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Overcoming Writer’s Block: How to Just Start Writing

May 3, 2018 by Rosemary 1 Comment

Snoopy always started with the infamous phrase, “it was a dark and stormy night.” Perched at a typewriter on top of his iconic doghouse, he never had a blank page.

However, for most of us, that blank page looms every once in a while. You’re writing copy on a deadline, you’re embarking on your own book project, or even writing a blog post like this one, and your brain refuses to communicate words to your fingers. Writer’s block has smacked you in the face. What do you do?

This article will offer some fresh ideas to help you overcome writer’s block and start writing.

Do most of the work before you sit down.

Your brain is a wondrous tool, and it can work out problems best when you’re not actively thinking about them. According to a Carnegie Mellon research project, having a “distractor task” actually helps your brain solve the primary problem. If you’re trying to write on a specific subject, looking for a hook or theme, discipline yourself to think about the assignment before you go to bed (or before you jump in the shower). Then go about your business. If your mind rolls over the assignment, let it, but don’t fixate. Using this method, half of your writing could be done before you type a word!

Take care of the first sentence.

Like Snoopy, you could use a jumping off point that takes the edge off of that empty space. You can even use “it was a dark and stormy night” if you like. Or go to your bookshelf and “borrow” an interesting first sentence (just be sure to replace it once your writer’s block is resolved). Sometimes having the first sentence out of the way is all you need to get going. Another idea is to use an overheard sentence as your creative spark. After all, many of us do our best writing in a coffee shop, right?

You must also develop a system for jotting down those brilliant thoughts when they occur to you (regardless of whether they’re immediately usable). Use Evernote, a paper journal, or your phone’s Notes app to retain phrases, sentences, or topics that inevitably assail you as soon as you’re not trying to write.They can then become jump-off points for your next writing session. I often have 3 or 4 articles in progress at any time, and I use Google docs to organize and flesh out these “article stubs.”

Read more.

I know, you don’t have time to read because you’re on a deadline. However, the more widely you read, the more you’re feeding your mind. Make time to read long- and short-form articles, novels, poetry, and classics, on lots of subjects. One good source of literary suggestions is the Brain Pickings blog and newsletter, which often surfaces writing I would have otherwise missed. Then, take that inspiration and use it to write your own classic.

Try a change of scenery or equipment.

Just like an insomniac shouldn’t toss and turn in bed, the blocked writer shouldn’t force herself to sit at the computer screen waiting for an idea. If you typically write at your kitchen table, try going out to a coffee shop. Stuck at home? Listen to coffitivity while you work.

If you always write longhand, try using a computer instead. You need to drastically disrupt the blocked pattern, so do something out of the box. Take your laptop to the beach, record some voice notes, switch up the music you are listening to (or turn off the music completely).

Another way to approach this disruption technique is to change the format of what you’re writing. If it’s supposed to be a blog post, try developing it as a video instead. If it’s a report of some kind, consider creating it as a slide deck. Often we get trapped in writer’s block because the expected structure is too constricting.

Read (and practice) “the Artist’s Way.”

There’s a reason why Julia Cameron’s book has been a global phenomenon for the last 25+ years. One of the key practices outlined in the book is the “morning pages,” three longhand written pages of freeform writing. This is not a journal or a diary, it is intended to be a “mind-decluttering” project. It will teach you to stop censoring your thoughts, which flow to your writing. This self-censoring is yet another reason we get “writer’s block.”. We think “it won’t be good enough,” “I don’t have anything to say,” or “my ideas aren’t special.” Committing to the morning pages routine will help you get out of your own way and get the words flowing again.

For the blocked writer, the most important thing is to stop the mental processes that cause the block itself. Since every person is unique, the solution to each person’s block will be unique as well. Try each of the ideas above, and one of them just may help you get momentum and complete your writing project.

Please share your own ideas in the comments as well!

 

Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is an insightful spirit who is CEO of Narrative, a new social content platform where the members are in charge.  You can find Rosemary on Twitter as @rhogroupee

Featured image: Photo by Steve Johnson on Unsplash

Filed Under: Writing Tagged With: writers-block, Writing

Writer’s Block. The Pain and Panic are Real.

November 4, 2014 by Rosemary 1 Comment

By Lisa D. Jenkins

There’s nothing quite like that feeling of knowing you owe the readers of your blog several hundred words and realizing you’ve got no idea what to write about. The realization that you can write on just about anything only makes it worse. It mires your brain in some sort of one track spiral that does nothing but turn around and around on itself.

Sorry, there are no blogs coming out of the station today.

