As a writer, facing a creative roadblock is a common occurrence. Writer's block can be frustrating and even debilitating, making it difficult to write anything at all. But you know you need to write despite this embarrassing state of mind. So, you sit at your desks, staring at the blue screens, and try to write something. But no words appear. You all have been there.
So, what exactly is writer’s block? And what can you do once it hits? Should you give up your art and take another day job? Or are there ways to help you smash through writer’s block?
In this blog, we will learn in-depth about the causes and how to overcome writer’s block with actionable tips.
What Causes Writer's Block
Finding the underlying cause of a problem means the solution is half done. So, it's important to discover what causes your trouble writing. There are many possible potential causes of experiencing writer's block, and the specific cause can vary from person to person. Some common causes of writer's block include:
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Fear: Fear of failure, fear of criticism, fear of rejection, or fear of not living up to one's own expectations can all contribute to writing funk. This fear can be paralyzing and prevent a writer from moving forward with their project.
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Perfectionism: The desire to make every sentence flawless can be overwhelming and lead to writer's block. Writers struggling with perfectionism may find it difficult to move forward with their writing until they feel like every word is perfect.
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Lack of inspiration: Sometimes, most writers don't know what to write next. They may lack inspiration or feel like they've hit a creative dead end.
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Overwhelm: Writing can be a daunting task, particularly for continuous or longer projects like blog post, novels, or dissertations. The sheer scope of the project can be overwhelming and lead to writer's block.
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Distractions: External distractions like - mobile phone, social media, email, and other responsibilities can pull a writer's attention away from their work and prevent them from making progress.
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Procrastination: Some writers may put off writing until the last minute, which makes them feel rushed and anxious when they finally sit down to work.
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Self-doubt: Feeling doubtful and unsure about one's writing abilities or the value of their work can lead to writer's block.
Identifying the underlying reason for writer’s block can help you to find creative solutions to overcome it. You can understand what is preventing your progress, address the issue and get back to work.
19 Ways to Overcome Writer’s Block
Writing is a hard job. It can be frustrating to generate words continuously. You might find yourself stuck on the process, and no new ideas are striking. I know it is a painful experience.
You want to get out of the box but do not feel like it. Well, let’s not suffer alone. I am mentioning all the practical ways and tips for writer's block you can try to be on your track:
1. Make Writing a Habit
Having a strict routine or a writing schedule can be a game-changer to beat writer's block. You can set a time to write every day. For example - you get up every morning, sit at the computer and type. It does not matter what you type; you just have to keep typing. And what happens - your brain realizes you are going to write anyway. Thus, you might produce something good as well.
Sometimes, putting more emphasis on your mindset may stop you from doing the actual work. But if you make it a habit and write constantly, no matter if the stuff is good or bad writing, I can guarantee you some good writing will slip through.
2. Organize Your Workspace
Your workspace is the place where all the magic happens. Therefore, you should take good care of it. Having a workspace where everything you need is within reach, every tool, every file, easily available for you to access removes the barriers from getting your work done and speeds up the process between your thought and creation.
So here are the things you can try to make your workspace -
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Clear Desk: Keep your desk clear and tidy with only the necessary things. If your desk is filled with too many things, it will be distracting to work.
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The Chair: This is the one-piece thing you should invest in as you spend a lot of time sitting. Make sure your desk chair is comfortable and supports your spinal curves.
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Light: Try to use a light that does not make the work area too bright or cause eyestrains. Keep the lighting with a warm and ambient vibe.
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To-do list: Have a physical or electronic to-do list on the desk. It will help you to be on track.
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Distraction: Avoid having other things on the desk that are not related to your work. Eliminate distractions and keep your workspace noise-free to concentrate on your work.
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Plant: Having plants in your workspace boosts creativity and replenishes focus. As we humans have an innate desire to connect with greenery, keeping indoor plants makes you refreshed and attached to your writing.
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Water: It's important to maintain your hydration throughout the day for better mental performance and stay energized. Drinking water from time to time helps you to fight tiredness and poor concentration.
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Distant View: Have a distant view (like - a window or artwork) at your workspace. You can stare at them from time to time, and it will make your brain and eye feel relaxed.
3. Change Your Environment
Feel like you are not up to the mood to write? Go for a walk or travel. Take a long walk through country roads. It will loosen up your brain and make it approachable once again. Traveling is an eye-opening experience. It refreshes the mind and generates best ideas. Exploring cities or new places will give you a new perspective of thinking and grow your thought processing to create more ideas.
