Oh hi. It’s been awhile. Over a month, in fact. If time even matters anymore. It’s almost September now? Strange. I’m unsure how it’s suddenly late August when it was March yesterday. Maybe I stepped into Bill and Ted’s time machine phone booth by accident? Seems as likely as any other explanation.
It’s time to address the oliphant in the room.
No, not that one. It only counts as one, anyways.
Writer’s block. The ancient enemy of creative minds everywhere…sort of. Writer’s block isn’t any one thing. It’s a phrase that has come to represent any and everything that could be stopping someone, specifically writers, from creating. I’d argue it applies to anyone creating, from chefs dreaming up new dishes, to artists staring at a canvas, to teachers crafting new lessons, to programmers planning their code.
Writer’s block, to me, is the inability to sink into a creative mindset due to external or internal factors. Generally, I think of writer’s block in two ways, though both have the same effect: me not writing.
Type One: Failure to Launch
The first type strikes when I’m in between projects. It’s the classic scene of opening the blank word document and staring at the expanse of white, waiting for the words to come. Or, before that, sitting on the couch refusing to look at my laptop or approach any type of world processing software. Its main symptom is the complete refusal to attempt to start anything. I’ll endlessly find other tasks to occupy my time: re-watching West Wing for the umpteenth time, playing video games, reading, napping, maybe chores (but probably not), staring at Twitter, you know the routine.
Type Two: Blocks While Drafting
The second type of writer’s block strikes while I’m drafting. It may hit when I’m halfway through a short story or dragging myself through a new chapter. The words are coming but they’re not flowing. My sentences feel stodgy. The piece isn’t working. I might technically be writing, but every sentence is a struggle and I consider giving up for the day each time I start a new paragraph, thinking some time and space will rejuvenate my efforts. It doesn’t, though. And this second type might then turn into the first type, where I become unable to continue writing wherever I left off.
How to Overcome Writer’s Block
Hmm? You want to know how I overcome these?
Well, the honest truth is, sometimes I don’t.
Sometimes I just don’t write for weeks or months at a time in any creative way.
That’s not the answer you were looking for, though. I have developed strategies for moving through an episode of writer’s block. But, writer’s block is extremely personal, and how I deal with it is specific to how (I think) my brain works. My strategies may or may not work for you.
I’ll address the second type first: blocks while drafting. These are easier to handle if I recognize I’m running into a block and face it head on. Most of the time when I start to feel stuck while writing, it’s because I’m approaching the piece the wrong way. Whatever vision I have for the story or chapter in my mind isn’t what I’m producing on the page. I might be writing in the wrong voice point of view (1st person, second person, third), if I’m working on a book told from multiple characters’ perspectives, I might be writing a chapter from the wrong character’s head. Or I might be writing actions and dialogue that are out of character.
When I’m forcing a character to say dialogue or perform actions purely for plot contrivance, I’ll often experience writer’s block. I fix it by attacking the chapter or story from different angle or going back to the drawing board to re-evaluate why I’m writing from a certain perspective. By examining what’s supposed to be motivating the characters in the scene. Sometimes, (if we’re talking book versus short story) I’ll skip to another scene that’s primed and I feel ready to write. Sometimes space from the chapter giving me trouble is the best medicine.
The one thing to avoid when feeling a block while drafting is to stop writing. Even if it’s going back to mostly finished chapter and adding a few sentences, I have to finish the writing sessions feeling I succeeded at something, or type two writer’s block could morph into type one.
Type one, failure to launch, is a behemoth unto itself. Type one often has almost nothing to do with my writing or the stories I’m trying to tell, and almost everything to do with external factors. External here meaning things beyond writing. Stress at home, at work, in relationships, within myself. Uncertainty due to the situation of the world, health issues (physical and mental), pretty much anything is on the table here. Any and everything that might make me want to disengage creatively.
Creating takes effort. It takes drive, and will, and it takes making yourself vulnerable. Even when you’re writing to yourself in a journal. You’re doing the thing the universe can’t: making something from nothing. So if I’m disengaging from the world, finding the will to come to the page and write is almost impossible.
I’m speaking primarily about writing here, but as I mentioned at the beginning, I think this applies to anything that takes creative energy.
How do I fight back against type one?
This is where my mileage varies. I have a few tricks that work sometimes. I’ll take a walk. I’ll visit my favorite piece of the wilds, a riverside, and sit on the rocks and listen to the water. I’ll listen to a podcast. I’ll re-watch a favorite movie (The Matrix). Sometimes listening to writing YouTube videos drags me back to my own craft. I’ll try to journal to get out whatever’s going on in my head. Sometimes reading jolts me back into writer-headspace, but sometimes it does the opposite.
Sometimes none of my tricks work, and I have to sit in the suck for a little bit. That doesn’t feel good to read, I’m sure. But it’s the truth. I can’t tell you what your tricks will or won’t be, you have to figure them out yourself.
Do you think of writer’s block this way? What tricks do you use to overcome it? Let me know!
And thanks for reading my attempt to break free of my own stint of writer’s block. See you in a week or two? Maybe?
-M