The Write Mentality: Overcoming Writer's Block

Hello #JustWrite!! It's another month and another week and the one topic I wanted to discuss this month is writer's block and how to overcome it. Yes, I said, writer's block. As a matter of fact, I have writer's block now and couldn't decide what topic to write about this month. The irony, right? What better way to deal with an issue is to discuss it. Well, in order to discuss writer's block, let's discuss what it means to experience it. First and foremost, we've all had writer's block. Those moments where deadlines are fastly approaching and we're staring at our piece of paper or computer screen in a daze. We try our best to bring forth content, but nothing seems to come to mind and then the frustration sets in. Sound familiar? Let's look at the textbook definition of writer's block and the possible causes. According to Mental Health Daily, writer's block is a "condition in which writers are unable to think of what to write next. The first case of writer's block was documented in 1947, by Edmund Bergler, a psychoanalyst." Mental Health Daily also lists the following as a few possible causes of writer's block: "Some believe that an author may lack creativity or knowledge surrounding a particular topic – and this may contribute to the block. In other cases, a writer may have no emotional inspiration in regards to the topic they are writing about. Running out of inspiration makes it very difficult to focus and become distracted. Other causes for the condition include environmental changes, mental illness, relationship troubles, increased stress, or perfectionism. Often times authors experience writer’s block when they are pressured into writing a piece of content with specific deadlines. Feeling a sense of intimidation, being unable to work at your own pace, or constantly trying to out-do yourself may also contribute to the block. The symptoms of writer's block vary from the inability to focus to drawing a complete blank.

In order to overcome, determine the cause(s) and utilize a few coping strategies to help ease the writer's block. Here is a list of coping strategies from Mental Health Daily: 

• Avoid perfectionism: If you have writer’s block, your initial rough draft may suck – which is fine because it’s a draft. The goal is to get something written even if it is complete puke in terms of your standards. Many writers overthink and over-analyze what they write, critiquing everything along the way. Stop nit-picking every detail and just write… even if it’s bad, you can always edit it later.
• Brainstorming: If you have hit a block, one way to get around it is to brainstorm. Think of ideas for your writing and write them all down. Even if you think they are “bad” ideas, just write them down anyway. The idea behind brainstorming is to change your perception and let the creative juices flow.
• Change environment: Your environment can have a big influence on how easy or difficult it is to write. If you are attempting to write in a noisy environment with people talking, music playing, or the hustle and bustle of the outside world – this could be interfering with your concentration. Anything in your environment that is detrimental to your concentration has potential to cause writer’s block.
• Cut distractions: Many people, especially students work on writing with their headphones playing music, their social media accounts open (i.e. Facebook), and their cell phone alerts turned on. All distractions not only make the process of writing less efficient, but they can cause us to lose the flow of our work. If you got a good start on the beginning of your paper, but all of a sudden got caught up texting your friend, you may now have writer’s block. Cut back on all distractions and focus on the topic at hand.
• Find inspiration: If you are lacking inspiration, do your best to find a little bit. This may mean reading some inspirational quotes, reading new material, or thinking about people that inspire you. It may be something as simple as having a conversation with a friend that gives you your next idea.
• Forced writing: Sometimes even when thinking of new words for sentences is as difficult as pulling teeth, you need to keep going. Even if you can’t think of anything to say, force yourself to write something. If you stop writing, you may constantly think yourself in circles about what to write next instead of getting something on paper. Forced writing is like forcing people that are out of shape to go to the gym; they may not like it, but at least they’re getting something done.
• Read something: Reading primes your brain with new ideas and perspectives on various topics. If you are caught up in a mental “block” take the time to just read something, even if it’s completely random. Chances are good that when you’re done reading, you’ll be able to think of something to write.
• Research: Perhaps you have writer’s block because you aren’t very familiar with the topic you’re writing about. You can’t expect to pull material out of your brain that was never there in the first place. Take the time to do a bit of research and take some notes – this will give you a better understanding of the topic and some general ideas.
• Stream-of-consciousness: This involves opening up a new document or getting a fresh sheet of paper, and writing whatever is on your mind and/or comes to your mind. This may have nothing to do with a paper that you’re writing about. However, most people are usually able to write about their own thoughts with relative ease. This technique will prove that you still have a writing voice, can still write effortlessly, and don’t have any “block.”
• Use your own voice: If you cannot think of what to write, just go with what you’d normally say to someone if you had a conversation. Most people try to sound technical and smarter than they are by throwing around synonyms and jargon that they wouldn’t normally use during a conversation. Trying to use a different persona and synonym finder while writing isn’t really going to help a block.

These are just a few suggestions listed.  Check out more suggestions here. Try to also use other healthy ways to cope with writer's block such as exercise, contacting your accountability partner, or prayer (clarity and casting cares). The important thing to remember is to not get discouraged on your journey of writing. Writer's block is part of the journey, but it is not the final destination. May we all be encouraged.

In His service,

~Lequvia Ousley~