To anybody who doesn’t write, whether creatively or otherwise, it may seem that being hit by writer’s block is really no big deal. It’s just a dry spell, right? So what? You can’t think of anything to write; it doesn’t matter. But to a writer, it is so much more than just “a dry spell”. For somebody who writes day in and day out, somebody always moving forward with that novel of theirs or that new blog, to suddenly be at a creative standstill can be frustrating and incredibly unnerving. You might go through doubts (Have I run all my ideas dry?) or you might go back over your previous work and hate all of it, scrunching up balls of paper and throwing them away with exclamations like: why do I even bother? and Who am I kidding? I’ll never make it in this industry. But these are just tests, I have come to understand; only the successful writers are the people who pick up the page, smooth it out and try again.
Now I don’t claim to be a bestselling author here, but I do try my best when it comes to my writing, and I’ve suffered under writer’s block many many times before. What follows is a small list of tips that I have found have worked for me. The kind of tips that have kept those creative juices flowing even when I believed I was done. Keep writing guys, you’ll never succeed if you put down the pen, that’s for sure.
1. Relax…
The first thing you must do (because it really isn’t the end of the world, you know?) is relax. As I’ve said, every writer comes by it eventually and it doesn’t mean you are out of ideas, it just means that you’ve hit a bump in the road. You’re best taking your hand off the keyboard and making yourself a cup of tea. Or coffee or whatever, doesn’t really matter to be honest with you (but tea is far superior if you ask me.) Breathe, maybe take a nap, and come back to your work with fresh eyes tomorrow. You deserve a break after all.
2. …And come back to it.
Don’t delete your work! If it’s starting to look like you’re seeing your beloved novel through hateful eyes, recognise that it is what it is and your weary mind is just being cruel with you at the moment. Mr Hyde is out right now, you need to wait for Dr Jekyll. You don’t want to do anything rash here, this is critical, because it may well be good you just can’t see it at the moment. Of course, tt may well be terrible, but it isn’t for you to judge right now. File it away for a few weeks and keep yourself busy in the meantime. It won’t go anywhere.
3. Read/watch something new.
At this point you are struggling creatively, and the best thing to do in this case is go for a little entertainment yourself. You may have been stuck in the writing process for a long time, so to take a breath of fresh air and read something that is ready-made, all good to go and without any editing or criticising to be done, is a refreshing change of pace. Perhaps opt for a genre similar to your work in search for inspiration, or mix it up with something completely different. You never know when an answer might swipe up out of the pages and wallop you one around the head.
4. Write something new.
This doesn’t have to be a novel… heck, it doesn’t even have to be a short story or anything, just open a new document and start writing. See where you mind takes you and get those cogs turning. A good exercise that I like to do is place a character in a situation and just see how they deal with it. Wake somebody up in a locked room, for instance, with no knowledge of having got there. A boy stumbles upon a murder taking place, what does he do? A girl falls in love with a boy but discovers he sneaks off every night, where is he going? All three of these have been created in the space of two minutes but have the potential to develop into fairly interesting stories. And if you hit writer’s block with these? So what? They were only distractions after all.
5. Get a second opinion.
This one should always come last, in my opinion, because I am a firm believer that you should write a story (the first draft, at least) without outside intervention. That you should tackle through the story on your own, get it all out on page and when you’ve read over it yourself and are happy with it, then you give it to somebody else to give their two cents worth. But we’re talking dire straights here. This story has potential, but you can’t for the life of you see the way forward. I advice finding that one person you trust (whether that be your wife, your dad, whoever; just somebody whose opinion you value) and listen to what they have to say about it. They may agree and say that you have written yourself into a dead end, or their new perspective may open up a world of new and exciting possibilities.
Again, these are purely my opinion. Just a few tips that I myself have used to keep writing, no matter what. I doubt there are professional authors (if there is such a thing) out there today who’ve said they wished they’d packed it in long ago.
I am constantly looking for ways to improve my own writing, so if I have missed something off this post (or indeed if there is something wrong with any of my posts) please let me know. Thanks for reading!
The Writer's Block 