2 Secrets To Curing Writers Block (& Finding Your Voice)
Over the years I’ve been asked by many people what my answer is to writers block, or feeling dry creatively, or when you’re stuck as a writer.
Because we’ve all been there haven’t we? Sitting at home with literally nothing to say, no motivation to write, feeling totally empty and dry, like we’ll never write another word ever again.
Sound familiar?
Well the best way to answer this question is share my own story.
I’ve struggled with this more than once in my life. And there were two things I did each time to free myself from the shackles of writers block.
Last year I had something of a blogging or writing epiphany. I had got so caught up in performing and impressing, I’d lost my soul. I’d lost my voice. I had nothing left, because in truth I’d been writing to impress others for too long.
Only a month or two ago, I felt lacking in inspiration for different reasons. I’d simply burned out. Blogging was becoming a drag, an obligation, a duty.
The Two Lessons
I learned lessons from both of these periods, and both helped me overcome the writers block I was experiencing – and liberated me to go and create with freedom. There’s two key lessons I learned:
1) Sit, Wait & Write.
I took a 3 month break from public blogging last year. And instead, I chose to write something every day. Something. Anything. Even if it was 50 words. To get myself in front of a laptop, or even on my phone, and just write.
Sometimes it took a while for something to come. I had to wait for something. And often I just wrote with no idea what was coming next, purely from my subconscious. But eventually the words came.
Looking back, I can say it was honestly one of the most liberating, creative seasons of my life. I didn’t even want to go back to public blogging eventually.
This period helped me discover my voice, and the work from that period resulted in many blog posts and an e-book.
So get yourself to a laptop, a notepad. And wait. Then type whatever flows from your mind. No editing, no corrections, no thinking, just write and let it all out.
Be honest, just write whatever is inside, however long it takes, whatever it is. Then save it. You never have to publish it, you never have to show anyone, it can be 50 words or 2000 words, but let it out.
This free-writing liberates you to create from your heart, and gives birth to a whole wave of new ideas. (you can tweet that).
2) Free Yourself From Obligation.
This year I just got bored of blogging. It became a burden, a duty. I seemed to have run out of ideas, and had no motivation to go searching for new ones. Even the sitting and waiting which had worked so well in the past wasn’t happening, because I had no motivation to do even that.
So I decided to free myself from the obligation to blog. I would blog only if I had something to say – and if I didn’t, I’d just not blog.
And once I did this, again, I found a fresh wave of creativity. I could go and write, without any fear and without worrying what others thought. It was liberating.
I’m not saying you should shut down your blog. Just free yourself from the obligation to blog, or to find something to say. Take a break from public writing and just write what’s inside.
Keep pouring it out, push through, and eventually what you will find is your voice.
Now I’m not saying these will definitely work for you, and it’s by no means an exhaustive list of how to cure writers block. I’m sure there are other methods which have worked for you (and feel free to share those in the comments). But these have worked for me, and I know they’ve worked for many others as well. So if nothing else, just try either or both of them.
It could not only break you out of your writers block, but help you discover your voice, and free you to create work you never knew you were capable of.
Are you with me?
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Question For Reflection:
How have you overcome writers block – did these methods work for you?
Share your story in the comments below.
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(Picture Source: Flickr.com/Online Source)
Taking breaks, doing something else creative and fun, just changing up your schedule is important to do to give yourself some time to get the juices flowing again.
Absolutely Elyse, totally agree – great point.
Interesting point about Obligation.
It’s almost as if we set ourselves to a binding agreement when we decide to write anything, be it novel, blog post or non-fiction piece.
In binding ourselves into this agreement we seem to be also setting ourselves an impossible task because nothing obligatory is simple or likeable. It becomes a chore.
What’s the alternative? I’m not sure. Your answer of blogging when you have something to say is a good one. But isn’t that why we want to be writers in the first place?
Writing my novel is a chore. I joke with a friend that I hope it’s not as much of a chore to read as it is to write. One way I get round this (sometimes) is to record. Luckily, I have a recording facility on my mobile. I walk a lot and intentionally think of what I want to write. Whatever ideas flow, I record them. I then upload to Audacity, then use DNS to transcribe it. Not bad for a non-techie. It helps!
Thanks for sharing this Tom – good points here, thanks for sharing. Really appreciate it.
When I get stuck I start visiting characters from my books to see what they might be interested in doing next. I write a short scene or two to give me the sense of what might be in their futures and suddenly I’m eager to start one (or more) of their stories. With a file of new scenes, I feel like there is always something new to work on. Sometimes a break from the WIP is like taking a vacation with characters you know very well.
Interesting hearing it from a fiction writers perspective – and sounds like a useful method of breaking through. Thanks for sharing this Diane!
The only time I let writer’s block stress me out is when I’m on a firm deadline for someone else. That, finding yourself in between a rock and hard deadline is the pitts….but thank the Lord I work well under pressure. Its just sometimes I wish I could learn how to recreate that magic moment where the pressure builds to a boil and the words just fly off my fingers.
Absolutely Lisa, totally agree – we’re all searching for those moments. Great comment.
James, I’m sure other members of our Christian poets & writers group on Facebook will appreciate this word, so I’ll highlight your post on the Christian Poets & Writers blog – http://www.christianpoetsandwriters.com. God bless.
Thanks Mary, appreciate that!
For me, a block tends to be a difficult passage or decision in writing. I find that stepping back and not thinking about it for a while usually helps. When I come back to the question, I find I can simplify it down to its basic elements, and that usually reveals the solution. One time, I spoke about my writing block with a good friend, who suggested the simplest possible idea – which was, of course, the right answer I needed.
Like Diane, I go back to read what I already have to find new inspiration. With my series, sometimes I even go back to previous books to get more connected to a particular character again. If only I could find a way to take my day job out of the way. That tends to cause most of my writer’s block 🙂
Great article. Everything you discuss in this piece resonates with me. It was just recently I had writer’s block for a little while. It even felt discouraging at times, because I too felt I didn’t have anthing more to say. I also felt I’d never write again, because I’d sit infront of my computer wanting to compose some pieces of writing, but my mind was blank. I feel so much better after reading your article. I realize this is something happening to all writers from time to time.
I struggle with lack of motivation for blogging. So for me it works better to just write when I really have something to say, but in the meantime I think I need to schedule some posts. Otherwise the periods between writing may be too long and may cause some to think they are not valued as readers, which is not the case. I own this. It is my struggle.