So you take a walk. You open up the Google machine and surf around. You browse your book collection. You check your blog roll. Hoping for some sort of inspiration to drop an idea into your head.

Been there?

We’ve all seen the lists of X Ways to Beat Writer’s Block and there are often some great bits of advice in them. The problem is sometimes when you’re so stuck you can’t string a cohesive content thought together to save yourself, light prompts usually don’t cut it. You need serious, focused help.

Enter the blog topic generators of the world!

They aren’t perfect, they won’t write for you and they can’t be held responsible for everything, but topic generators have saved me more times than I can count. Here’s a look at 4 blog topic generators you can use to get writing, right now.

BlogAbout by Impact Branding & Design

“BlogAbout was an idea born out of frustration.”

Blogabout

Start by clicking the refresh button in the center of the screen until you find a prompt that strikes a spark.

Clicking it 5 times has given me:

  • preparation
  • the customer experience
  • customer service
  • a challenge
  • saving money

I’ll use preparation.

Now, click the Next button that generates a fill-in-the-blank phrase you can use with your own keywords. Hit the refresh button to get a new phrase or hit the heart to save a phrase to your notebook.

Here’s what I got:

  • When It Pays to
  • Why __ Timing is Everything
  • 7 Things that Really Great X Do
  • 7 X Tools No X Should be Without
  • 4 Ways to Make Your X More Successful

And that’s how I ended up here with a post on blog topic generators no blogger should be without. How great is that?

Here are a few more generators for you to check out.

ContentIdeator

Enter in a single keyword and click Get Ideas. Pages of existing headlines come up and all you have to do it choose whether you want to see 10, 20 or 30 ideas at a time. Use what you see as inspiration for you own post.

Portent’s Content Idea Generator

Enter your keyword and click the arrow to get started. I’ll use content. Next, you’ll get a title with helpful descriptors. Don’t like it? Hit refresh for another, and another. Here’s the second title I was given:
That’s workable, right?

Portent

Blog Topic Generator from Hubspot

You’ll need three nouns for this. When you’re ready, hit the Give Me Blog Topics button. I used content, productivity and business and was given these 5 blog topics.

Hubspot content generator

So. I’m not saying these generators will fix everything but they’ll get you focused on a single thread that’s more likely to turn into a blog post or article than, say, aligning your writing utensils from left to right in order of frequency of use will.

And now I give a round of applause to Impact Branding & Design, Portent, Content Forest and Hubspot for helping us all to find our way out of the desolation that is writer’s block.

Author’s Bio: Lisa D. Jenkins is a Public Relations professional specializing in Social and Digital Communications for businesses. She has over a decade of experience and work most often with destination organizations or businesses in the travel and tourism industry in the Pacific Northwest. Connect with her on Google+

Filed Under: Writing Tagged With: bc, ideas, writers-block

Five Stimulating Ideas to Spark Your Creative Juices

July 11, 2013 by Rosemary Leave a Comment

Have you ever found yourself staring at the screen, mindlessly sipping coffee, hoping that the caffeine will jump start a creative idea? Perhaps you’ve fallen victim to “the creativity crisis.” Or perhaps you just need a little slap upside the head.

Consider this your friendly nudge (my mom told me slapping isn’t nice).

Chris Brogan’s Blog Topics
If you’d like a dash of community with your writing prompts, Chris Brogan’s blog topics is your place. For $97.00, you’ll get 45 weeks of email newsletter updates with 10 or more blog topic ideas, writing advice, and more.

Mindmapping (Biggerplate or MindMeister)
Sometimes what you really need is to write things down and organize your thoughts. I’ve found that a creative block can happen like a logjam, where you have too many different ideas. Using a mindmap tool can break the logjam by getting some of the ideas out of your brain and into a repository. Both of these tools also offer access to community mindmaps…maybe someone else’s mindmap will spark an idea for you!

Unstuck App
If your primary issue is being “blocked” in general, the free Unstuck App comes to the rescue with a step by step action plan for moving forward. It doesn’t matter if your block is creative, emotional, work-related, or otherwise, this beautifully designed app will nudge you out of inertia.

Get creatively unstuck

Tour the Louvre Online
Step outside of your routine online, and visit a place that contains the creative juices of generations. Schedule 30 minutes with yourself, and wander around virtually, exploring the museum with no crowds moving you along. Sometimes getting away from your same-old industry blogs will get you thinking in a new direction.