You can change your writing location too. Find a new place to sit and write: a roadside cafe, quiet coffee shop, park, library, or some other place that inspires you. A break from your regular environment stimulates creativity and the flow of your writing.
4. Take Breaks
Take regular breaks, and make sure you do something that is not related to writing. It can be talking to a friend, sitting with family, listening to music, or stretching. But make sure the break is at most 20 minutes. You want to refresh your mind, not drift away from your writing.
Use the breaks to take care of yourself. Eat healthy snacks, drink enough water, or take care of your personal needs. These things will make your body and mind recharged for writing.
5. Write It Badly First
When writing, never think the first draft is the final draft. Freewrite without pausing, write just what comes to mind. You don’t have to worry about the sentence structure, spelling, grammar, or just whether the thing you are writing makes sense or not. Do not second guess on what you are writing, write away your writer’s block. There is no better way to step out of your writing block other than writing itself.
6. Break Down Your Task into Small portions
Do not get to tackle everything at once. Divide your writing project into small chunks and focus on different parts at different times. This way you will not get tempted with the thought of writing the full project at one sitting. Set your focus on smaller goals and then finish the part you set to write.
Creating an outline can help you in that enormously. You can break your writing into small pieces and start with the part you feel comfortable with. Include headings, subheadings, a bulleted list, and questions you want to answer in your writing project. It will make it simple for you to stay on the flow.
7. Set Realistic Goals
Setting up realistic goals for writing is important to stay on track. As you achieve your goal you will feel a sense of accomplishment and motivation. Realistic goals help you to prioritize what is most important. You can finish the task in a specific time frame. It also gives you a sense of direction, so you do not feel lost in the mid project. Setting realistic goals is an effective way to increase your productivity and focus.
8. Change Your Writing Style and Technique
Changing your writing style and technique can be a helpful approach to beat writer’s block. It breaks out your old pattern of writing and helps you to try new approaches. Sometimes, writer’s block is caused by lack of inspiration or feeling of being stuck. Changing your style and technique of writing can help you get a new voice and experience of a new genre.
Throughout this process of trying a new writing style and technique you might discover a new strength in your writing. Who knows you may find out you are particularly good at script or dialogue writing. It will also help you to avoid frustration and burnout.
Publish your writing as a blog post to add extra creative juices to your exploration of finding new genres and writing styles.
However, apart from writing, here are some small business website ideas you can try.
9. Read, Read, & Read
Reading is a constant for any writer. If you want to improve as a writer, there is no way other than reading else's writing. Same goes for procrastination or being stuck. List down your favorite books and writers, read them thoroughly. When reading, if you find something that entices you, stop, now think how you will write it, and understand the writer's tone. It can be a new genre you never tried before. You will be astonished to see that you are generating your own tone.
Trying this reading and understanding method, anyone can find their own voice in writing and become a good writer. Because books are the ‘Writing Institute’ you get literally on a shoestring. There is no way you can have a conversation with bright minds like - Ernest Hemingway but through his books you can connect with his mind and witness his thought processing in the nearest possible way.
10. Get Rid of Distractions
Writing needs high concentration. Distractions can challenge & disrupt your focus and make it difficult to concentrate on your writing. They can prevent you from entering the "flow state," where your mind is fully engaged in the task at hand, and you are producing your best work. Additionally, distractions can cause stress and anxiety, which can inhibit your ability to write in the long run.
To get rid of distractions while writing, eliminate external distractions such as turn off your mobile phone or put it on silent mode, close unnecessary tabs on your computer, and avoid opening social media or email during your writing time.
Create a designated writing space so you can focus on your writing without interruptions. Inform your family or roommates that you need uninterrupted time to work, so they don't disturb you. Use noise-canceling headphones to block out distractions and focus on your writing. Set a timer for a specific period can help you stay focused on your writing for that period.
11. Create a Writing Group
Creating a writing group can be an amazing way to defeat and combat writer’s block. First and foremost thing is that it gives you a sense of accountability and writing motivation. Knowing that people are waiting for your work gives you a positive push to write.
A writing group gives you feedback and constructive criticism on your work, helping you identify areas to improve and inspiring new insight.
Finally, being part of a writing group can help you build connections and a supportive community of fellow writers who understand the struggles and joys of the writing process. All of these factors can help break through procrastination and keep you inspired and motivated to keep writing.
12. Timeboxing
Timeboxing is another technique to stay focused on writing. In this method you divide your task then timebox the tasks. You set a timer for a specific task and you just write; no editing or thinking about grammar, spelling mistakes. Repeat the process until you reach your writing goal. It will make a sense of urgency to finish the work on time. Set a deadline and strictly follow it.
