6 Tips For Beating Writer’s Block

November 25, 2011 By Frank Dickinson Filed Under: Blogging Tips 39 Comments

beating writer's block

You’ve sat in front of the white screen and the flashing cursor for hours, days, months and nothing is coming out.

You have a post, article, sales copy, book that has to be written. Your mind is buzzing, but nothing flows from the fingers to the screen.

We’ve all felt it, encountered it, bitched about it and dealt with it before.

Writer’s block sucks.

Here’s by best 6 tips for beating writer’s block:

1. STOP the negative talk

You know you are struggling. I’m betting the three people closest to you know it as well. Before you know it, three more people will know, and then three, six, nine more.

STOP right now. The more you put the negative out there, the longer you dwell on it, the more stuck you will become. Stop the hole from getting bigger.

Take my momma’s advice. If you can’t say anything good, shut the hell up!

2. Take a walk

If you have a dog (or a cat, but that’s a bit weird), take it with you. Get out of “writing mode” for a bit. A change of scenery, pace, thought pattern can go a long way for driving out the demon.

3. Write old school

Turn off the internet and pull up a word processor like Microsoft Word or Apple Pages. The availablity of too many shiny buttons placed within inches of your reach can be a determent to writing.

Want to go down and dirty old school, pull out pen and paper.

4. Breathe

I started yoga practice about 6 months ago. The simple act of pushing away from the desk, closing the door, sitting still and thinking about one thing – my breath – has led me out of many a writer’s block.

When you are fighting writer’s block I’m willing to bet your mind does what mine does – it goes into over productivity. It searches and searches and searches again for the perfect title or opening sentence or closing thought. It screams along at warp speed looking for that one word or phrases that will get me writing. It feels like a 4 year old in the clutches of an ADD attack – fast moving, scattered, unfocused.

Breathe. Relax yourself. Breathe. It’s not easy at first, but keep at it. Breathe.

5. Take a shower and get cleaned up

How many of us that write from home do this: roll out of bed, put hair up in pony tail (ladies), throw on a baseball cap(men), grab a cup of coffee (I’ve been know to grab leftovers from yesterday), maybe a pop tart, sit down at the computer and start writing?

Break the habit.

Take a shower. Shave. Brush those choppers. Put on a pair of jeans and your coolest tee shirt. Hell – comb your hair!

Sometimes a simple breaking of the normal can go a long way towards breaking out of the block.

6. Blast some tunes

Do you write to music? Try it. Music does something inside us that makes those creative juices flow.

Can’t concentrate with music playing? Fine. No biggie. Take 10 minutes before you get started and do this:

Play 5 minutes of your favorite stuff – hard rock, metal, rap, country, jazz, blues, alternative, opera, anything suggested from my buddy Joey Strawn.

Then rack up 5 minutes of stuff that you wouldn’t normally play. Choose from the list above.

The interplay between the satisfaction and discord of this little technique can be the very thing that jogs your mind right out of all blocks.

Your Turn:

This is the perfect type of post to add your tricks and techniques. What things can you add? What works for you?

Writer’s block is a B%*%ch – the more ammo we add here in the comments – the better for the community!

image: Ed Yourdon

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About Frank Dickinson

Frank Dickinson wants to be intimately involved in creating conversations about the subjects that interest him the most; Internet and Affiliate Marketing, Social Media and Personal Development. On his blog, "creating conversations in a world of chatter", you will find tutorials, screencasts, reviews, blog posts, videos and whatever else he can get his hands on to teach, enlighten and inspire.

http://hotblogtips.com/ HotBlogTips

Hi Frank, my favorite way to bring thoughts back in-line is to step outside with my Dog, sometimes take her for a walk. Every time, I mean EVERY time I do this I can hardly write the ideas down fast enough. It was such a huge personal discovery I wrote an entire post about it.

Another thing I use is Pandora. Your mentioned both of these tricks but listening to a little Van Morrison low in the background helps me to no end. The TV? Forget about it. The TV must stay off if I’m going to get anything accomplished.

I’ve never tried Yoga but I’m here alone a lot and there would be no one here to help me up from the floor. {joking} Nice topic, thanks
- FrankDickinson
  
  @HotBlogTips ahhh – dogs and van Morrison – if you can’t beat writer’s block with that combo – you’re sunk!
  
