I love to write; not just blog writing but writing anything and when writer's block strikes it's the worst. Of the years I've had my fair share of writing dry spells as all my ideas have been written down and I have no more and I'm sure many of you keen writers have experienced the same. Writer's block is just a massive inconvenience and all the greats will have experienced at least once in their writing time. I've found that it's not preventing writer's block that needs to be done but to make the most out of having writer's block is the only way I find to defeat it. I thought I would share a few tips with you.
READING is a great way to gather inspiration- read anything and everything you can; the newspaper, old books, leaflets, junk mail you get in the post- I've come to realise that inspiration can spring from anywhere and it's mostly to come from the most unexpected places. While reading all these things as well as many books, I keep a small notebook and pen handy so I can write down any words or phrases that I feel I could do something with in future writing projects- make my own WORD BANK. It doesn't have to be a complex word, just I word that I liked the look of no matter how common it is; a single word maybe the key to a new story idea.
Another thing I do is, if you have work in the making, I READ OVER AND RE-DRAFT because I find I am most critical when suffering from writer's block and so it can actually help me give myself some harsh criticism and make my previous works better and more precise.
This goes along with my next tip which is to JUST WRITE! Open a notebook or a word document and just write anything that comes to mind. My writer's block has consumed me so much in the passed that I've found myself writing pages about having writer's block(a little ironic really). I find myself writing letters to people that I won't send but it really clears my mind- to passed friends, celebrities that I have questions I desperately need answering. I will write paragraphs filled with cliches but I don't care because no one's going to see it. It gets all the cliches out of my writing system so I can start to fill it with my own unique phrases and work. Writing about random topics is a great way to get the creative juices flowing. If you'd like me to write a post full of WRITING PROMPTS in the future then be sure to let me know!
This, I guess, is contradiction (a great word to add to the word bank!) and that is to TAKE A BREAK! It's amazing what a few days or weeks or even months can do to help you get back in to the swing of things and ready to spew words out in the thousands. Finally, DON'T PRESSURE YOURSELF; like I said, every writer struggles with writer's block at some point in your life and so if you can't bring yourself to even write a coherent sentence then don't. You'll want to pick up a pen soon enough and the words will fly out the end!
I hope this helped all you keen writers who have been in this situation! Let me know if you'd like a post with some writing prompts for those with writer's block!
How do you defeat writer's block yourself?
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