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Health & Fitness

How to Unblock the Block

I really dislike Writer’s Block. It's pretty much the bane of my existence as a writer.

I wanted to start this off with “I hate Writer’s Block”, but hate is a rather strong word. It puts a negative spin on the piece that I’m writing, not to mention that it puts out negative energy into the environment. Not a fan of making situations any worse than they already are in the world.

I’ve been sitting in front of this computer for about a half hour, hoping ideas would flow rather freely from my fingertips. I started this piece five times already, but each time, I got “stuck” at the second or third lines, and I deleted every letter.

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My daughter, ever the sage, suggested that I put the computer away until I was struck with a brainstorm. My husband walked in the door from work, and offered the same advice. I nodded mindlessly – suggestions such as these are little help when a column is due, or a blog must be written.

Writer’s block has plagued even the best of authors and journalists. First described in 1947 by psychoanalyst Edmund Bergler, the condition is primarily associated with writers who lose the ability to produce new work. The condition has caused some authors to abandon their careers, and has also been described as a situation where a writer feels that their work is inferior or unsuitable. Some famous artists who have suffered from writer’s block are F. Scott Fitzgerald and Charles M. Schulz. George Orwell documented this, rather effectively, in his work, “Keep The Aspidistra Flying”, a fictional account of a poet who attempts to finish a poem about a day in London and is blocked by his own thoughts.

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One reason why people feel “stuck” in their writing is due to lack of ideas. This is something that is easily remedied by performing certain mind exercises in order to elicit a response via writing about it. A perfect example would be writing about something that’s totally annoyed the heck out of you. You’d be amazed at how quickly your fingers will type the letters that will formulate a wonderful essay. You could conceive ideas about what you would have done if you won the lottery, and what you would have done with the cash. I can think of a million things that I’d do if I won, and by doing this simple activity, I got myself “unstuck”. Pretty easy fix, if you asked me!

Another reason for writer’s block is when you have hundreds of fabulous ideas, but you don’t know where to begin on any of them. This is what happened to me earlier, which is what caused me to hit the backspace button and start over. Five times. When you’re faced with loads of ideas but none of them sound good on paper/the computer, take a deep breath and walk away for a little while. Believe it or not, a change of environment can do a world of good. Go for a walk, get some fresh air, play with the dog – all of it is great for clearing the mind. Your brain is on overload, and you aren’t going to get anything done until you allow those thoughts and ideas to find a place of space in your mind. Meditation will also help with this issue. Most of the time, when we meditate, we are tapping into our creative selves. Even five minutes of meditation is enough to clear even the murkiest of minds.

Something that plagues me quite often is when I have a fantastic idea for a column or blog, and I discuss it with members of my family. It sounds great – I’ve even got a great quotation to go along with it! Unfortunately, for my 50+ MS brain, I go about my business and suddenly, WHAM! My idea has vanished into No Man’s Land, and I’m stuck, staring at the computer and hoping that the idea will come back to me. Best game plan for this is to write everything down, even if it’s on a napkin. This is how JK Rowling got her start for the Harry Potter series; she wrote on napkins. For me, the issue isn’t just writing it down, it’s remembering where I’ve left the scrap of paper.

Have you ever been at a loss for words? Meaning, have you ever tried to think of the perfect word for your story or article, only to be plagued with a black hole where your brain should be? Grasping for the right word should never be an issue for writers, yet it seems to be commonplace. Dictionary and thesaurus apps are fabulous for this; I cannot begin to tell you how many times these tools have come in handy, for those days when I cannot seem to remember anything at all, or for those days when words literally elude me. I also learn a thing or two – I could be searching for the wrong word entirely, and I end up finding something that helps the paragraphs to flow quite freely.

Group discussions are a wonderful way to get creative juices flowing. Sitting around a table and throwing ideas out there will help even the most stuck writer to come up with something to put onto the paper. It also enables others to give some feedback on your ideas, which helps to substantiate what it is that you might want to write about.

Journaling helps with feeling stuck, as well. You’ll find that as you put words to paper, you are eliciting responses that will help your words to flow a lot more freely. A lot of the time, writers are stuck because they truly want to write something that is in their hearts, but they fear judgment, and are thus chained in fear. They opt to write something less than genuine, which produces flawed results and a less than satisfied sense of accomplishment. Writing from the heart is the very best way to write anything. My dad told me that, a long time ago; when I was writing about an issue that I had absolutely no experience with, his response to me, upon reading my work, was, “Write about what you know. You’ll find that your stories will be a lot more believable.” I’ve taken that advice to heart, and it hasn't steered me wrong yet.

I’m looking down at my computer now, and I realize that I wasn’t as blocked as I thought I was. Over 1,000 words later, I’m pretty satisfied with the work upon the page. Here’s hoping that if you should ever experience “the block”, you’ll find a way to “un-stick” yourself as well and lead yourself to smooth, free-flowing works from your own heart.

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