  I’m with you on the TV – too mentally distracting for me.
healingmuse

I’ve gotten excellent results searching for new ideas & inspiration by:
1. Talking to a friend about HER challenges – forces new neurons to fire
2. Going for a run without music – forces the brain to just wander
3. Take on a unique cleaning/sorting task in my home office – feel great, accomplish something & often get lost in my task.
Sitting down to formulate the written word after one of the above, my typing can scarcely keep up.
I love your music & pen & paper combo too. I always start off better on a blank piece of paper.
- FrankDickinson
  
  @healingmuse Great tips! I’ve been known to throw a dust rag around the office during a bad block myself.
- http://easypublicspeaking.co.uk/ easyP
  
  @healingmuse
  
  I think that talking to someone allows you to listen to your own voice – you find the solution without a reply from them.
  
  Listen to yourself!
  - imei
    
    @easyP@healingmuse Ever try writing with a glass pen? It slows you down every few words to dip the pen in the ink, which for some reason makes me more focused on not losing the thought. When all my concentration is pointed on getting the idea down on paper, voila — it happens!
    - healingmuse
      
      @imei@easyP love that idea – I have a glass pen and ink (that was purchased eons ago just for that purpose) will dust it off!
    - http://easypublicspeaking.co.uk/ easyP
      
      @healingmuse@imei
      
      Good luck with the glass pen.
    - FrankDickinson
      
      @easyP@healingmuse@imei Glass pen eh? Will have to check one of these out.
    - imei
      
      @FrankDickinson@easyP@healingmuse
      
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXjKb9ppG-E
      
      Rachel Bell [radio] interviewed me after she saw my video and post about writing with a glass pen. http://hipsforhire.com/2011/08/write-me-write-me-not/
      
      Have fun!
    - http://easypublicspeaking.co.uk/ easyP
      
      @imei@FrankDickinson@healingmuse
      
      Just tweeted.
      
      Imei – are you on twitter?
    - imei
      
      @easyP@FrankDickinson@healingmuse Yes I am. @HipsForHire (performance and visual arts promotion) and @VideoNurse (medical/mental health information and connection to my website, Seattle Direct Counseling dot com.
    - http://easypublicspeaking.co.uk/ easyP
      
      @imei@FrankDickinson@healingmuse@videonurse
      
      Hips for hire – no comment. LOL
      
      I’ll nip over and add you to my list.
      
      Put your twitter id on your Livefyre profile – only takes a min.
http://easypublicspeaking.co.uk/ easyP

I’ll go with number 2 Frank.

Taking a walk and not thinking… is a great way to come up with ideas.

Your mind goes places it wouldn’t go if you start to “try hard”.

Strange but true.

Useful article as ever.

BTW – How’s the “Man Flu?”
- FrankDickinson
  
  @easyP Walking is a weird kinda activity huh? I can walk, as you say, without thinking – but then when the thinking comes – it is the productive kind. The kind that leads to solid ideas – not all scattered and crazy.
  
  The Man Flu has been vanquished – finally!
  
  Thanks Keith.
  - http://easypublicspeaking.co.uk/ easyP
    
    @FrankDickinson
    
    If I’m writing a speech, a walk will produce 20 ideas – come are crazy and never used but somewhere in there, there is always a few gems.
    
    Now if I had to write a speech every day… that might be different.
    - FrankDickinson
      
      @easyP You’ve heard of standing desks” – You could invest the walking desk
imei

When I was working from home and p/t in an office, I started piloted an in-house “artist’s study hall” once a week for about two months. Any one could drop in virtually, and about three or four of us met 1-2 times a week for a couple of hours to chip away at writing projects, film projects, songs, and performances as artists. I’d livestream some of the sessions for accountability. Our focus wasn’t on numbers of participants, but getting things done. On that end, it worked! When my contract ends in late January 2012, I’ll be reinstating Artist’s Study Hall again!
- FrankDickinson
  
  @imei Love it, Love It, LOVE IT!! What a great ways to head off any block before it even gets a chance to get started – and stay accountabile all the while.
  
  You guys always come up with great ideas – awesomeness!!
  - imei
    
    @FrankDickinson Sometimes the other artist’s brought music. Sometimes coffee and snacks, other times, rants they needed to get off their chests. Eventually, we’d settle into work, and everyone reported getting more projects done than by working alone. Interesting, eh?
    - imei
      
      @FrankDickinson artists. Crazy with that apostrophe button today.
    - FrankDickinson
      
      @imei Excellent! Now all I need to do is get @easyP involved – he’s the thinker around here….
    - imei
      
      @FrankDickinson@easyP There you go.
      