13. Use-distraction Free Tool
Using distraction-free software can make your writing journey a productive one. There are various apps that can assist you in staying focused and avoiding interruptions while writing, such as - Freedom, Cold Turkey, and Focus@Will. Use them if you find it tough to stay on track.
14. Reward Yourself
Rewarding yourself after completing your writing task can be a powerful motivator and help reinforce positive behavior. When you reward yourself, your brain releases dopamine, a chemical that makes you feel good. Your brain gets motivated to do a similar task again.
In case you need some ideas on what are the reward might be, I am mentioning some below -
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Treat yourself to a favorite snack or meal
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Take a break and do something enjoyable, like going for a walk or watching a favorite TV show
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Buy something you have been wanting
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Spend time doing a favorite hobby
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Meet up with friends or family
15. Try Mind Mapping
Mind mapping is a brainstorming technique that helps many famous writers organize their ideas and connect different concepts together. It is a visual aid that uses a central idea or topic as the beginning point, with related ideas branching out from it. To create a mind map for writing, follow these steps:
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Start with a central idea or topic related to your writing project. Write it in the center of a blank page or whiteboard.
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Identify the key sub topics or themes related to your central idea and write them as branches coming off the central idea.
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From each subtopic or theme, brainstorm related ideas or concepts and connect them to the appropriate branch.
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Continue this process, keep adding more branches and related ideas as they come to mind.
As you create your mind map, you may find that some branches or ideas connect with others. Use lines or arrows to connect these related ideas together.
The goal of mind mapping is to create a visual representation of your ideas and how they are connected. It can help you organize your thoughts, identify gaps in your research or understanding, and generate better idea.
Once you have completed your mind map, you can use it as a guide for your writing. The branches and related ideas can serve as an outline or structure for your writing.
16. Listen to Music
Listening to music helps to overcome writing procrastination. Music creates a positive and productive environment for writing. The writing process is more fun when you're in a good mood, less stressed out, and listening to music you like.
Music helps you to stay focused and stay on task. When you write while listening to music it blocks distractions and creates a sense of flow.
17. Explore Creative work
Creativity breeds creativity. Whenever you feel stuck or can not generate new words, explore creative works. Go to the exhibition or museum, explore them. These works are done by the brightest minds out there, there is no way you will be back empty handed. There must be something that will inspire you, connect you, give you a new perspective to think about.
You can go to a play, cinema, show; conversations, colors, sounds, sensations will creep into the space that you felt empty. Perhaps, then, you might return to your own desk with a new spark of intention.
18. Take Care of Your Physical and Mental Wellness
Maintaining your physical and emotional well-being is essential to center your creative mind. Exercising regularly, doing yoga, meditation, and eating healthy all contribute to being in the right state of body and mind. A clean state of your body and mind will inspire your brain to spark ideas.
19. Writer’s Block- Stop Believing in It
You get stuck on your work and start believing that you are in writer’s block. Thinking like this makes you feel mentally and creatively exhausted. You can not work because you think nothing is left in you to continue creating words.
So, stop believing you are in writer’s block. This will only exist if you allow it to. If you get stuck, practice the above-mentioned ways, there is no way you will be on any kind of block. Happy writing; keep creating magic.
4 Writing Exercises to Help Loosen Writer’s Block
How to deal with writer's block? Writing is not an easy task. Sometimes, you may get stuck and fail to generate a single idea. It's simple. But sometimes, a little pressure can help you through a block. Below I am mentioning some exercises you can practice to stay on track -
1. Pomodoro Technique
The pomodoro technique is a time-blocking strategy to stay focused and productive. In this process, you break down your work into intervals, normally it is 25 minutes in length. Here are the steps to use the Pomodoro Technique:
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Choose a task you want to complete.
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Set a timer for 25 minutes (or the length of time you prefer to work in one interval).
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Work on the assignment until the timer rings.
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Take a short break (5-10 minutes) after the timer goes off.
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After four Pomodoro intervals, take a longer break (15-30 minutes).
Repeat the cycle as required until your writing is completed. The idea behind this pomodoro technique is to keep you focused and avoid burnout. Taking regular breaks help you to prevent fatigue and energize you for the next interval. It is an amazing technique to find out how much time you devote to various tasks.
2. The 30-minute Challenge
The 30 minute challenge is a writing exercise where you continuously write for 30 minutes without stopping or editing yourself. This exercise helps you to defeat writer's block, generate fresh perspective, and improve your writing skills.
