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Overcoming Writer's Block

blog.streetwriters.co

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Re: Overcoming Writer's Block

#11

Post by DoreenMichele »

Sometimes, you're just exhausted, have too much going on in life and need to take care of yourself. Your mind and body aren't separate. If you are ill, not getting enough sleep, recently had a death in the family, etc, you may just have "nothing to say" until some of that is resolved.

Other times, your relationship to your audience has changed. Maybe you/your life changed and that changes your relationship to everything else. Maybe your audience grew and you are getting different feedback than what you used to get or things went places you didn't expect. Now you need time to digest that info and decide how best to adjust what you are doing.

Sometimes "taking a break" isn't really a break. Sometimes it's working hard on something like one of the two above issues so your writing will be better.

Re: Overcoming Writer's Block

#12

Post by klelatti »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #9
klelatti wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a really good point and thank you for the link. I find that I have more stress from concern about whether the writing really is moving forward even when I'm putting words on the page - i.e. will the words I'm writing 'work' - than from writers block. Always at the back of my mind is will these words make the work less cohesive - am I moving backwards? But in general we manage what we measure and we normally h…

I do "versioning" of pieces sometimes when I'm concerned about that. I get to a particular point, decide I like some of what I've said "but it could be better" and copy and paste the entire thing into a new document and edit that, leaving the old version intact just in case I ultimately decide "God, what shite! What on earth was I even thinking???"

That's a really good idea - I use version control when writing code but it's never occurred to me to version when I'm writing English!

Re: Overcoming Writer's Block

#13

Post by geocrasher »

I mentioned my personal solution for this in another recent post, but it's worth restating:

Close your eyes, start typing. Alternately, turn off the monitor. Just start. Type anything. Get words on the page. Brain dump. Edit later.

There's nothing worse than a blank page!

Re: Overcoming Writer's Block

#14

Post by ammarahm-ed »

geocrasher wrote: post #13

I mentioned my personal solution for this in another recent post, but it's worth restating: Close your eyes, start typing. Alternately, turn off the monitor. Just start. Type anything. Get words on the page. Brain dump. Edit later. There's nothing worse than a blank page!

Agreed!

Re: Overcoming Writer's Block

#15

Post by thecodrr »

geocrasher wrote: post #13

I mentioned my personal solution for this in another recent post, but it's worth restating: Close your eyes, start typing. Alternately, turn off the monitor. Just start. Type anything. Get words on the page. Brain dump. Edit later. There's nothing worse than a blank page!

I have tried this and it really works. It's a very messy brain dump but you get it there. Once the words are on the page, you can eventually make sense of them, somehow.

Re: Overcoming Writer's Block

#16

Post by ammarahm-ed »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #9
klelatti wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a really good point and thank you for the link. I find that I have more stress from concern about whether the writing really is moving forward even when I'm putting words on the page - i.e. will the words I'm writing 'work' - than from writers block. Always at the back of my mind is will these words make the work less cohesive - am I moving backwards? But in general we manage what we measure and we normally h…

I do "versioning" of pieces sometimes when I'm concerned about that. I get to a particular point, decide I like some of what I've said "but it could be better" and copy and paste the entire thing into a new document and edit that, leaving the old version intact just in case I ultimately decide "God, what shite! What on earth was I even thinking???"

Nice idea! I will try to do something similar!

Re: Overcoming Writer's Block

#17

Post by systemvoltage »

Claim: Writer's block is just a challenge that any profession or activity would face - getting stuck. I get stuck writing software or learning piano or vacuuming my house. Convince me otherwise please. I want to learn what's different about this "Writer's block" that people keep talking about.

Re: Overcoming Writer's Block

#18

Post by thecodrr »

ButWhatFor wrote: post #6

I find that the “two minute rule” works pretty well. Whatever you want to do, set a timer for two minutes. Hit start and do that thing for two minutes and really beleive that after two minutes you can stop. Once you get going you rarely stop after two minutes. But telling your brain only twos minutes, and let’s see what happens, kind of let’s your brain give you two minutes to focus. Oh, and go write without a comput…

Yes! That's the reason we created the Call of Writing app [0]. You can set timer ranging from 1 minute to 60 minutes or 75 words to 1500 words. You can't pause until the end. It's much like (and inspired) the Most Dangerous Writing App. It's available on Web [0], iOS [1] and Android [2].

[0] https://callofwriting.com/

[1] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.streetwrit...

[2] https://apps.apple.com/app/id1536533658

Pardon any bugs though. It's not the most tested app in the world.

Re: Overcoming Writer's Block

#19

Post by thecodrr »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #11

Sometimes, you're just exhausted, have too much going on in life and need to take care of yourself. Your mind and body aren't separate. If you are ill, not getting enough sleep, recently had a death in the family, etc, you may just have "nothing to say" until some of that is resolved. Other times, your relationship to your audience has changed. Maybe you/your life changed and that changes your relationship to everyth…

Very much agree with this. Taking a pause from writing to deal with personal life or any other issues doesn't mean you are not a good enough writer. We are all human. We all need a pause.

This goes for all kinds of profession. Health before wealth (or passion), I say.

Re: Overcoming Writer's Block

#20

Post by thecodrr »

systemvoltage wrote: post #17

Claim: Writer's block is just a challenge that any profession or activity would face - getting stuck. I get stuck writing software or learning piano or vacuuming my house. Convince me otherwise please. I want to learn what's different about this "Writer's block" that people keep talking about.

To answer that, you need to answer whether writing is any different from coding, vacuuming, or learning piano.

I code, and write, myself. I have also gotten stuck while coding (and writing). But I have never experienced "coder's block" with the same intensity and stubbornness as a "writer's block".

However, this is solely my own experience.

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