Writer's Block- Creative Ways to Reduce or Eliminate It
Author: Rick Sheridan

Writer's Block- Creative Ways to Reduce or Eliminate It

There are many practical and creative ways to overcome writer's block. Here are a few techniques that I have gathered by interviewing various writers and looking through self-publishing handbooks:

Write down any idea that is at all related to your writing project, whenever it comes to you. Use a small notebook or even a simple scrap of paper. Don't assume that you will remember the idea later. A word, phrase, sentence or diagram will help you remember the basic concept later.

Write one-sentence answers to the following questions. What is the topic that I am writing about? What does my reader need to know about this topic? What do I want my reader to do with this information? These answers will give you a good outline to help start your article or report. An alternative would be to answer the questions: who, what, where, whey, why and how. Rearrange or reword your answers to get a beginning framework.

Try using a stopwatch and just write for five minutes. Don't worry about the grammar or flow at this stage- just get the words on paper. Your first goal is to get your thoughts and ideas on paper, regardless of word choice, sentence structure, or spelling. After the five minutes is up, stop and check the flow. Does your article make sense? Is the grammar acceptable?

If you're having trouble getting your idea on paper, try talking about it instead. Verbalize to yourself or to a friend or colleague. When you do this, the ideas will start to flow and you'll be able to put them on paper eventually. An alternative would be to pretend that you only have two minutes to explain your entire story to an important journalist. Use a tape recorder and timer and dictate your report as quickly and completely as possible.

Discipline yourself to write for 20 minutes every day. If you are on a roll, continue. If not, quit until another time. When you are in a productive state, try to keep writing as long as possible. Once again, you can always edit the work later. Schedule this activity on your calendar just as you would any other appointment.

Sometimes you have to be willing just to tough it out. Even though you don't feel like writing or you don't feel creative, you have an important deadline approaching. Sometimes you just have to discipline yourself to just do it.

While you are in a productive and enthusiastic mood, try setting up an anchor (an unusual verbal or physical cue) to help put yourself in that state later. This technique is often used by Olympic athletes to recall and duplicate their best performances.

Don't worry about writing the introduction until after you write the rest of the piece. The introduction can be one of the main items that cause writer's block. Actually, it's often more efficient to write the introduction after you've finished the other components of the article. You might even want to write the conclusion first. By writing the concluding section first, you may see more clearly how to organize your points to get to that final stage.

One idea is to finish the last day's writing project in the middle of a sentence, paragraph or page so that you are not faced with a blank sheet of paper when you return later.

The more that you worry about writer's block, the worse it will become. Try to find a story line that excites you- and eliminate any obvious causes such as tiredness, overwork or anxiety about outside problems.

Consider using a "decision tree" mapping system to help brainstorm your main ideas. Write your article title in the middle of a piece of paper and add branches to the various topics and sub-topics that you want to cover. This can help you explore all possible ideas related to the topic and uncover relationships between the different components. Don't attempt to organize these ideas until you get them all onto this diagram.

Remind yourself of how good it feels to get your writing projects completed. Read something you've written in the past and set up a reward system to motivate yourself to push through to the end. Keep an idea file that has samples of good writing and a list of synonyms for additional research.







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Rick Sheridan runs BookSpirit.com, an online bookstore with many personal development and self-help topics. His news and feature articles have been published by The Chicago Sun-Times, United Press International, etc. More information at: http://www.bookspirit.com

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