5 Better Things to Do Instead of Staring at a Blank Page
By: Renata Gomes
Tags: Self, Writing Tips, Creativity, Writing, Self Improvement

Photo by Alessio Linon Unsplash

5 Better Things to Do Instead of Staring at a Blank Page

When you’re stuck, take a break.

Every writer feels stuck every once in a while.

The words don’t seem to come up, and the few that do simply do not fit together. Your thoughts are either muddled or non-existent. Yet, you persist.

You stare at the blank page, commanding your brain to come up with something, but it’s useless. Writing is something that’s just not happening for you today, and forcing it might actually make your writer’s block worse.

Here’s 5 better things for you to do than insist on staring at that blank page:

Go for a walk

Walking is an effective way to relieve stress and boost creativity. Charles Dickens and Jane Austen are only a few of many writers known to have enjoyed long walks on a frequent basis.

There’s something about the repetitive, rhythmic movements of walking that induces a meditative state. Recently, many authors’ instinctive preference for walking to induce creative output has been veryfied by science. Stanford researchers have found that “a person’s creative output increased by an average of 60 percent when walking.” (Source)

A 60% increase in creative output is nothing to sneeze at.

Going for a walk offers the added advantage of taking your eyes off the screen for a few minutes. It forces you to take a look at the world around you, and that alone might offer you the breakthrough you’ve been hoping for.

Exercise

While walking is a form of exercise, you can go one step further and do a more intense workout, such as running, biking, swimming, weightlifting.

Exercising offers many benefits in improving cognitive function, not to mention your overall health.

For me, an intense workout is the best form of meditation. While I can still “write in my head” while walking, when I go on a run my mind actually clears of all thought for a few minutes, and that creates the right mindset for welcoming new ideas.

Post exercise, there’s a blissful exhaustion that makes me feel completely renewed and ready for another writing session.

Talk to a friend

Talking to a friend forces you get out of your own head for a few minutes.

It’s easy to mistake isolating yourself with fostering a creativity-friendly environment. While writing is indeed a lonely occupation, sometimes breaking out of isolation is exactly what you need to get out of a creative rut.

Talking to a friend brings you a new perspective about life. It reminds you that your blank page with its blinking cursor are not all that matters in the world. There are people out there who have other problems, other projects, other sources of joy. Reminding yourself of that every once in a while shifts your perspective and unlocks new ideas.

Getting in touch with someone else’s reality helps you understand how you’ve blown your own creative rut out of proportion by focusing on it exclusively.

Play — by yourself, with your kid, or with your pet

“Play brings joy. And it’s vital for problem solving, creativity and relationships.” — Margarita Tartakovsky, M.S.

We tend to think of play as only for children, but the reality is that adults benefit from play just as much.

If you’re playing by yourself or with friends, try to pick something that doesn’t involve the use of screens, to give yourself a break from that.

If you’re a parent, enjoy the opportunity to play with your kid. Children are not familiar with all the rules of the world yet, so they are less burdened by constraints on creativity. Ever seen a child paint a picture in which the grass is pink and the dog, green? Sure, grass isn’t pink in the “real world, “ but why can’t the grass be pink and the dog green in her world?

When you get immersed in play with children, you begin to see things in an entirely new perspective. You become aware of your own arbitrary rules, and start to question yourself, why can’t things be different?

If you’re not a parent yourself, play with a niece, a young cousin, or your friend’s kids (with permission and parental supervision, of course), or play with your pets. Pets are not the same as children, but you’d be surprised at all the creative ways cats and dogs play when you give them the freedom to be creative. My dog is always surprising me with how she choses to play with her toys — and with the stuff she thinks of as her toys (like my socks, or the toilet brush).

If you don’t have a pet, you can ask a friend to let you play with theirs— most pet owners would appreciate the extra hand (I know I would), and there are plenty of animal shelters that allow volunteers to spend time playing with the animals.

(Side note: always be careful letting children and animals play together. Make sure you know both the child and the animal well, and be careful to prevent any accidents. Your dog biting the neighbor’s kid is not going the outcome you want.)

Cook

Cooking is an excellent option to get your eyes off a screen and your hands into something tangible.

As you focus on following a recipe, on measuring and preparing the right ingredients, on minding the stove and the oven so you don’t burn your food to a crisp, you’ll find that your mind contemplates ideas in the background, much like when walking or meditating.

It doesn’t matter how skilled you are, you can always find a recipe that’s right at your level, besides, part of the fun of cooking is improving your skills and trying new things. If you’re a beginner, don’t put too much pressure on yourself to make something perfect: allow yourself to make mistakes. Embrace messing up as part of the process.

When you’re stuck, get your mind out of writing

Many writers mistakenly believe there’s only one solution to writer’s block, which is to push through, or to seek inspiration in writing-related activities, such as doing writing exercises or reading, but that’s not exactly true.

In writing, there’s a time to push through, and a there’s a time to step away. With practice, you can easily identify the difference between these two moments.

If if you suspect you’re stuck beyond the point where pushing through can help, step away from the computer. Turn your brain off of “writing mode,” release it to think of other things — or to simply not think at all.

You’ll be surprised at what your brain can come up with after taking a break like that.