3 Steps To Overcoming Writer’s Block

Got writer’s block? If so, as folks in rural Texas would put it, we’re a’gin it.

Okay, so that’s somewhat flip. But the truth is that here, with my writers, we don’t allow it.  Don’t believe in it.  Don’t succumb.  It’s one of the few things that will get you whipped into shape from this office.

Yes, many, many folks have huge problems with writer’s block.  I hear about it every day.  And it does exist, does plague a lot of scribes, most especially those penning fiction.

But rest assured, this is a simple neurosis.  Meaning, it can be bested.

We all know the origins of it by now: Fear of failure (or success); Fear of not being ‘good enough’ (or of believing your work is so much better than what’s being published); Thinking the first draft has to be absolutely perfect (any 12-steppers out there want to respond to this one? 🙂 )

Or a host of other deep-seated lies of the ego.

As any artist who’s been practicing a creative craft will attest, the biggest hurdle to producing beautiful work is to get the ego out of the way.  That, in turn, let’s true creativity and artistry bubble up from the deep unconscious, where we plug into that numinous quality of beauty, from which all art originates.

As Keats said, “Beauty is truth, truth beauty, – that is all/Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.”  

So, problem solved.

Okay, there I go being flip again.  But far too much emphasis is given to avoiding writer’s block, and what a terrible malady it is to suffer through.  Because this is one of those instances—for certain—where the more focus you give it, the bigger a beast it grows to be.  Especially for a monster that does not, in reality, even exist (except front and center in that dastardly ego).

As anyone who’s been at this very long knows, writing is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration.  It’s all about the work.  And there’s only one way to accomplish that: butt in chair, fingers on keyboard.

I have one prescription for my writers when suffering from this made-up malady, and it’s failsafe. Works every time.  Might not the first day, or the second.  But if you don’t give up on the process, it will work.

Here are the details:

֎    Step One: Carve out a time every day to write.  Yikes!  That sounds like work.  Where is all the glamour of being Hemingway?  (Note: he wrote every day, even if it was just a paragraph).  Tough real-life schedule?  Four AM has always been a favorite time of mine . . .

֎    Step Two: Sit your butt in that chair every day at your appointed time.  No matter what.  Unless your hair is one fire or your child is in the hospital, I don’t want to hear why you can’t.  Just do it.

֎    Step Three: Write.  Cat got your fingers?  That’s fine.  Sit there.  Write the yellow pages.  Write why your husband/boyfriend/sister is a first-rate crumb and doesn’t understand you.  I don’t care what you write, just write.

These are the keys to the kingdom.

I have yet to find the writer plagued with horrid bloc who after doing this for three days, didn’t find himself back to work on the novel, short story, memoir, etc. (And conversely, I can always tell when someone wimps out and cheats.  I have my ways. 🙂  )

But something about making those fingers work is kinda like the motion of the ocean for a child in a car—it puts your conscious mind (ego) into a lull and voila!  Out comes art (or a dream, if you’re in the car, which in essence is part and parcel of the same thing).

Julia Cameron in Finding Water recommends writing morning pages every day.  A stream-of-consciousness set of pages first thing in the morning that just lets all your demons out—many of which you didn’t even know were there.  While I don’t do that, I like the idea of it   If writer’s block has set in, however, do this.

Because here’s the very most important thing:

Forget caring about this first draft.  Stop it. I order you.  Doesn’t matter if it’s the worst schlock you’ve ever seen, and not even your dog would eat it.  Nothing in a first draft is permanent.  Not even that lovely line you’re so amazed came out of you (half the time even those end up on the editing-room floor as well).

First drafts just don’t matter. 

Let yourself go.  Let your fingers go.  Quit thinking!  This is the creative stage, and we’re trying to get you, the you of the ego, out of the way.  Just write.

If your goal is to write for forty-five minutes every morning, and you end up with one well-written line, wow!  Give yourself a big pat on the back from me.  That’s the entire point in a nutshell.  Go have a nice cup of coffee and watch the sunrise.

And tomorrow, you can build upon that line . . .

So, what are you waiting for?  Give it a go.

And let us know what works for you!