To begin the challenge, set a timer for 30 minutes and start writing. Whatever comes to mind, write it down, even if it sounds silly or unrelated. During this exercise, remember to write continuously, do not stop or edit your writing. After the 30 minutes is up, take a break and then come back to your work. Read through what you have written and see if there are any ideas or phrases that stand out to you.
3. The “Pretend-You’re-Talking-to-a-Friend” Technique
The “pretend-you’re-talking-to-a-friend” technique is a simple and effective technique for overcoming writer’s block. It is a character development technique. To use this technique, imagine that you are having a conversation with your best friend about the topic you are writing about. You can either picture the conversation in your mind or even speak out loud as if you are having a real conversation with your friend.
Start by introducing the topic to your friend in a natural, conversational way. Then, explain your thoughts and ideas on the topic as if you were talking to your friend. Don't worry about writing everything down perfectly or sounding formal. Just imagine yourself having a casual conversation. As you continue your conversation, your thoughts will start to generate more freely and you may discover that you are able to express yourself more easily. You might find yourself coming up with new ideas or perspectives you never considered.
4. Write a Letter to Yourself
Write a letter to yourself about why you're struggling with writer's block and what you can do to overcome it. This exercise can help you identify the root causes of your block and come up with strategies to address them. It works as a powerful tool to get past writer’s block.
When you write a letter to yourself, you are actually having a conversation with yourself. It becomes a self-reflection on your thoughts and feelings in a more structured and intentional way. The beauty of writing a letter to yourself is that there are no rules. You write as you feel like writing, write anything. It reconnects you, helps you identify what's causing the block, tap into your creativity, overcome fear, and finally get you unstuck from your procrastination.
FAQ on How to Overcome Writers' Block, Answered
What Is Writer’s Block?
Writer’s block is a condition experienced by many writers, in which they can not produce new written work or come up with new ideas for writing. This can manifest in several ways, such as a complete lack of inspiration or a feeling of being stuck and unable to make progress on a project.
How Long Does Writer’s Block Usually Last?
The duration of writer's block differs from person to person, and there is no set time frame for how long it can last. For some writers, it may be a short interruption in their creative process, lasting only a few hours or days. For others, it may continue for weeks, months, or even years.
What Does Writer’s Block Feel Like?
Writer's block can be different for different people, but it generally involves a feeling of being stuck and unable to move forward with writing. Some common feelings and experiences associated with writer's block may include:
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A lack of inspiration or creative ideas.
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Feeling like you don't know how to start or what to write next.
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Procrastinating or avoiding continue writing altogether.
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Difficulty concentrating or staying focused on writing.
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Feeling anxious, stressed, or overwhelmed by the creative tasks.
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A sense of self-doubt or criticism about your writing abilities.
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Frustration or disappointment with the quality of your writing.
These feelings can be challenging to overcome, sometimes leading to a cycle of negative thinking and avoidance behavior that perpetuates writer's block. However, it's important to remember that writer's block is a common part of the creative process, and there are strategies and techniques that can help you overcome it.
How Do You Help Someone with Writer’s Block?
Helping someone with writer's block can be a delicate process, and the best approach will depend on the individual's specific needs and situation. However, here are some general tips that may be useful to help with writer's block:
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Listen and offer support: Let the person know that you understand that writer's block can be frustrating and that you're there to support them. Encourage them to talk about what they're experiencing and how they're feeling.
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Brainstorm together: Offer to help the person brainstorm ideas for their writing project. Ask questions to help them generate new ideas, or suggest prompts or exercises to help spark their creativity.
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Offer feedback: If the person has written something, offer constructive feedback to help them improve their work. Be specific about what works well and what could be improved.
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Encourage breaks and self-care: Sometimes, taking breaks and stepping away from writing can be helpful. Encourage the person to take breaks and engage in self-care activities that help them recharge and reduce stress.
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Offer resources: There are many resources available to help writers overcome writer's block, such as writing workshops, support groups, and online resources. Offer to help the person find resources that might be helpful to them.
Remember that everyone experiences writer's block differently, and what works for one individual may not work for another. The most important thing is to be supportive and understanding, and to offer help and resources as needed.
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Closing Thoughts
Writer's block can affect even the most seasoned writers and is caused by various factors. Overcoming writer's block requires identifying the underlying reason for the block and taking actionable steps to overcome it.
So, we have already mentioned some practical ways on how to overcome writer’s block to help you. With determination and perseverance, you can get your creative juices flowing back and continue to create your art.
