Tips For Writers – Overcoming Writer’s Block

Have you ever encountered the following scenario before?

1. You don’t get the inspiration to start writing because you want to be perfect or you can’t come up with a good topic to write about.

2. You can’t start writing because you don’t have the inspiration or motivation to start.

Writing can quickly become a typical deadlock scenario for most people, including me. In Software terms, a deadlock occurs when event ‘1’ waits for event ‘2’ to happen whereas event ‘2’ waits for event ‘1’ to happen.

To break this deadlock scenario, the following tips can help you.

1. Use a 10×10 matrix

Creating a 10×10 matrix is a simple, yet effective method to overcome writer’s block.

Once you have created a 10×10 matrix, every day, you pick the topic in one element of the matrix and start writing on it.

For simplicity, I have created a 7×7 matrix on the topic of blogging.

Creating a 7×7 matrix — How to do it?

Step 1: Pick your niche (The niche I chose is Blogging).

Step 2: Come up with 7 sub-topics/problems in your niche (In this case, A1 to G1 — Blogging, Blogging design, Blog-writing, Blog-traffic, Guest posting, Content syndication, Blog-monetization). You can notice that all of these are problems or concerns a blogger would have.

Step 3: For every sub-topic, come up with article titles that people might be searching for. You can use a simple Google search for coming up with these article titles.

Step 4: Every day, pick a single topic and start writing on it.

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2. Set a deadline, but make it realistic

Deadlines are scary and put ourselves under pressure to do something even if we don’t want to.

That’s exactly why you should set yourself deadlines to finish your writing tasks.

When I was a kid and was giving my exams, I noticed that the first 30 minutes are always the longest and the last 30 minutes are always the shortest. I achieved far more in the last 30 minutes than I could have achieved in the first 60 minutes.

Similarly, setting a realistic deadline for your writing goals can inspire you to act even when you don’t want to, and that’s exactly what you need when you think you’re facing a dead-end for your writing goals.

3. Give yourself a reward

The concept of reward and punishment is a common method used to teach toddlers to learn good behavior.

You can very well use it to train yourself to keep writing.

Choose a reward that you like and is worth fighting for. It can be anything — as simple as a coffee if you finish the article, to traveling to that dream destination after keeping up with the 100-day writing challenge.

Once you finish your writing goal, give yourself the well-deserved reward.

4. Use the time doing mundane tasks to brainstorm ideas

This is one of my favorites.

The next time you do mundane tasks like taking a bath or brushing your teeth (assuming that you do it daily ;p), instead of thinking about your favorite TV show, your crush, spouse or children, try to come up with ideas for an article to complete that 10×10 matrix (See 1 above) or a mind map (See 7 below).

5. Stop mid-sentence

Instead of explaining how this works, I would rather let you read an excerpt from www.independent.co.uk

Ernest Hemingway made it a practice to stop writing whenever he was on a roll. By cutting himself off in the middle of a great idea — sometimes even mid-sentence — he gave himself a prime beginning spot for the next day. Instead of floundering around, wasting time in search of a new batch of inspiration, he could simply pick up right where he left off the day before. Make it a habit to leave a few loose threads every day when you quit writing. Having something to grab hold of the next day will make it that much easier to maintain your train of thought. — www.independent.co.uk

6. Get into your cocoon, aka comfort area

I know what people say…

(Quote credits: https://www.goodreads.com)

However, the problem with leaving your comfort zone altogether is that it can be scary and painful. And add to it that, if you are not smart enough or don’t have an iron will, you will fall hard. Many of us have families to feed, and hence, we simply can’t afford to fall.

That’s why I believe in doing things in small steps. If you really dream of achieving something big, first practice it on a small scale inside your comfort zone. Then gradually start moving out of your comfort zone to do it.

Instead of giving up your sports time, or family time or TV Serial time for writing, find out when you’re most comfortable with writing. Then use that time to write, so that you’re more productive.

For example, I have a day job where I work 11 hours a day, 6 days a week. When I return home, I play online RPG (I am still single, so it doesn’t matter).

For several months, I tried to sacrifice this time in the evening to write articles. Not only couldn’t I write effectively, but also I wasn’t that productive in the job the next day either. So, I started writing for an hour or two in the early morning every day, and it has helped me a lot.

Similarly find your comfort area when it comes to writing — the right time, the right music, the right color of light to start your mood.

7. Use mind mapping

A mind map is an easy way to brainstorm thoughts organically without worrying about order and structure. It allows you to visually structure your ideas to help with analysis and recall. — www.mindmapping.com

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Credits: www.mindmapping.com

The subject is the article topic, each idea is a sub-topic within that article and each sub-idea represents an individual point you want to elaborate on, within that sup-topic.

Creating such a mind map can help you write articles fluently with ease. Before creating an article, you can create a mind map like the one above. Now, when you start writing the article, you will notice that the article flowing logically from point to point like water flowing in a river.

