Writer's block are two little words guaranteed to strike fear in the heart of anyone who has ever faced a deadline or had to earn a living from his words.
Getting stuck is something that all writers — no matter how skilled they are or how much practice they’ve had — experience from time to time. The writer’s brain is like a mighty river — usually it flows along smoothly, but sometimes a 40-foot barge sinks right in the middle, causing the river to back up and the words to stop flowing.
Picture this: You have a great story idea that has kept you writing for days. On the fifth day, you’re happily writing when the doorbell rings. You answer it to discover a package delivery. You sign for the package and return to your desk and realize you’ve completely lost your train of thought. Minutes pass. Then a half-hour.
Then you notice dust in the corner of the room you hadn’t seen before, so you grab the broom. Next you’re at the kitchen sink washing dishes. Finally, you return to the computer, but you realize your writing has come to a crashing halt.
You’re paralyzed in front of a computer monitor that seems to be actively mocking you. And no matter how many times you straighten up your desktop and change the pretty background pictures, you can’t seem to write a word.
Not everyone believes in the existence of writer’s block. Some blame shiftless Americans who created the so-called phenomenon because they were too lazy to power through the tough times when writing got the best of them.
Other people even think that writer’s block is a creation of psychologists who want to take advantage of writers’ insecurities and make piles of dough from them.
Writer’s block does exist (sort of, but in a way that is immediately resolvable) and is simply a condition requiring one of two remedies:
Giving yourself permission to get away from the pressure of writing for a while until the urge to write strikes again — but not indefinitely. If the urge does not strike within a few days, go to the next remedy . . .
Using writing exercises to get your writing juices flowing again
You do writing exercises for fun. For laughs. For the sake of doing them. Why is this important? Because the first half of the problem with writer’s block is losing the urge to write, and the second half involves being stuck about what to write. So exercise your imagination — a very important muscle in getting over “writer’s block” and finding out how to master the process of writing.