numerous social networking websites to create a circle of friends and acquaintances. As always I was a later starter but these days I’m dabbling with FaceBook.

Get in touch with other writers; you’ll have lots to share.

Create a conducive atmosphere

Conducive atmosphere means, the right ambience, the comfort, probably some music playing in the background, anything that relaxes you (have sex, for that matter). Most of the writer’s blocks manifest when you are tense, when you are not feeling OK. Try to feel OK. Change your room if you can. Open the windows and doors if you keep them closed and let the wind and the sun shine come in. You can do the opposite if it’s too hot or too cold inside: close all the doors and windows and draw the curtains. You can even meditate to clear you mind off all the clogs. The point is, make yourself comfortable.

Conclusion

As I mentioned in the beginning, the writer’s block is a myth: it doesn’t exist. There are certain conditions that stop you from writing. Eliminate them and the block goes away.

How do you deal with the writer’s block?

Got more ideas? Please share them on this blog.

Technorati Tags: writing tips, content development, content writing, copywriting, blogging

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2 Responses to “Unblocking the Writer’s Block”

Ciara Website Copywriter
August 19th, 2007 at 7:41 am
Sometimes, or all the time for me, the best way to get rid of writers block is to just start writing. You may not like your first few paragraphs but eventually you get into the swing of things and you can then go back to edit the beginning. Knowing where you are going and why you want to write what you are writing helps. Clear goals.
Duane
August 24th, 2007 at 8:26 am
This is a very insightful post. Its practical and very informative. Keep going its great