Blasting Through the Wall of Writer’s Block
By: Renée Kapuku
Tags: Productivity, Practical Guides, Writing, Progress, Writers Block

Blasting Through the Wall of Writer’s Block

Sometimes you don’t feel like writing.

That’s the truth of it.

You pull up a Microsoft Word document, a Medium draft, or whatever drafting software you use to start planning out your thoughts. Normally your words flow out like a well-oiled machine, and you’re used to writing at least 500 words+ in one sitting, returning to edit at a later time.

But this time is different. You sit, staring at the screen and scratching your head.

You wonder why no images are forming in your mind, no words are forming under your fingers, no dots are connecting before your eyes.

You’ve hit a blank, and it’s very real.

Suddenly you panic.

You even start to question your passion for writing, despite the months and years of hard work you’ve poured into your writing. All it takes is that one moment of writer’s block to completely throw you off course and make you question both your competency and dedication to being a writer.

We’ve all been there — I can’t tell you the countless amount of times I have sat, shooting complete blanks, only to despondently close my laptop. Even as I write this article, the inspiration was actually ironically birthed from a long period of…nothingness.

I’m sure you’ve read countless blog posts, books, articles and more on how to write well. But how can you write well when it feels as though you have nothing to write about at all? What happens when the centre of inspiration crumbles?

How do you manage writer’s block?

This is both hard emotionally and mentally, but also practically. For those of us who make a living out of writing, sometimes our work can be the difference between knowing whether or not you’ll have enough money to keep the lights on next month.

It’s that real.

Normalise your roadblocks:

The first way to get through writer’s block and manage it efficiently is to understand where you currently are, and normalising your position. You aren’t alone — even the best and most talented writer’s approach the dreaded stumbling block on a regular basis.

Chastising yourself for coming up against something that is natural, normal and to be expected is counter-productive.

Making sure that you know that this is an okay place to be right now is part and parcel of the process. In order to get out of a situation, you need to first understand and process where you are at.

It’s kind of like ordering an Uber and trying to get to a destination without first entering your location. It’s unlikely a driver will be able to accept your booking until you have pinpointed your current location.

Ascertain and normalise where you are at now with writer’s block, and move on once you have processed this.

Stop working, go outside…and live your life:

It is unfortunate that the classic stereotype of the hardworking writer is a spectacled individual hovering no more than 1cm from the screen, relentlessly smashing writing goals and pouring book after article after blog.

This is also counterproductive.

Most of us are inspired to write by the things we experience in life — engaging with our friends and faimly, encountering the little (and big) problems, doing weird, new and uncomfortable things.

Log your experiences, journal authentically without mind to writing for a specific audience or purpose. Fall in love with documenting your life experiences, and when you return to writing you’ll have a rich book of anecdotal references to sprinkle over your writing.

Write up your worst ideas and post them:

Sometimes we have it in our minds that a certain standard, quality and niche we attribute to our work means that other ideas and drafts that we have are not up to scratch. Especially for those of us that have been in the writing business for a while, we’ve made it our business to build our unique selling point as a writer.

Thi may sound radical, regressive — whatever you want to call it — but post it.

Do it.

Write up the ideas and thoughts you may have in the back of your mind. You know, even the really bad ones that you don’t think anyone will care about or listen to.

And post it.

It may not need to be posted as part of your portfolio. It could be a LinkedIn post, it could be a short poem for facebook, it could be a short article on Wordpress.

But sometimes the best work comes from what we think are our worst ideas, and the process of writing out even these thoughts will egt the creative juices flowing.

Be radical, and post what’s really on your mind, irrespective of your thoughts on the quality.