      BTW, we did all get completely dressed (jeans, t-shirt, hoodies). There is something about knowing we had an “appointment” to get stuff done, together, and THAT made it feel important enough not to cancel or put it off.
dorienmorin

I run with a ‘running list’ on my IPod. 69 songs that I’ve listened to over and over while training for and running 3 marathons. That’s a lot of hours. The songs put me on auto-pilot and I can think, run and be creative. I absolutely love it.

I also have two large dogs and if they don’t run with me, we walk, far. I will call my home phone while I am walking and leave myself messages on my answering machine so I won’t forget things.

I also use my down time (when my daughter is swimming 3 times a week) and use a pad and pencil I keep in my purse.

My last great tip: Read magazines and just look and read the titles of short, one-page articles. They inspire me. I love the Costco Magazine, Fast Company, Entrepreneur, Newsweek and more. Their article are almost like blog posts and give me great ideas. They also are very timely and current, which helps me as well.

Some great new ideas here for me to try. Nice post. I will be back
- FrankDickinson
  
  @dorienmorin Great list here Dorien! I can really see how the songs on your iPod could really put you in that “zone” for both running and writing.
  
  Love it – thanks for dropping in and please come back!
Leon

G’Day Frank,

What I’m about to say may sound frightfullly old fashioned. But it’s something I first started doing way back in the 1960s when I wrote a “Modern Music ” column for a weekly magazine.

Always start with notes. Never start with whole sentences. The notes may be one word or a complete phrase. Never sit in front of a blank screen staring at it, hoping for inspiration. Write down any word or phrase that has even the remotest connection with the topic you want to write about. Just move what’s in your head onto the screen, no matter how fragmented or disjointed it may seem.

It’s easy to lose sight of the fact that writing is a physical activity. You can walk the dog, play your favourite Louis Armstrong solos, crochet, meditate or make mayonaisse. As a writer, sooner or later you’re gunna havta actually write.

OK. I’ve been writing for decades. It probably comes easier to me than to someone who started a blog six months ago. Since moving my business online three years ago, I’ve written almost 200 Ezine Articles, 10 eBooks and I write two posts a week on my blog. Believe me; it doesn’t all flow like the Mississippi in flood.

But everything I write starts out as single words and phrases. In my case, they’re handwritten: told you I was old fashioned!

Finally always remember the words of the great Robert Gunning: “Write to express, not to impress.”

Hope this helps. Make sure you have fun.

Regards

Leon
- healingmuse
  
  @Leon great words of wisdom Leon! I often worry that if I write to express it will all just come out like spit.
- FrankDickinson
  
  @Leon Good to see you Leon – and, as always, great advice here.
  
  I keep a simple notepad with me all the time just to jot down these “notes” you speak of. Somehow the strangest scribble of a note can turn itself into a full blown blog posts.
  
  I’m wondering if it has something to do with fooling our mind into thinking we have already something written versus sitting in front of a blank screen with nothing.
  
  What do you think?
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Charlotte74

For me anything that takes my mind off the task in hand, be it a walk or a quick power nap, works wonders for me.
- http://frankdickinson.me Frank Dickinson
  
  YES~
Chris – Mindnod.com

I just start typing. It can be any old rubbishm as long as I’m typing. After a while the the article starts to properly form in my mind and then I can really get down to business.
- http://frankdickinson.me Frank Dickinson
  
  An old Gary Halbert trick was to just sit down with pen and paper and “mind dump” – even if it is jibberish – soon something will come of it.
healingmuse

music speaks volumes too…I thought of this song when I read the comments about pen and pencil: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvqakws0CeU&ob=av3e

“the most evident utensil is none other than a pencil” enjoy.
http://www.ecotools.com/our-blog/feed/ Angel Collins

The Microsoft Word trick is very powerful. I prefer using it more than the Internet, less distracting and keeps me in focus. A big thanks for sharing this article. Sometimes I’m still having difficulty in writing though I’m a writer for years.
- http://frankdickinson.me Frank Dickinson
  
  I think we all go through different stages over the years with our writing – and learn new tricks along the way.
  
  Thanks for stopping by!
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kapil sharma

Great man great this is a brilliant article nice i like it.the advice are so good.Thanks for the sharing.
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