8. Visualize your end results

Focus on your reason for writing to inspire and motivate you.

Once you visualize the success you want to achieve by writing, you will have more motivation and inspiration to write.

9. Read more

Find other relevant articles using Buzzsumo and collect interesting ideas from several other articles.

Whenever you are out of ideas to write about, just go to Buzzsumo and type in the topic. Buzzsumo lists articles in descending order of the social shares they received. This will give you an idea of what to write about.

Reading these articles will also help you get a greater understanding of what works and what doesn’t.

10. Use Newton’s first law of motion

So, just stop thinking and start writing.

11. Search for other formats like images and videos to give you new ideas

Go to Pinterest, Instagram or Youtube and search for the topics you want to write about.

You can get a lot of ideas from those images or videos. So, you won’t have to worry about what to write anymore.

12. Don’t write, instead just talk

An excerpt from Copyblogger, where Kelton Reid, the Vice President of Multimedia Production for Copyblogger, reflects on his interview with Seth Godin.

If all else fails … turn on your digital personal assistant and start talking.

I asked Seth Godin a couple of questions on the subject in an interview: Do you believe in “writer’s block?” If so, how do you avoid it?

If you can talk, then you can turn on that little voice-to-text widget in your word-processing app or just ask Siri to take a note for you.

Unsurprisingly, those apps yield words on a page that can be edited and massaged into far pithier sentences in the future.

13. Drink a cup of Tea before you start

According to a recent study made by Yan Huang of Peking University’s School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences on 50 students with an average age of 23, a simple cup of tea sparks an instant burst of brainpower and creativity.

An excerpt from the Telegraph, where the results of the study were published:

A simple cup of tea sparks an instant burst of brainpower and creativity, according to a new study — within minutes of drinking a brew.

Volunteers in the study almost immediately scored better results in creative and cognition tests than those who had drunk a glass of water, researchers found.

Summary of the study:

Half of the students were given a cup of black tea, whereas the other half were given a glass of water. Then, they were asked to take two tests — 1) Create an attractive and creative design using building blocks, and 2) Come up with a name for a new noodle restaurant.

The results were judged by other non-participants.

It was found that in both the tests, students who drank tea scored around 8% more points more than those who drank water.

14. Start writing when you’re bored

I write whenever I travel.

This is my experience:
Whenever I sit in a bus, a train or a flight and have nothing to do, I would write something rather than sitting idle.

However, when I am at my home sitting comfortably on my couch, I would rather watch a movie or play a game instead of writing an article.

So, this is what I recommend. If you are a person who hates sitting idle during travel (or any other mundane activity like waiting for the doctor in a clinic or waiting for an appointment), use this time to write.

If writing is the second last thing you would do, prepare your mind to do the absolutely last thing you would want to do. Now, start doing it, and in midway break it off, and start writing.

That way, you would have more inspiration to write.

15. Set up your own ritual

In Reader’s Digest, Chuck Sambuchino explains the ritual he uses to start writing and overcoming writer’s block. Set up such a ritual of your own to overcome writer’s block.

The excerpt from his article:

If nothing else works, I resort to my number one, lethal weapon to cure writer’s block: the Glass-of-Water Technique. Before bed, fill up a glass of water. Hold it up and speak an intention into the water. (Example: My intent is to tap into my creative source and write brilliantly tomorrow. I choose to be in the flow of my best writing. I am resolving my story’s issues as I sleep and dream). Drink half the water and then set the half-full glass on your nightstand. Go to sleep. When you wake up the next morning, drink the rest of the water immediately. Then go straight to your computer and write at least an hour without distraction. This may seem a bit out there, but give it a try. It works! Do this technique for three nights straight. It gets me out of my writer’s block every time, often the next morning and definitely within 72 hours.

My ritual

I finished my Bachelor’s degree a the age of 22 and worked for 3 years as an Engineer. In this time, I totally forgot how to learn efficiently.

So, naturally, when I started doing my Master’s degree in Automation and Robotics in Germany at the age of 25, I had very less attention span, and it was very hard for me to concentrate.

I couldn’t sit down for 10 minutes for studying, without watching youtube videos or checking out Facebook notifications. It was very hard for me.

So, I created my own ritual. I used to tie a thread around my hand and used to tell myself that the thread had superpowers, and as long as it is tied to my hand, I am a superhero too, and my mind can absorb anything super-fast.

But, like any other superpower, it had a catch. It can only be used for 2 hours/day and only 30 minutes at a time.

So, whenever I had it tied around my hand, I used to be super-focused and learn very fast. This helped me concentrate every day so that when the exams came, I could study for hours without any distraction.

Summary:

Writer’s block is a lethal enemy who can completely immobilize you without warning. Everyone is bound to meet this guy head-on at some point in time.

These 15 tips might help you beat him black and blue when you encounter him.

Everyone has his/her own method to conquer writer’s block.

I always use (1), (6), (9) or (14) whenever I face writer’s block.

How do you cope up with writer’s block?

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