From starry-eyed aspiring authors to students sitting in the exam hall with their paper wishing they could conceivably bang their head against the desk repeatedly without a) sustaining some serious brain damage and b) getting kicked out for disturbing the peace, almost everyone will have to write at some point. Bonus points if the starry-eyed author and struggling student are the same person. In the same vein, almost everyone will struggle to write at some point. Whether you’re stuck on a blank page or you just need a little nudge to get over the finish line, here are a few tips for beating out that pesky writer’s block.
1. Is it really writer’s block?
Before you chalk up your apparent creative drought to writer’s block, try out some general productivity hacks. Check your work environment. Do you have Netflix on in the background? Are you picking up your phone every five minutes? Are you hydrated? You probably already know the ‘correct’ answers to these questions. If your answers aren’t among them, take care of that first.
2. Change your perspective.
Admittedly, this tip applies mostly to fiction writing, but the hack itself is tried and true. Switch from third person POV to first. Write like a sports commentator, or as though your characters are blind. Roshani Chokshi, a NYT bestselling author, wrote in a Goodreads Q&A session, “If it’s a fight scene and there’s bloodshed, I’ll try to jostle up some words by writing from the POV of the blood. Weird, yes. But sometimes it yields a sense or image or moment you didn’t anticipate.”
Even if you’re writing an essay, switch things up. Play the devil’s advocate. Write the way you talk. You can always go back and edit later. And on that note…
3. Let it be garbage.
Perfectionism is one of the biggest root causes of writer’s block. Most have heard the old adage by now, but it’s worth repeating. You can edit a bad page. You can’t edit a blank one.
Don’t be afraid to suck. Write in gibberish if you have to. Check out tools like Fighter’s Block, designed to keep the words flowing even if the words happen to be terrible. Just write something.
4. Go back to the basics.
Maybe the reason why you’re struggling to come up with the words to express your ideas is that you don’t know your ideas well enough. Outline your essays. Plan out your short stories. What’s your character’s motivation? What does the setting look like? Those fill-in-the-blank templates you used to get in elementary school may feel a touch condescending, but they’re good at what they do. The more direction you have, the more you can focus on getting your message across.
5. When the words just won’t come…
In the words of Michael Jordan: Stop it. Get some help.
Take a walk, take a nap, call a friend for feedback. Even the best writers (read: especially the best writers) need to reset, recharge, and come back to the page renewed.
If taking a break makes you feel too guilty, then try a warm-up exercise. Visual artists use them all the time, so why not writers? Pick a prompt from the internet and go wild. In fact, check out the sample prompt below; it’s pretty bananas.
Best of luck!
