Tips To Overcome Writer’s Block

Creative writing is one of the hardest endeavors you can take on, particularly if you have no background in writing of any kind. While they say we all have a book in us, it can certainly be very hard to take it out and put it on a page.

Inspiration can be hard to come by and even when you’ve done all your research, completed any preparation you’ve deemed necessary and considered all the points that will be at play here in your book, you can still be defeated by the dreaded blank. If writers’ block is standing between you and your dream of becoming a published author and put your name on the cover of the next big best seller, here are some tips to overcome that frustration and start working on your masterpiece.

1 . Go for a Walk, Take a Shower, do Something Relaxing

Writing can be really stressful, particularly when we’re hellbent on making it work. Ideas can’t be just summoned to your mind, so it’s not rare that we end up all stressed up when contemplating a blank page. Instead of sitting in your office for hours, doing nothing more than thinking or, even worse, procrastinating like it’s an Olympic sport, do something that will break that mental space and put you in a better spot to start writing.

My personal favorite is going for a walk. No music, no chatty podcasts, no shopping list, no to-do’s. A dog is allowed, provided they aren’t too much work. Just walk out there, listen to the noise of the streets, the birds on the trees, the cars rolling on the streets, maybe even some neighbors fighting.

Anything that will take you out of the “must write” mood and its deadly cousin, the “deadlines are coming” mood. If a walk doesn’t do it for you, try other stuff. Whatever works to leave your mind clear so you can sit in front of your PC or typewriter and start typing without thinking about the fact that you should be writing.

2 . Try Copying Someone Else

Ok, yeah, this one won’t go well with your editor, but it can be a great way to get started. Don’t know where to begin? Well, where does your favorite book begin?

Where does that book you hated begin? I’m sure you can do better. Stuck in a given scene you don’t know how to write? How did someone else do it? Of course, you can’t copy the literal text, but give yourself an idea of how it should work and words will start coming. Just make sure you edit all that later.

3 . Do it, No Questions Asked

Most people tend to overthink what they’re writing. Now, unless you’re carving your novel out of a marble stone, there’s no need to think about it all that much. Everything you do, you can undo.

Everything you undo, you can redo. It does not matter if your novel begins in a predictable, cliched way or if your characters say something they wouldn’t say at that point. You can edit that out, you can re-write, you can change it ten, a thousand, a million times. What matters is that it is written. Can’t edit no unwritten thoughts. Just write the first word that comes to your mind, then the next, and the next, and so on and so forth until you’re sitting on a 90,000 words manuscript. After that, it’s your editor’s problem.