Writer’s block is an enigmatic creature for people who create content with words. Some writers swear it isn’t real. For others, it stalled their career.
Personally, I have 20+ years of unleashed content hastening out of my brain. What challenges me from time to time, as I reckon it does all authors, is finding what feels like the right character development / plot point, or book / blog content. Both a plateau in creativity or process may throw a writer off.
Don’t sit staring at a blank page! A word desert does nothing to further your writing goals!
Whether you’re writing fiction or non-fiction, I hope you find these 20 Ways to Beat Writer’s Block helpful!
20 Ways to Beat Writer’s Block
Examine Why You’re Writing
This might surprise you, but the first thing I tell anyone who tells me that they are stuck is to ask what is the purpose of the manuscript. Is it a marketing lead? To generate an audience? To entertain? To have a new career? A hobby? If you aren’t sure why you’re writing, it’s easy to lose focus and fall into the mental traps that stall writers.
Change Your Writing Tool
Some authors are more creative with a pen and paper. However, typing drafts saves time in the creation of a manuscript. If you can’t figure out what to say or do next in your WIP (work in progress), then change it up before you get stressed out about your writer’s block. Switch programs or formats. Go to pen and paper if you rely on digital. Create your story using pictures cut out of a magazine or use a stick-figure storyboard (extra points to you if you can draw!). The point is, get your brain out of a rut by first changing the way in which you create.
Social Media – The Double Edged Sword
Some people find inspiration connecting online or with a community of people, or by following the vitriole on social media. For others, it’s an easy way to escape from a troubling problem for hours at a time. Here’s where you have to know yourself and your use of social. Do you really find inspiration on Pinterest boards, or are you avoiding tackling the hard work? If you do, that’s great. Designate a reasonable period of time in which you scroll through all the pretty things. If it’s a time suck, then unplug. Tell people that you’re going to be offline for an hour, a day, a week – whatever you need to find the focus that will get you through the block.
Spend Time With Your Research
Whether you write fiction, creative non-fiction, or straight non-fiction, there is a wealth of information behind your manuscript. You need to know far more than ever gets onto the printed page. When you re-read your research material, or explore new facets, you may find something that sparks the fire you need. Have a tendency to get lost down the research rabbit hole? Decide first if you need to set time limits or not.
Connect With Your Theme
Every book has a theme. Do you know yours? If not, take the time when you’re blocked to flesh it out. Reach out to people and communities who represent what you’re writing about, or the message you want to convey. Have an informational book? What is the “must-know” content? Have a book that speaks to an injustice? Speak with community leaders to gain a deeper understanding how people are affected by that injustice. Then, think about how your book takes that into account. Writing about a specific topic or genre? Go where the action is and invigorate your passion for that topic or genre.
Begin a New Project
OK. Here’s where I have to add a little bit of caution. If you are a person who is guilty of starting projects and never finishing them, this may not be the writer’s block buster for you. We spend so much time with our WIP that, as one editor put it, our eyes bleed. Take a break. Recharge with a new project on a different subject, or even the next book. You may find that what you thought you wanted to write first isn’t what you needed to write first.
The Boob Tube Connundrum
Visual mediums like television and movies have a different way of speaking to audiences compared to books. I don’t discourage using T.V. and movies as a way to find inspiration and get out of writer’s block, but, like social media, it’s also an easy way to avoid doing the work of getting unblocked. My first recommendation is watching programs that bring you some value as a writer. Take in a documentary that contains facts you need. If you write fiction, don’t turn off your brain when you watch for entertainment. Pay attention to how the narrative unfolds, the expected and unexpected twists and arcs. Reflect upon your own WIP likewise and you may see the way out of your writer’s block.
Get Physical
Whether you find inspiration when you go for a walk, sweat at the gym, or race around with your children (or borrow them from someone – with permission!), getting yourself physical gives you the benefit of endorphins – mother nature’s mood altering drug. I regularly take my son for 5K walks and he talks non-stop. Most times, I listen to him and try to help him with how his ASD affects his two-way communication skills. When I’m not focused on my story, my story comes to me. Push your body to concentrate on something other than your thoughts and, when you’re not expecting it, the solution may jump out at you because you’re not thinking about it.
Mediation and Calmness
It’s also possible to employ mediation and stillness to generate creativity. Carve a quiet moment out of your day. Turn off the phones, close your door, and ignore the world. I meditate in the quietude of the evening to help me focus on the billion things that float through my head. Maybe I not every day, but I try to spend at least 10 minutes in a dark room after my son has gone to sleep. I listen to nature recordings or mediation sounds. Otherwise, I find myself thinking of ev-er-ry-thing. I don’t look for solutions when I meditate. I simply allow myself to be.
Read
Reading is a prerequisite for writing. If you find that your writer’s block stalled your creativity or focus, then turn to authors you find inspirational. Read authors you wish to emulate. Read for enjoyment, to analyse a writing style, or to research your market. How does your material differ and how can you make it stand out? You may decide to change your premise altogether.
