If you’ve been staring at your monitor for a really long time trying to write something, you’re suffering from what writers call a writer’s block. It is something that every writer goes through while writing. It is an inevitable part of the writing phase where you feel you’ve exhausted your creativity and your ability to weave words into meaningful sentences. You needn’t worry. Here, you’ll come to know what causes writer’s block and how to fight it.
Probable Causes for a Writer’s Block:
Lack of Planning
It happens when your ideas are abstract and unclear. You know what you want to write about but are unsure of how to go about it. It is at this time that writer’s block creeps in. You start with something and you delete it all, start again, and this happens in loop.
Anxiety
Accept it or not, you are most likely to have a fear in your mind as to how your book would be received in the market even before you start writing it. This significantly influences your writing, as it urges you to be perfect the very first time you type in your rough draft. With an intention of getting things right the first time, you think too much and get stuck.
Forced-writing
Writer’s block seeps through when you force yourself to churn out words. Writing can never be forced. When you force yourself to write, you are putting a pressure on yourself and this compulsion, trust me, causes writer’s block.
How to Fight a Writer’s Block:
Stop writing and Do Something Else
One of the first things you need to do is stop writing. Now, move away from the place you write and do something else. Try to read something, watch television, or pick up that console and start gaming. Basically, you just need to stop thinking about your book and writing and get distracted for a while.
Step Out
Step out from your house for a while and engage in a conversation with friends or spend some time in the park or a mall. Physically engage yourself by going on a short bicycle trip or by hitting the gym. This refreshes your mind and body and allows you to write better when you come back.
Write Random Stuff
If you really want to write something, write random stuff like your childhood memories, the teacher you loved, your first love, or whatever you feel like. Forget about grammar, punctuation, and just keep writing. Rekindle the flow of words and jot, jot till you feel you’re okay. We call this free-writing.
Doze off
This works best for me. Whenever I get stuck while writing, I shut my system down and sleep for a while. Most of the times, I have been able to write down more words than I did otherwise. Listening to music while sleeping helps as well!
These are not the universally proven solutions to overcoming writer’s block. These are some of the compilations of remedies that worked for several authors and me. If you feel something else would inspire you to get over the block, do it without second thoughts. You just want to get rid of writer’s block.