Content
Are you a writer that has been experiencing writer’s block? Here we provide the most common causes and how you can combat them.
Highlights
- Write and Edit at The Same Time
- Compare Yourself with Established Authors
- Fear of Writing
- Fear of Publishing.
- Fear of Being Unoriginal
- Lack of Support from People Around You
- Talk Too Much About Your Work
- Write Thinking of Critics or Market Trends
- Doubt About What Is Written
- Is It Worth It?
- Stop Writing and Do Something Else
- Try Free Writing
- Permit Yourself to Write
- Create Mind Maps
- Prevent Writer’s Block from Happening To You Again
Steps For Overcoming Writer’s Block
1. Write and Edit At The Same Time
It does not matter how many times you edit a text; you will change something each time you review it. And suppose you start editing in chapter 1. In that case, you will never write 2, so wholly separate both activities, and don’t forget that you can write without editing, but you can’t edit if you haven’t written anything previously.
2. Compare Yourself With Established Authors
All those authors, before they were, were students, office workers, teachers or whatever and wrote in their spare time, exactly like you, so why not go to the same Olympus, exactly like them?
3. Fear of Writing
You have many dreams, many ideas, a lot of desire, but you don’t know how to put them on paper. Anyway, please write it down. If you have something written, you can edit it, fix it, correct it, or even completely rewrite it if it sucks, but if you have nothing to start with, you will not improve.
4. Fear of Publishing
Making what we have written known is the great fear of any writer, no matter how consecrated he may be.
We expose our work, which has sometimes emerged from the depths of our thought or experience, to the public eye and critics, but how else could anyone like our work if we don’t allow them to read it, be it in a book, a blog or any other medium?
We have no choice, and the results, when you give yourself that opportunity, can be a great source of motivation to keep writing and avoid writer’s block.
5. Fear of Being Unoriginal
I don’t know about you, but I’m always paranoid that my stories are no more, if not books or movies that I saw a long time ago and don’t remember.
The good news is that the most original story you can think of has already occurred to someone. And it is good news because all the stories are variations of other stories already told, but how the author puts it, the point of view that he adapts, or the unforeseen twist he gives it. So, stop thinking about it and write your story to avoid writer’s block.
6. Lack Of Support From People Around You
When someone asks me what I do, and I answer that I am a writer, they usually look at me like crazy.
When I explain to them that what appears on the internet is not written alone and that I am one of the people who write it, thanks to which I am making a living little by little, they look at me as if I were an extraterrestrial,
My life would probably be easier if I just answered “housewife,” but I refuse. When I decided to start my career as a writer, I did so with all the consequences, which is one of the negatives.
Then there is another group of people who, with the best of intentions, advise me to go back to web design as a freelancer if I want to work because it is safer and I have the necessary experience and contacts.
But there is something that we must not forget, and everyone has dreams; the difference is that we are pursuing ours, knowing this would help us to avoid writer’s block.
7. Talk Too Much About Your Work
When you say that you are writing, many people will ask you what your story is about. If you tell it in detail when you sit down to write it, it will seem corny, not very original, and the same will happen if you analyze and plan it exhaustively beforehand.
Let the story surprise you as you write it. Let it grow, change, lengthen or reduce at will.
What makes this profession addictive is those brief but intense epiphanies in which you notice that everything takes shape and you are doing something good.
Without those moments, this profession is not even half as attractive.
8. Write Thinking of Critics or Market Trends
Four years ago, books of intrigue and religious background were fashionable. Three years ago, the historical novel books. Two ago, the vampires. Now for the Nordic novels. Do you want to be one more? Write your own story, it would help you avoid writer’s block.
9. Doubt About What Is Written
- Will you understand what I mean?
- Am I counting everything I wanted to tell?
- Am I getting the most out of the story and the characters?
- Do I have talent?
These are all legitimate questions, but not during the writing but the editing phase, so dig them deep until they are needed.
10. Is It Worth It?
If you have a more or less pleasant life, why complicate it; also, today, you have been with some friends, or you are tired, and you want to lie on the sofa to watch a movie, or you have a pile of two meters ironing. And the days go by, and your book or script or play remains unfinished.
Never lose sight of your goal. Put a poster, an alarm on your mobile, imagine your book among those on your shelf, or you collecting the Oscar for the best original script.
Keep it in mind 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year, so you don’t forget it for a moment to avoid writer’s block.
11. Stop Writing and Do Something Else
To overcome writer’s block, put the story you were working on hold for a season. To feel better, you can set a specific time, a day, or a week. That will reassure you because you know a time already set to go back to what you were writing.
However, it would help if you took advantage of that time. And you must make your creativity exercise during that period: paint, take photos, knit, do crafts. This will allow your mind to refocus.
Also, while you think about other things, your brain will not have forgotten the story you were working on. Unconsciously, keep working on it and looking for the best way to continue where you left off.
12. Try Free Writing
Freewriting consists of writing continuously for a predetermined period, without a pre-established subject and without paying attention to spelling and grammar.
In other words, it is about letting yourself go and writing freely everything that comes to mind. Of course, you must do it for a fixed time. The recommended is ten to twenty minutes.
We advise you to do your freewriting exercises by writing by hand (with a pen and paper) and not with a keyboard. Why? It is proven that the brain thinks better when we write by hand because it has more time to articulate thoughts by doing it more slowly.
Try freewriting, and you will be amazed at its results in overcoming writer’s block.
13. Permit Yourself to Write
Writer’s block is nothing more than a state of mind. Many times it is insecurity or lack of preparation that leads to it. Doubts about your writing, you fear you are doing something that will not deserve to be read. You wonder if you have the capacity and resources to bring that story to a successful conclusion.
That is why you must train as a writer. You will know how to handle the different resources and when to use them. You will receive the expert and impartial opinion of a reader trained on your texts and your style. And that will give you the security to write without fear.
So to overcome writer’s block, you have to permit yourself to write. To get it wrong, to make a mistake, to make one mistake after another. Only then can you improve. The world is not going to end because you write a bad novel. The next one will be better.
14. Create Mind Maps
Mind mapping is one of the best things you can do. It is used to undo a block, but you can also do it when you start typing.
Take a blank sheet of paper (or a blackboard or a wall and post it) and write in the center the theme or main idea that your novel revolves around—for example, time travel.
Then create a second level of ideas related to the main one. Continuing with the example of time travel, we could think of clocks, past, present, future, technology, etc.
It descends further down the scale of related concepts. But now you must think of ideas related to the words of the second level: clock-calculator, past-carriages, present-economic crisis, future-space travel, technology-computers, etc.
Finally, connect the words of the third level with the central idea: how is a calculator related to time travel? What about a carriage? Rest assured, this procedure will provide you with some ideas that you will want to get to work on right away. And you will have overcome writer’s block.
15. Prevent Writer’s Block From Happening To You Again
In the same way that is sometimes writing slows down, other times, on the contrary, it seems that you cannot cope with writing all the ideas that come to mind. Well, now is the time to work to prevent a blockage from occurring.
When you have a creative fizzle, spend a fraction of your writing time taking notes and sketching all those ideas that flow incessantly.
Thus, when you are paralyzed, you will have an arsenal of ideas to draw on that, well organized, will be very useful as a seedbed. And as you write and develop them, you will surely come up with more.
You already know, the next time it happens to you, and you find yourself in writer’s block, try some of these ideas. You will see that some work for you, and you will get out of creative stagnation. But learn to give yourself time, know your writing process. This way, you will also know what works best for you when overcoming writer’s block. Another way to overcome the writer’s block is to join our community of writers to receive inspiring ideas in your email eve