Fiction: Go to Lunch With Your Character
The way to create interesting characters is to give them depth, making them appear as real as any flesh and blood person. Engage in the thought experiment of going out for lunch with your characters. Create a list of questions you would ask someone, starting with questions that reveal background and lifestyle. Then add ones that pertain to the struggle your character faces. Set yourself in the mind of the character and answer them in that character’s voice (literally if you can!). Record the details in the way that serves you best, writing, audio, or video.
Non-Fiction: Survey Your Target Audience
Successful non-fiction books provide the target market with answers to their questions. Do you know what your target audience wants to read about? A generic answer such as “WWII” history lacks the leverage you need to break through writer’s block. Narrow down your area of focus with specific questions about niche information. Survey your target market in person, or online using a program such as Survey Monkey. How do their answers relate to the material you’ve already prepared? How do their answers relate to the topic that you’re blocked on?
Take a Break
Sometimes I admonish my husband for repeatedly telling our son to get dressed in the morning because his tactic of repeating himself just isn’t working. The same is true of pushing words around when you can’t get out what you want to say. Don’t do the same old thing. Take a short break from writing and try a new skill. Train yourself to overcome a problem by turning challenges into opportunities – even if the opportunity doesn’t give you the answer that you were looking for. Of course, if this break turns into a lengthy stall, shake it up again and re-visit my first comment: what is the purpose of your writing?
Write Down What Excites You Before You Talk About It.
Tricia Friesen Reed, who runs writing retreats, suggested this writer’s block trick. If an idea comes down to you, write it down (record an audio file, dictate audio to text, whatever works best for you at that moment) when it is fresh in your mind. Don’t tell anyone about it until it’s out of your system. She says, “If I tell an entire story to someone, I am less likely to want to write it all out. I’ll be less energetic with details and descriptions because I feel like it’s already been done.”
Answer the Question: I Want to Write About
Another interesting suggestion from Tricia is to answer the question, “What do I want to write about?” Explore your thoughts without worrying about the quality of the details or fear of judgment. Seek to unravel each layer by posing additional questions about your answer. Don’t be afraid to ask yourself, “Why?”
Connect the Dots of Cause and Effect
For storytellers, action and reaction drive a plot forward. Otherwise, the plot either doesn’t make sense, feels thin. Using whatever method works best for you, represent the chain reactions in your story. I’m a visual person. I create a web of arrows that indicate my characters’ progression. Using post-it notes or cue cards is another option, as it using a digital tool like Twine. This is a free, open-source, web-based program. Use it to represent your existing scenes in a cause and effect flow chart, or to publish interactive digital stories.
Stimulate Your Creativity
Each of us has a “thing” that stirs up our creative juices. This may be food, art, wine, conversation, travel, reading, the list goes on and on. Throw yourself into what makes you feel creative. If what typically makes you feel creative stopped working, explore other options. Don’t be afraid to think outside the box and challenge yourself with new experiences.
Write Backwards
For some writers, the beginning is the biggest stumbling block. Where does one start? What’s the best opening? How do I create a great hook? Why not write backwards? If you know where you’ve got to go, you may have a better chance of figuring out the trajectory to getting there. If you’re a non-fiction writer, begin with the best material that you want people to reach after they’ve gone through the rest of the book. If you’re a fiction writer, begin with your climax – or, at the very least, storyboard your climax.
Hang Out With Your Tribe
My husband is a fan of Michael Connelly, Lee Child, David Baldacci, and their crime-busting ilk (funnily, hubby’s not into Baldacci’s YA fantasy). I don’t talk to my husband about my books that often, unless I want a blank stare and slow nod for breakfast. If you’re struggling to find an idea, your spark, or a solution to a problem, reach out to fellow writers who enjoy the same subject material. Your shared love of the content or genre may help clear out the block that’s keeping you from writing your manuscript. They may help you figure out a way around your writing hiccup. If there’s an author you admire doing a presentation in your ‘hood, check them out and be inspired by their story.
Experiment with Your Writing Style
For some authors, writer’s block isn’t a matter of not having ideas, but a challenge of presentation. They don’t where or how to start, which narrative voice to use, or which point of view is best. If you have a habit of writing in a particular way, change it up when it’s not working for you! Even if you never use the “different” style, writing in a new style may unlock what you need to move past the plateau.
Make it Painful
If you’re the kind of person who doesn’t work without some kind of “threat” then you have to determine what this looks like.Give yourself a deadline or penalty if you don’t complete your project. Force yourself into either finding an answer, or working with the material you already have. If you can’t overcome your block by this deadline, put the work in project aside and don’t come back to it. Sounds horrible, right, your dream book laying about unfinished, or paying a penalty fee to someone or a program you don’t like? If this is going to be the book that achieves a goal for you, then it’s completion has to matter to you. Work out the details with an accountability partner to keep yourself on the straight and narrow.
Ultimately, there is work involved in beating writer’s block. It’s the proverbial albatross around your neck that won’t fly away on its own. I’ve put together a handy tip-sheet on 10 Ways to Find Inspiration for Fiction from Home to help you get started!
There are plenty of other ways to help you get over writer’s block too! While I’m putting together my list of 50 ways to beat writer’s block, why don’t you add yours below?