You open the laptop, fire up your favorite writing app, and then stare at the screen for 6 long hours, unable to write a single word.
That's the basic definition of writer's block.
Back in the day, when people didn't have laptops, this illness was manifesting by staring at a white sheet of paper. But the time interval was more or less the same.
Writer's block can happen for many reasons: burnout, fatigue, inner balance (I know, how strange to put inner balance as a cause here, but yes, if you're completely balanced on the inside, then you have no need to express - or write - anything), low self-esteem, cold feet, stress, and so on and so forth.
The biggest problem with it is that you're losing time. Time that you want to make up for, next time "the inspiration strikes". And when you write for 60 hours continuously, like some dark villain is hunting you.
If you manage to write every day, just a few paragraphs, then you won't have to exhaust yourself when the words are tamed again. And yet, when THE BLOCK arises, you're paralyzed, like a deer staring at the lights of the car rushing towards it, at 60 miles per hour.
So, what to do?
Well, let's start by defining what writing is, shall we?
As Ernest Hemingway famously said:
There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.
Except these days we don't have typewriters, but you got the idea. And the bleeding thing, as metaphorical as it is, is somehow real.
For writing to actually feel real, to stir emotions in the souls of the readers, you really have to put your life into it. Your blood.
Writing is so serious. It's so powerful and so reality-altering, if you really think about it. A good book, a good article, a good story, all feel immersive, you're there, in another reality. It's really, really hard to to that just with some signs on a blank screen.
Anyways, back to blocking.
The single, most powerful trick to unblock THE BLOCK is discipline. Like Hemingway, you just have to put up with bleeding and stay there. Some days you have a few dozens of words written, some days a few hundreds, and, in a really good day, you may end up with a few thousands. But each and every day you will have some words.
The second most powerful trick is to just write. Without any quality filters. Without liking it. Without enjoying it. Just write. You will come back to it, during the edit process, later on and you will probably cut 90% of it, but at least you'll have something to cut from. Here, I have to quote Hemingway again:
Write drunk. Edit sober.
And the third is to cheat it. Like move your attention from it a few minutes. Look at the window. Read some articles. Change your shoelaces. Install a new fridge. Build a new IKEA closet. You got the idea. Just move your focus from it for a few minutes, or hours, until your brain is tricked to believe is at the beginning of a new time interval. Of a new day. Of a new paragraph.
If you do any of these, you're guaranteed to write at least a few dozens, if not hundreds, of words every day. Especially during writing challenges, like this one. And especially during days like this, when, in all honesty, I experienced an "inner balance" writer's block.
I mean, everything was so smooth around me today, that all I wanted was to chill at the beach. And yet, I decided to fight THE BLOCK.
Since I succeeded, time for me to hit the beach.
What did you write about today?
Previous posts in the challenge:
- 30 Days Challenge Fall 2018 - Day One: All Ultramarathons Start With Just One Small Step
- 30 Days Challenge Fall 2018 - Day Two: How Much Garbage Do You Carry With You?
- 30 Days Challenge Fall 2018 - Day Three: Pushing Things To Happen Versus Letting Them Happen "Through" You
- 30 Days Challenge Fall 2018 - Day Four: The Rain In Spain Stays Mainly On The Plain
- 30 Days Challenge Fall 2018 - Day Five: Books, Coffee And The Smell Of A Gentle Autumn
- 30 Days Challenge Fall 2018 - Day Six: Revisiting The Harry Potter Trees In Turia
- 30 Days Challenge Fall 2018 - Day Seven: Sand Castles
- 30 Days Challenge Fall 2018 - Day Eight: Be Careful Of New Beginnings
- 30 Days Challenge Fall 2018 - Day Nine: Tuesday's Free Writing
- 30 Days Challenge Fall 2018 - Day Ten: The Power And Toxicity Of Lists
Steem on!
I'm a serial entrepreneur, blogger and ultrarunner. You can find me mainly on my blog at Dragos Roua where I write about productivity, business, relationships and running. Here on Steemit you may stay updated by following me @dragosroua.
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You are doing great! I well know the feeling of sitting in front of the screen and keyboard and the brains just go blank, nothing box :)
Great read as always!
Writers block is a real struggle and everyone struggles with it, newbies or seasoned alike. I recently read another article about "A simole but tough trick to beat writer's block". It suggested to not exhaust the well of creativity at a go. To save some of it when you find yourself fully immersed and want to go lengths untill you passout. Basically you leave it at happy note, with something to come back. That way you keep coming back and keep delivering.
What's do you say?
Even though my deep-dive into the topic of writers' block brought the to the point where none of what you've said were new to me, I still appreciate you could make it to such a comprehensible shape.
All I can add is that another metaphor from game development, by Brandom Chung of Blendo Games, no newbie in the industry:
Make stuff - and then, make more stuff
He's full of prototypes and once in a while, when he can go on with one, that is always spectacular.
And in this context, Steem is a beautiful incentive because the spectacular stuff get major upvotes, while the average also gets some small rewards. Win-win.
good article @dragosroua time to start my challenge post for today.
Wow very good sir👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