Writer’s Block

by Bobbie Christmas

Q: How can I unblock my mental blocks and get my creative side back?

A: This question arises often lately. I suspect more writers than ever are experiencing writer’s block.

The first step might be to seek the reason for experiencing writer’s block. Instead of tackling the blockage, we can then tackle the reason for it.

One cause of writer’s block is depression, and the current pandemic left many of us mildly to severely depressed. Although depression is not the only reason for writer’s block, it can be one of the easiest to detect, although not the easiest to overcome. Depression often leaves us feeling unmotivated and uninterested in doing even the things we used to enjoy.

When writers become clinically depressed, medication plus therapy may be in order. If the depression is only a dip into sadness, it may be something that will pass on its own, although in times of sadness I’ve found immense help in support groups that dealt with whatever bothered me at the time. Other folks may find that simply pushing themselves works for them. For example, joining a writing class or forcing themselves to sit down and write, even if it’s garbage.

Sometimes a block can happen to writers when they begin to perceive writing as work. They then become resistant to work. In that case, if those folks can somehow change their mindset and see writing as a reward, a release, a joy, a privilege, or anything other than work, the block may disappear.

Regardless of the root cause of writer’s block, fellow writers and I have offered suggestions in the past. I’ll list a few.

• Listen to good music and relax.
• Read something you like.
• Read something you don’t like. It may motivate you to write something better.
• Read poetry and let it roll around in your head for a while. Soon you’ll hear poetic thoughts coming to you too.
• Meditate.
• Light candles.
• Clean your office; soon you’ll want to stop cleaning and start writing.
• Set a time and be at your computer, whether you have any ideas or not, and just type. You’ll produce a great deal of junk, but something may come of it too.
• Read what you wrote before. Your mind will soon be working out what comes next or how to improve what you’ve already written.
• Start with a character and let the character take over. See what that character has to say and what he or she does.
• Watch a documentary about a subject that interests you. You might then want to draft an article, poem, or even a book on that subject.

Most of these suggestions imply you must mentally get out of your own way and let your muse take over. I wish it were easy.

All of us procrastinate when we don’t want to do something, so we have to figure a way that makes us want to write. Some writers need to change their mindset, while more pragmatic writers accept the fact that writing is, in truth, work. Like any other work, they set a time to do it, a deadline by which it must be done, and get started. Ephemeral open-ended tasks are not motivational. If we can finish a project anytime we want, we tend to procrastinate. Procrastination is another form of writer’s block.

Years ago the publisher of the first edition of Write In Style gave me a deadline to complete the book. I sold the book to the publisher after I wrote only two chapters and the proposal. They gave me a deadline. All I had to do was figure out how much I needed to write each day to meet that deadline. I already listed the chapters in my proposal, so each day I looked at that list of chapters and decided what chapter to work on that day. I didn’t try to write the book from page one to the end. I jumped all around, each day working on a part that spoke to me that day. In that way I felt inspired. I set a goal, and I met it. Yes, it was work, but having a deadline motivated me. I had no time for writer’s block. In that case the publisher set the deadline, a goal, but we can set our own deadlines as well, and remember the adage that “A goal is nothing but a dream with a deadline.”

Bobbie Christmas, book editor, author of Write In Style: Use Your Computer to Improve Your Writing, and owner of Zebra Communications, will answer your questions, too. Send them to Bobbie@zebraeditor.com. Read more Ask the Book Doctor questions and answers at www.zebraeditor.com.