Overcoming Writer’s Block

If you’re a writer, than you have probably experienced dreaded writer’s block in some way. Something inside you saps your will to fill up the blank page. Perhaps you’re scared of what others will think, or maybe you don’t feel like you have any ideas. Either way, if you want to write, you have to learn to get over it. In his book On Writing, Stephen King said this. “You can approach the act of writing with nervousness, excitement, hopefulness, or even despair–the sense that you can never completely put on the page what’s in your mind and heart. You can come to the act with your fists clenched and your eyes narrowed, ready to kick ass and take down names. You can come to it because you want a girl to marry you or because you want to change the world. Come to it any way but lightly. Let me say it again: you must not come lightly to the blank page.”  With that in mind, I’ve compiled a list of things you might want to consider, or activities that you might want to do in order to ward off the dreaded writer’s block.

1. Clear your mind. Relax. Allow yourself to write. Get rid of your inner editor.
2. Look at pictures of random things/specific things – Pinterest is a good tool in that regard.
3. Go experience things. It’s hard to write about life if you haven’t experienced it to some degree.
4. Do something different. Take a different route to work, eat something unusual… Stuff like that.
5. Write at a different time.
6. Write when you are fresh, not tired.
7. Remove all distractions – Internet, for example.
8. Use paper, not the computer. Alternate.
9. Keep a journal of ideas.
10. Have different projects going on at the same time, but at different stages. That way if the creative juices aren’t flowing, for example, you can still get some editing done on another project.
11. Watch a movie, and analyze when the movie touches you and why. What were the mechanics?
12. Are you writing something you’re passionate about? If not, change what your writing. Hone in on the things you are passionate about.
13. Figure out why you’re stuck. What are you fixated on? Resolve it before you try writing again.
14. Join a writing group. Get someone to talk to about it.
15. Read a good book.
16. Word war. Make it a competition. You and a buddy… Sit down at the same time and see who can write more words in one sitting.
17. Do away with your inner editor.
18. Take the dog for a walk.
19. Write something in a different format. If you are writing a novel, try a poem, etc.
20. Use an idea generator on the internet.
21. Change the names of your character(s). Names have meaning. Perhaps changing the name will give that character new life in your mind.
22. Ask what if, and go to town.
23. Free write.
24. Write anything: A list, a journal entry…
25. Pretend you are one of your characters. Write a threatening letter from that character to you, the author. What would he/she say?
26. Visualize what you are going to write before you sit down to write.
27. Don’t just sit down to write. Have some idea of what you want to write first. Deny yourself the writing until the ideas come, then you will appreciate the writing opportunity when you give it to yourself.
28. Use an egg timer, or some other kind of timer. Write non-stop for that time, and then stop when the timer goes off.
29. Choose a book and copy a paragraph or two. Then, pick up the writing from there (this is like “popping the clutch” from a writing perspective).
30. Get a group of writer friends together. Each of you start with a pencil and paper, and write one paragraph of a story. Then, pass the papers around, and pick up where the other person left off.
31. Shower.
32. Fill out a character profile. Sometimes knowing a strong character will get you writing about him/her.
33. Roll a set of Rory’s Story Cubes.

  Do you have any ideas? What do you do to rid yourself of writer’s block? Let us know in the comments below.