Prompts
This is a very simple creative writing app that does one thing effectively–it offers hundreds of prompts and opening lines to jog your creative brain. Extra goodies are kept very minimal; there is a sharing tool, writing reminders, and habit tracking feature to discover your best days and times to write. If you have trouble staring at a blank page, this one might give you that little nudge you need. It’s $3.99 in the iTunes store.

What are your secret weapons for getting out of a creative block?

Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is an insightful spirit who works for social strata — a top ten company to work for on the Internet . Check out the Social Strata blog. You can find Rosemary on Google+ and on Twitter as @rhogroupee

Filed Under: Idea Bank Tagged With: bc, creativity, inspiration, tools, unstuck, writers-block

How I Unclog a Case of Writer’s Block

April 19, 2013 by Rosemary Leave a Comment

By Stacey Thompson

Writer’s block. It happens to the best of us. You may have had a good night’s sleep, a comfortable chair, the right resources, and a topic… and yet, your writing muscles refuse to flex, and you are left staring at the flickering prompt at the upper left side of a mostly-empty screen, or driving a hole into your pad with a pen.

Do a Google search and you’ll find that many writers have their own ways of dealing with this creative blockage. It’s not exactly a one-size-fits-all proposition, so it’s a good idea to get as many ideas as possible. Utilizing those bits of wisdom, concoct your own anti-writer’s-block remedies. Hopefully, one or more of them work.

Let me enumerate mine, and see if any of them work for you:

Unfamiliar Ground

Find a new place to ply your craft. Stand up, pack your mobile writing implements (paper notepad, notebook computer, restaurant receipts, toilet paper, human flesh scroll, etc.) and wander. In my case, I pack my tablet (equipped with a cover/keyboard, because I can’t type fast on a touch screen), some loose change for coffee, and a Taser pistol (you can never be too careful).

The new sights and sounds definitely help me get out of the funk, and for as long as I find a comfortable spot to whip out my tablet and type away, I’ll be able to get some paragraphs out.

Drop It Like It’s Hot

When the first remedy doesn’t yield any positive result, I just stop trying for the meanwhile and distract my mind with something else entirely. This should be easy for most of us, as the modern world is rife with distractions. You could live your entire life distracted, in fact. Those closest I have come to that is a three hour Fruit Ninja binge on the tablet. Made my fingers hurt, too.

Time out from writing gives the mind some time to recharge and recuperate. Unfortunately, we who write for a living don’t have the luxury of too much off-time, so this solution may not be the best course of action to take when writing projects are restricted by a deadline.

Get Physical

Corollary to the tip above, go engage in an activity that requires the least synaptic activity. This ranges from sports and fitness-related stuff, to exposing your mind to slapstick, lowbrow, and even outright pornographic stimulation. Nothing is taboo (except if it’s against the laws of the land, of course)!

Too much of anything can be detrimental, so be sure to set limits to your physical fun-time distractions.

Nothing

Well, not absolutely nothing. Meditation, yoga, drinking tea, isolating yourself in a dark room, or even a light nap are ways you can calm your tempestuous mind and rejuvenate your creative juices. Find a place you can be undisturbed for hours at a time, and proceed with the refilling.

Yeah, it means you have to put away your tablet and other mobile devices.

I hope one of these tips will be the proverbial plunger that will help unclog your creative pipeline!

Author’s Bio: Stacey Thompson (@RedHotStacey) is a professional writer, marketer, entrepreneur, and a lover of weird little animals. She is based in San Diego, California, and is definitely not beyond seeking expert advice from competent and highly professional consultancy firms like MyCorporation. Stacey and her gang have a blog, Word Baristas.

Filed Under: Blog Basics, Content, Motivation, Successful Blog, Writing Tagged With: bc, creativity, inspiration, writers-block, Writing

Beat Writer’s Block with These Simple Tips!

December 19, 2012 by Guest Author 1 Comment

by
Tiffany Matthews

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Can’t Write? – Beat Writer’s Block with These Simple Tips!

You’ve just had a nice cup of coffee to start your day. Your fingers are poised on the keyboard, ready to type away most of the day as you churn out page after page of your manuscript or perhaps articles that you need to submit asap. Forty-five minutes later, you’re staring at the blinking cursor, the only sign of life on your still empty document.

Writer’s block is inevitable, especially for those who write nonstop 24/7. Sometimes, we need to step back from that piece of paper and pen or laptop, to allow ourselves to breathe and find new ammo to write. For those struggling with blank page syndrome, here are some tips on how you can try and beat writer’s block.

