Breaking Through Writer’s Block Part I: Strategies for Any Stage

Writers can feel blocked at any stage of a writing project:  

• Before you even start, you can feel paralyzed about where to begin, or even what to write.  

• In the middle, you can feel blocked over how it’s going, or what to write next.  

• At the end of the first draft (or the tenth) when revision looms, you may feel overwhelmed with the daunting task ahead to make your book something people will actually want to read.  

For the rest of November, I’m going to focus on block-busting. This week, we’ll start with some strategies that can help you at any stage. Next week, we’ll tackle beginning and how to keep going once you’ve started. Finally, we’ll look at blocks you might encounter in revision and how to wrestle the revision process into something that will actually make your book better instead of just moving words around the page.  

These blocks can come from a variety of factors. If you just say “I’m blocked” without investigating what is really happening, it’s a recipe for staying blocked for weeks or months (years?). Simply figuring out where you’re blocked, and what that block is all about, can free you to move forward with new energy.  
 

7 Strategies for unblocking at any stage: 

First, realize that blocks happen. It’s not a disaster. It may simply be the need for a fallow period, especially if you’ve been working flat-out. You may need  rest, or to simply put that project aside for a few days or weeks in order to see it with new eyes. 

Journal about the block: how do you feel when you contemplate working on your project?  

Fear? What about, specifically? Write down all the fears associated with this project. 

Revulsion? A physical sickness when contemplating working on it?  

Boredom? Are you just done with it?  

Don’t know what’s next, or how to deal with a particular issue?  

Write down everything you can think of about whatever is coming up for you. Often what seems overwhelming in your mind is much easier to deal with once it’s out on the page. 

Just do it, already. Yes, this is simplistic. But in the end, as Austin Kleon says, you have to “do the verb” i.e., write. Schedule time on your calendar. Set the timer for 15 minutes. If all you can write about is “all the reasons I can’t write this book right now,” take that as your topic and go. Trust me, eventually your brain will get bored, and will start to spark ideas that will lead you back to your story. 

Focus on the external world: Tidy up your writing area. Go outside and take a walk. By this I mean, put your writing time in your calendar, and instead, do your tidying up or walking. Keep the time sacred, but now deliberately do these other things that open up your mind to new perspectives and ideas. (Don’t listen to music or podcasts or anything else while doing this). 

Fill the well.  Sometimes the well is dry, and you need to let it replenish. Here is where you can get creative: do some research to jump-start your thinking. Read something completely different than what you’re writing. Go to an art museum or gallery to get visual input. Sketch or paint. Dance or sing. Cook or bake something new. Do anything that fires up your creativity in a new way. 

Play with your writing: Do something completely different. Write a poem. Write your first memory. Try some writing prompts (I post a new one each Monday at my Medium publication, Set Your Must on Fire). Open a book at random and write down the first sentence you see, and then write a scene or story from there.  

Focus on today. Any book-length project comes together only after a chain of days spent working. Don’t think about the future. Do what you can do today. If you have 15 minutes, use that. Each day, today is all you have. Don’t dismiss small pockets of time. It’s easy to keep telling yourself “I don’t have time” or “I don’t know what to write.” And next thing you know, another month, another year has passed and you haven’t written anything. Don’t make a goal so grandiose it paralyzes you - “I will write for an hour a day, every day this year.” This blog post talks about how a client of mine put together a 1500-day writing streak, one day at a time, without beating herself up but just getting back to it the next day, and the next.

What is your favorite block-busting strategy? Let us know in the comments!