Writer’s Block, No More
My daughter’s a teenager and she was working on an essay last night. She facetimed a friend because she said she had writer’s block. I was like “I’m a professional writer, right here, to help you!” But of course as a teen, she totally ignored me. Thing is — I haven’t had writer’s block in years. So long, in fact, I’ve taken it for granted. But instead of just sitting here on my high horse, I’ll share some of the reasons why I think this is the case and my tricks / tips for avoiding the beast.
I prioritize sleep. Seriously, if you’re tired, you’re that much more likely to stare at the wall, writing nothing. Sleep is a beautiful gift, if you can get it.
I’m extremely deadline-driven. But I don’t stress about them. If I don’t have external deadlines, I’ll create them for myself. I use them as an exciting guide — something to look forward to, rather than something I utterly dread. I track them in a spreadsheet and a calendar and a todo list (sounds like a lot — I don’t track everything in 3 places; just the big deliverables.)
I live for notes. First time I have an idea or an assignment, I put notes to paper… anything / everything I can think of that relates to the topic. Free form. Sometimes it’s in my iPhone Notes app. Sometimes it’s in text files on my computer. I keep it simple. No fancy formatting. Just words on the page. That gets the juices flowing.
When I feel even remotely stuck, I go straight to my notes first thing to jog my memory, and I start writing more.
I research a lot! I love research and often find ideas there.
If I’m stumped, I ask other people for insights. As a journalist, now this has become second nature to ask friends, colleagues, people in my network, or to reach out to potential sources that I don’t know in order to get the most useful, helpful, appropriate information to help with whatever the writing project might be.
I take breaks. I mandate them. (Or my cats do.) I walk, I stretch, I get outside in fresh air. That makes a big difference. Often, I’ll be on a walk or working on a household project when the next thing I need for a story or a script will come to me.
I set reasonable goals and pace myself. Okay, so sometimes that isn’t totally easy if there’s a last minute deadline. We’ve all burned the midnight oil to get a project done. But if I have time when something is assigned or I first undertake it, I’ll parse it out so there are different phases of the project to attack along the way vs. being overwhelmed by the whole big thing. (That’s been the killer in my past, when I got hit by writer’s block. Thinking it was too big to handle.)
When I’m out of ideas, I have files of them that I started over the years where I can get fodder. Or I’ll just open Apple News and start trolling for interesting topics in the subject area of the material I need to write, to see what comes up that’s of interest. Eventually after 3-4 articles, something will come to me.
I listen to podcasts. This used to not be my thing, but now I try to gather as much education and learning as I can from them. While walking or dealing with dishes or laundry or whatever needs to be done.
I’m a professional. I know it and I own it. A lot of people have written about the mindset that you have that differs from being an amateur and a professional writer, but the bottom line is that for me, I have built up enough confidence in my skills as a writer over the years to not sweat the small stuff. Something needs revising, no problem. Needs to be totally scrapped and started over from scratch, fine. Got all kinds of notes, feedback, changes needed? Sounds like an excellent challenge. Took me years to get to this point. So I don’t expect everyone to be able to feel that way overnight — it literally took me a decade of being paid to write to call myself a professional writer. (Believe me, I get it.) But now that I’ve been there a while, I use that to my advantage. The page is mine, not the other way around. I control what goes on it. I make the hard choices. I relish the next opportunity rather than fearing it.
So really, in a nutshell, it comes down to mental attitude. If you take yourself and your writing seriously, you are confident, you set goals, you take breaks, and you don’t sweat the small stuff, you’ll be over the block — for good.