Take Long Walks

If you’ve been writing long enough, you know when your work is beginning to look like it belongs in the trash. Don’t force yourself to write. Get out of your chair and take a leisurely stroll outside. Enjoy the scenery and observe other people around you. If you live near a park, walk there and take time to stop and smell the roses, both literally and figuratively. Your walk will invigorate you, clear your mind and allow ideas to trickle in gradually.

Travel

Travel is one of the most foolproof ways of getting over writer’s block. All those exotic locations are sure to inspire you to write about your journey, the good, the bad and the ugly. Exploring new places will also allow you to learn about other cultures and their quirky differences. When you learn about another country and its people, you are broadening your horizon and expanding your understanding of the world.

Drive to the Beach

If you don’t have the funds to travel far, the next best thing you can do is to drive to the beach. The beach is a favorite thinking spot, and many writers have one way or another spent some of their soul searching on the sandy shores of the beach. Breathe in the salty air and let the wind whip your hair around your face. Let the cold water soothe your tired feet and if you decide to stay until dark, take your fill of the starry skies as you lie on the sand.

Do a Quick Exercise

It’s a little strange, but my former colleague swears by this. When she’s stuck in a creative rut, she does a couple of push-ups to get her blood rushing. Some of her best ideas came along after experiencing adrenaline rush. Push-ups are not a must. You can do other quick exercises like going down the stairs and going up again. Make sure you’re climb at least 4-5 flights of stairs so you can also work on improving your stamina.

Go on a Side Trip to Vegas

A trip to sin city, no matter how quick, is always entertaining. No two trips is ever the same. To spice up your little break, rent a limo with friends so you can explore Las Vegas in style. If you are traveling in a large group, rent a shuttle or van. Not in the mood for casinos? There are a lot of great restaurants to choose from or you can opt for dance clubs if you want to dance the night away.

Author’s Bio:
Based in San Diego, California, Tiffany Matthews writes about travel, fashion and anything under sun at wordbaristas.com. You can find her on Twitter as @TiffyCat87

Thank you, Tiffany! New experiences are a great way to move past writer’s block.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Buy the Insider’s Guide to Online Conversation.

Filed Under: Blog Basics, Successful Blog, Writing Tagged With: bc, blogging, business-blogging, How-to-Blog, LinkedIn, small business, writers-block

16 Ways To Make Guest Blogging Easier For Yourself

December 17, 2012 by Guest Author Leave a Comment

How to Blog

by
Tapha Ngum

cooltext443809602_strategy

When I first started guest posting, iI could barely crank out one post a week. Writing consistently, for me, was a struggle and I felt continuous discouragement – not just because I wasn’t putting out as much as I should have, but also because some of the stuff that I was putting out was not very good. I know this, because it was routinely rejected by some of the top blogs that I sent them out to.

Despite this, I continued to do the same things and plowed through with minimal success until I decided that I really had to sit down and analyze my approach. I came to the conclusion that I was really just making things harder for myself than I needed to. Largely because i was failing to implement positive habits into my routine that would assist me in my efforts.

After assessing my situation and implementing some of the better habits that I found to be helpful, as I learned more about writing – my results changed dramatically.

I now write at least 2 high quality posts a day and have not had a single one rejected since I started to really take the implementation of these positive habits seriously. My writing has been published on ProBlogger, SpeckyBoy and Onextrapixel, and many of the other larger blogs online that accept guest posts.

I believe that for those of you who are in the position that I was in a couple of months ago, the habits that I use to help me with my guest blogging now, could be very helpful.

Here are the 16 Ways To Make Guest Blogging Easier For Yourself

Below I have compiled a list of the most effective habits, for you to use. I hope that they help you improve your writing and consistency, the way they have helped me for mine.

