Beat The Blocks

byexgrosteve

1.4K followers

4 years ago

In a WA blog post yesterday, I noticed reference to Writers Block, and it inspired this post. Before I get into the meat of this subject, I will mention a bit of history, my history.

I’ve always enjoyed writing and the enjoyment goes way back to early schooling. Why? I just do, it’s as simple as that. It brings me pleasure, it’s fun and I learn things as I write. OK, sometimes I write for other people too, in the hope that they may learn something or gain pleasure from my words. I have a collection of notebooks around my desk where I collect words and phrases that other people have said or written. Often these generate explosions of thoughts and off I go.

In 2012, I published a novel for children and a historical fiction novel for adults in 2016. I have a blog in the creative writing industry although I’ve allowed it to sleep for the moment and, of course, my mountain bike website where I get to write about one of my passions.

Write Something;

It’s Better Than Not Writing Anything

Yes, we all have challenging days when the words don’t flow, or we can’t quite say what we think we need to say. On days like this, I take a sheet of paper, create empty text bubbles or boxes and fill them with words and phrases relevant to the task I want to achieve. It’s amazing how this creates a plethora of ideas and, often ideas I need to put on hold because they are relevant to something else that I hadn’t even considered yet.

Once that sheet of paper is full, I transfer it to a document on my computer. I never throw away any words because I care about my writing and they are all recyclable. That leads to another idea generating tool. When I can’t find what I want to write about, there is always something in that document that fires the creative furnace.

What Stops Us?

Timing: Sometimes our ideas may need to cook a little before we can get them to the page. No big deal; make some notes and set yourself an appointment to go back later.

Confidence: Have you ever felt afraid of putting your words and ideas out there for people to see? This is a big reason why some writers never become writers.

Language: Of course, many people at WA are working with English as a second language and, that’s not without its challenges. It’s not within the scope of this article to go into that, except to say, BIG RESPECT. There are plenty of apps out there that can help with this and some great people at WA who teach EFL.

Perfection: Few writers get it right from the start and some people will avoid writing because they can’t get their ideas neatly laid out. One of my literary heroes, Neil Gaiman gave a great tip on this and it’s relevant to every niche.

He advises getting everything written or typed. Just go for it. Once you think you’ve exhausted the subject, open another document alongside and rewrite because in this version you are going to tell people that you know what you’re talking about. This is a highly effective method.

What Else Can We Do?

• Read some inspiring motivational quotes
• Go for a walk or a bike ride
• Play
• Listen to music
• Have a conversation with somebody about anything

I’m sure you can add to this brief list but don’t use it as an excuse to avoid what needs to be done. The important thing is to keep moving. Don’t sit staring at an empty page.

There’s plenty of advice and opinion about how to become a better writer but remember that it’s an art, not a science so, even though some people will tell you (or charge you) for an amazing formula, there’s no substitute for getting on with it and putting it out there. The formula is whatever works for you and once you start writing, it’s easier to pick up speed and the blocks will be gone.

What Not To Do

• Don’t wait until you rediscover inspiration
• Self-Pity never helps
• Procrastination and excuse manufacturing never got anything done
• Netflix and YouTube videos might be entertaining but unless it’s genuine research, they never help get words to the page
• Don’t read too many articles like this (hmm, shouldn’t have said that).

Free Tool

Here’s a little tool called, Don’t Hit Publish. It’s free and, although it doesn’t analyse what you’ve written, it does give you some great pointers before you publish your amazing work.

Bottom Line

Just write, you’ve got this, it will come together.