NOTE: This post is a sequel to Inspiration: Laying Out the Welcome Mat and Tips for Inspiration.
If I had all my writer’s blocks in the same place, at the same time, I could build the Empire State Building. And yet here I am, still making my living as a writer. I’ll pretend this post is addressed to all you fellow sufferers, but in fact, it’s me talking to my future self.
The solution to writer’s block is introspection. Think about what you’re thinking, and be dead honest about it. Some suggestions to get you started:
1. Fatigue. Are you too tired to write? Perseverance is a virtue, but if you’re so tired your fingers are tripping over themselves, get some sleep—even if it’s only 30 minutes. BUT FIRST, make a list (as detailed as possible) of the steps you need to take when you’re functional. Writing the task list will prime your subconscious to work on this project while you sleep, and having a written task list will make it much easier to get started once you wake up.
If you haven’t been losing sleep or working extra-long hours, ask yourself if you might be misinterpreting mental fatigue as physical fatigue. Look for underlying reasons for your mental fatigue, such as …
2. Distraction. If you find thoughts of unrelated tasks are interrupting your effort to write, put all those irrelevant tasks down on paper, set the task list to the side, and get back to work. This is a David Allen (Getting Things Done) technique that every single person on earth ought to use. All right, every single person who owns a pencil and paper. It takes a while to get into this habit, but it’s worth every minute of the time.
3. Knowledge problem. Sometimes you think you’ve done all the necessary research, but when you start to write, you have the uneasy feeling that you’re making things up as you go along. Try writing the first draft of the ad with blanks inserted where you need to check specific facts. If your knowledge is too defective to do even that, start by making a list of the particular research you need to do. Do this before you hit the Net or the books again, so that the extra research doesn’t turn into an easy way to put off the time when you sit down to write.
4. Attitude problem. Sometimes you unwittingly take on (or are assigned to) a project that you hate. Maybe you hate the product, or resent the pay, or dislike the people you have to deal with. No amount of prep will change that. But once you figure out what’s making you so resistant to this writing task, you should be able to find a way to deal with that specific issue. In the worst case, you back out of the project, poorer but wiser, and try not to get in the situation again.
5. Thinking on paper. When none of the above is an issue (and it usually takes only a few minutes of introspection to figure that out), try thinking on paper, a technique described by Jean Moroney in her course “Thinking Tactics.” It’s low-tech but highly effective: write down what the problem is, and then write out your thoughts about it, in full sentences, until you can pinpoint what the real issue is and decide how to deal with it. Jean explains this technique in “Thinking on Paper.”
6. Shift modes (audio/visual/kinetic). Studies have shown that some people remember things better if they see them, others if they hear them, others if motion is involved. Shifting from one of these modes to another can also jump-start your brain when you can’t settle down to write.
If you have music playing in the background all day, turn it off. If you’ve been working on something visual, read a book—preferably one that’s brilliantly written but not directly related to what you’re doing. (See Recommended Readings.) If you’ve been dealing with words, look at some images. If you sit at a desk all day, get up and go for a walk. If you’re constantly on the move, find a quiet spot, sit still, and play music just loudly enough to stop you from obsessing about your writing.
Did these questions help? Did they make you think of other questions that did help? Asking the right question is often 90% of finding the right answer—and eliminating one wrong question after another is often what it takes to find the right question. Write me your thoughts … when you can write again.
RECOMMENDED READINGS
I’ve made surprising integrations for my writing projects while reading books that have nothing to do with writing. Recent favorites:
Renee Fleming, Inner Voice: The Making of a Singer
Henry Petroski, Engineers of Dreams: Great Bridge Builders and the Spanning of America.
Eric Weiner, Geography of Bliss: One Grump’s Search for the Happiest Places in the World.
See also Ayn Rand, The Art of Nonfiction: A Guide for Writers and Readers—specifically Chapter 6 (“Writing the Draft: The Primacy of the Subconscious”). Love the stories of the squirms and the white tennis shoes.