  1. Set Clear Goals – When you are guest blogging without a goal in mind, or a purpose to which you are striving for, you make it that much more likely that you are going to quit. Set clear and concise goals and you are much more likely to stay on task.
  2. Rethink how you think about writing – Instead of thinking about the process of writing a guest post as one of agonizing drudgery, instead, think of it as a game. One where every word you write is another point on the tally. This is hard to do when you are not used to it, but once you do get the hang of it, it becomes very effective.
  3. Read affirmations – This is probably gonna have you rolling your eyes and thinking – don’t waste my time. But these really do work. When you consistently repeat something to yourself. Your mind comes to accept it. Try repeating things like – ‘I am a consistent guest poster’ or ‘my posts are always high quality’. It seems weird but trust me on this. It does the business.
  4. Read at least 3 guest posts a day – This will help you with your writing style and will also get your mind into producing the kind of writing that blog admins typically like to publish.
  5. Improve your typing speed – There are a lot of great typing games and apps that can dramatically help you to improve your writing ability. I have personally seen my post creation times decrease by upto 50% once I started to use these typing helpers.
  6. Pick a topic and write 10 posts ideas for it, per day – This will improve your ability to come up with post ideas. And if you do this in conjunction with submitting these ideas to blog owners and getting them accepted and critiqued, the quality of ideas that you produce will undoubtedly improve.
  7. Align your guest blogging efforts to a personal development goal – Even though I had started guest blogging intitially, to meet certain goals. When I first started, it was sometimes not as effective to motivate myself with these goals. Most likely because they were external. So what I did for the first month was align my guest posting efforts with improving my self discipline. The more I sat down and cranked out a guest post when I didn’t feel like doing it. The more my self discipline improved. And that helped me to be motivated to continue and improve.
  8. Rewrite popular guest posts that you like, verbatim – This puts you in the mind of the person who was creating the guest post. It helps you structure your thoughts and ideas in a way that is best for readers to digest. And overall it improves your writing ability and grammar. Because, after all, you are mimicking someone who is likely very good.
  9. Drink more water – This may seem like a strange one to talk about, but it’s definitely worth mentioning. I often would find myself so caught up with the post that I was writing that I would forget to drink. This definitely affected my ability to write well over time. You tend to make more errors and have to think a little bit longer when you are not fully hydrated, so try to remember to drink water regularly while writing. It’s very important.
  10. Stop being afraid of sounding stupid – One of the main reasons why people don’t guest blog or even write generally for that matter is, that they are afraid of seeming stupid. Or lacking knowledge in the area that they are discussing. They think that you have to be and ‘expert’ to write about something. And that, if you are not, you should not have an opinion. The beautiful thing about the blogging world is that being an ‘expert’ is not a pre-requisite. You don’t need to have years experience to talk about something. As long as you have ‘some’ experience and can share it in a coherent fashion. Your alternative perspective is likely to be just as valuable as that of an experts. That is the beauty of the internet. We can literally learn from anyone. So don’t be afraid, share your views and help others. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to participate just because you were scared that someone would call you an idiot.
  11. Read atleast 3 of the blogs previous posts before submitting a request – This will help you in two ways. One, it will give you a better idea of the post idea that you should be coming up with and two, it will also show you the preferred writing style of the blog.
  12. Be yourself – Even though some of the advice above recommends mimicking others writing to help you improve. When you write, don’t drown out your own voice. If you think that one way of saying something sounds better than another. Say it that way.
  13. Expose yourself to a lot of things in your space – Guest blogging and creativity in a general area is greatly helped by exposing yourself to a lot of things in it. Ideas are just connections after all. And the more connection points you have, the more connections you will inevitably be able to make. So read those articles and follow the relevant people on twitter for links. You will thank yourself for it later. (Just try not to overload yourself. Limit the total time spent reading and researching to a reasonable amount so you don’t get overwhelmed)
  14. Remind yourself constantly that 90% of the work is in the editing – You will not believe how much this reduces the pressure and resistance to starting. When you realize and understand that you will not likely make something extraordinary out the gate (and that nobody does), you will free yourself of a lot of the unneccessary anxiety that writing often brings with it. And you will produce more high quality work, to boot.
  15. Use the Pomodorro Technique – This is by far the best productivity technique I have ever used. What it does is segment your work into manageable chunks of time, usually 25 minutes. And then helps you to focus by making yourself eliminate any and all distractions during those chunks. This improves your work output and quality dramatically. I highly recommend it. The full ebook to help you get started can be found here, completely free.
  16. Read it out load – This is the best of all things that you can do to help you improve your writing instantly. Once you have written the post, or even as you are writing it. Read it out loud and see how it sounds. You will notice a lot if things and gradually you will make more and more intelligent edits, that will ultimately benefit the overall piece that you are writing. This is like the swiss army knife of writing. When you are one on one with your computer screen, trying to crank out a piece of work. This will save your butt.

Do you have any tactics that you use to help improve your guest blogging? Let me know in the comments!

Author’s Bio:
Tapha is an entrepreneur and the founder of MyAppTemplates.com, a site that provides customiPhone app design templates to people who cannot afford to spend $1,000s on their iPhone app design.

Thank you, Tapha! Great advice all!

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Buy the Insider’s Guide to Online Conversation.

Filed Under: Blog Basics, Successful Blog, Writing Tagged With: bc, guest posting, LinkedIn, small business, writers-block, writing-ideas

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