Techniques to Overcome Writer’s Block
There are times when you simply cannot generate anymore writing topics. Your mind refuses to cooperate and you end up with blanks, or half-hearted, already written suggestions.
Overcoming writer’s block can be a challenge that everyone faces, including the top bloggers and writers. Inspiration is random and likes to strike at often inconvenient times.
However, it is not impossible to always have topics on hand to write.
What Causes Writer’s Block?
Ideas come from your surroundings; they are generated by the stimulus you experience as you move through your life. Many people will say that they do not draw inspiration from life directly, but all of your experiences influence your writing in some way, small or expansive.
The idea behind overcoming writer’s block is to control the stimuli that you have control over, and manipulate them to generate fresh ideas. You can manipulate the stimuli around your environment in many ways.
By using the resources around you, it is easy to create a more inspiring environment.
Techniques to Overcome Writers Block
Change Your Surroundings: If you constantly blog write at your desk, chances are you get burned out faster than others, especially if you’re out of range of a window.
A good way to get the creative juices flowing is to change your setting. Altering your environment will allow new influences to reach you, and you’ll find yourself looking at things in a new perspective and generating new ideas.
Keep Inspiration in a Bottle: If you insist on writing at your desk at all times (how boring!) or you simply cannot change your work area, then a good idea is to keep some inspiration in a bottle.
If you love maps, then post some up around your work area. Make your desktop a picture of a beautiful landscape, or have your favorite writing playlist loaded into itunes for instant play. Keeping inspiration around will help you get into the writing mode.
Put Ideas on the Back-burner: When you find that the ideas really are flowing, the best way to keep them for the future is to write them down!
You cannot remember everything, and you will kick yourself when you lose that one fantastic idea because you didn’t take the time to record it. You should always write down ideas when the opportunity strikes even if it’s in the middle of night.
Have a Conversation: People are inherently interesting. If you take the time to talk to other people, you may find that they spark an idea that you wouldn’t have thought of on your own. Talking to another person can be an amazingly inspiring activity, especially if it is one of your good friends!
Read Something Printed: This one is a biggy! Too many bloggers nowadays feel the need to read upwards of 50+ blogs to do “research.”
Printed materials are valuable because of the quality they inherently have and what’s more, they are edited for quality by people who know what they’re doing. You can get insight on millions of topics with fantastic in-depth information. Learning to use books and printed materials as inspiration will help you overcome writer’s block and avoid regurgitating material.
Read Through Your Past Writings: Using “sequential” writing is an amazing way to generate new ideas. Take a look at the last post you wrote and lead off of it into another area of information. Expanding on your previous ideas not only ties your content together, but gives you various “content trials” that you can follow through.
In this way you can generate idea-after-idea!
Take a Break: At the end of the day, sometimes you need to call it “quit” and just move onto something else. Spending hours upon hours writing or brainstorming will drain you – and fast!
Learning how to manage relaxation with work is essential to maintaining top writing form.
Writer’s block afflicts every writer at one point or another. Through utilizing brainstorming techniques and manipulation your environment, you can easily overcome the block and generate thousands of ideas!
Now it’s you turn. When you experience writer’s block, what do you do to overcome it?
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Great tips, though I just can’t read my previous writings
When I’m stuck I try to do smth else, put my thoughts into other task. I know that later it will come to me
Hi there,
Very useful information. Thanks! These are some of the points that we highlight to technical writers to help them overcome blocks.
Cheers,
Eddie Gear
The best way to blog is probably going out to a recreational area like the park or the beach, but not everyone would have access to Wi-Fi
-Mike
When I have writers block, I start writing random words on a notepad about my niche and that usually helps me build stories around that. Exercise also helps. I get most of my ideas when I’m working out and working up a sweat.
When i have writers block, I brain storm and have discussions with other people. I also go to forums to see what kind of questions are being asked and then i write posts to answer questions people in my niche are asking.
Yan,
Thanks for the post. For me, I will take my mind off of writing and go watch TV, play videogames, play basketball or whatever. Then normally something comes to me while doing these other activities. I think writer’s block for me comes from thinking too much and too hard. Obviously each individual is different and one method does not fit all.
Writer’s block used to kill my productivity! There are two ways that I overcome it. The first way is accessing some of my favorite blogs/sites that I have saved under favorites on my webtop (my online desktop). I keep a notebook nearby and scribble down ideas as they come to me during my browsing time.
The second way is to take a break (just like you said!). Going outside and getting some fresh air clears my head and does wonders.
Taking a break usually does the trick, same with sleeping on it. I usually wake up in the morning and the creative juices are flowing again. Headbanging your monitor until 3 am is just not OK.
Writing things down is a huge aspect of overcoming writers block. We often forget the ideas we come up with because we don’t have time or we have too many ideas in our heads. By writing them down, you’re allowed to forget about the idea and start thinking about other ones.
I like the “Keep inspiration in a bottle” idea, but with a slightly different twist.
This is definitely not for everyone, and I hope I don’t offend anyone with the idea, but I find that if I walk away from the computer, and have a couple of quiet drinks of my favorite alcoholic beverage, the ideas seem to flow much more easily.
Thanks for sharing some inspiration. For someone who writes on a regular basis, this kind of content definitely helps.
Everybody hates writers block, we all experience it at one stage or another, thankyou for this inspirational and motivational post.
I’ve made more money selling websites then I actually have made with websites. I learned that it’s much easier to develop and sell blogs, then work on a new blog that interests you. I’d say that if writers block keeps happening, sell your site and work on something new, it could definitely be refreshing.