How to overcome writer’s block? Every writer faces this question at some point in their lives.
— Writer’s block is a phase in which you feel stuck without words, and your brain is frozen. If you are a newbie blogger, you may feel overwhelmed staring at a blank page.
Hence, it is tough for you to cross this small phase of block in your content creation journey. To write better, you must first know what causes writer’s block. Then, you will be able to handle it better.
And I cannot stress enough that I, too, came across this situation without understanding what to write.
In this article, I will share a few writer’s block solutions I implemented when I felt stuck.
Let me explain why it occurs. Later, I will discuss practical and straightforward solutions.
What Causes Writer’s Block?
There may be many reasons why you may feel stuck when writing. However, I will discuss a few common problems that I faced when I was sitting to write. Generally, these causes block anyone, including me.
1. Being Too Hard on Yourself
Firstly, you set up a false expectation that your content should be picture-perfect. To achieve this, you work for a long time without taking breaks while creating engaging content.
— In my case, when I sat to write, it was initially challenging to gain momentum. Once I achieved that, I would not stop writing as the words flew over my mind.
Having more thoughts seems exciting and friendly, but that is where the problem occurs. After some time, my body and mind needed a break, but I ignored my body’s signs and continued my work, which was too hard.
Later, I felt exhausted and frustrated, which led to not understanding what to write. (Wait for the solutions in the upcoming section)
2. Comparing Your Writing with Others
Secondly, comparing yourself with others is your biggest enemy. Please don’t take me wrong; it may be good for you to improve.
But it causes a problem for many of us. Similarly, when researching my content, I saw so many great content creators online that I started comparing myself with them and doubting myself.
At that time, I did not realize what I was doing, and with self-doubt, I could not write better.
Later, I understood that everyone has their unique writing style. Especially if you are beginning, you will see many people who write excellently, and you will start comparing them.
Also, comparing your beginning with someone else’s middle is impractical.
3. Getting Distracted Easily
Lastly, distraction is the silent killer of our work. If you know me by now, I am a mom of a little baby. A mother knows better how easily they get distracted with their kids wanting their attention.
— Thus, it happened to me, too. Whenever I sit to write without any distractions, my daughter comes to me expecting my attention.
While I distract her and sit to write, again, she comes in between. For this reason, I was not able to write at all. Every time writer’s block hit me in this situation.
Then, I thought about handling writer’s block and made writing a habit even when I was with my daughter.
Similarly, if something or someone distracts you, you quickly get off the work whenever you sit to write.
For example, a mobile notification, an unexpected call from a friend that leads to a long conversation, or your family needs your attention.
I am not saying that talking to a friend is wrong, but setting up your writing time distraction-free is crucial.
How to Overcome Writer’s Block?
So far, I have shared a few problems with what causes writer’s block. In this section, I will discuss 10 tips for writer’s block based on my real-life situations.
Let us start.
1. Fear of Failing
The main barrier to writing is the fear of failure. When you fear something, it will be hard to get started.
That is when you will get stuck and start thinking about how to handle writer’s block.
You must know that getting stuck in between is a creative process to overcome this. It happens to everyone at some point in the content creation journey.
So, if you keep this in mind and get afraid to start, that is when you make the biggest mistake.
Because getting stuck in between is not the problem; starting is.
2. Calm Down Your Inner Voice
My mind will not be calm when I sit to write. While I start writing, sometimes I get so many thoughts inside my head. Some are related to the content, and some are not.
— Hence, I get stuck in between because my content-related thoughts conflict with others, and I cannot organize my thoughts properly.
Thus, I work on calming my inner voice with some silent activities. Here, I take a short break and:
- Do a short walk in nature
- Close my eyes and sit for 5 minutes
- Or stay calm
In this way, some unnecessary thoughts will calm down, and I can focus on the thoughts I get related to my content.
3. Leave Writing Work Aside for Some Time
One of the best ways to get rid of writer’s block is to leave your writing work aside for some time. You may think you are struggling with getting the right thoughts for my content, and I ask you to leave the writing part.
Do not worry; I can hear you. This block is just a tiny phase. Hence, I want you to stay calm.
So, for 15 to 20 minutes, close your laptop/book/other device you are writing. And do any other activity to get diverted.
For instance, you can do the following:
- Household work
- Take care of your plants
- Take a nap
- If you are not writing, you can work on designing something for your content and many more.
The idea is to forget that you had writer’s block and could not write. If a terrible situation takes up my headspace, I take a nap quickly.
Once I woke up, I almost forgot what I was worrying about. Sometimes, a quality nap or sleep is all you need to forget your worries.
Then, start with a fresh mind and sit to write. Also, do not expect that you should write pages altogether at once. After your break, take it slow till you get your momentum.
4. Outline Your Article In-depth
Outlining in detail is my favorite part of my blog writing. At the same time, I spend most of my time writing my article outline in detail as much as I can.
A detailed outline will give me an idea of what to write about and the details I should cover under each heading. There is little chance that I will not deviate from the topic.
Similarly, whatever you are working on, such as a blog post, short-form content, social media post, etc., can work well for you.
Write the outline of the topic you wish to publish in detail. Firstly, you need to do a heading outline, and later, under each heading, describe in detail what you will write so that your content will go in the proper direction.
If you incorporate this small practice, you will not wonder, “How to overcome writer’s block?”
5. Setup a Timer for a Few Minutes to Write Your Heart Out
Do you know that editing while writing leads to stress? We are often tempted to make the content perfect before moving on to the next section.
It only works generally for a few of us, including me. I finish my complete draft before editing because if you keep editing while writing, that never ends.
Do not expect your content to be perfect in the beginning. Set up a timer for just a few minutes and write whatever comes to your mind without thinking about perfection or grammar.
Remember to keep the editing session different from the writing session. This incorrect practice always leads to frustration as you repeatedly work on the same thing. Thus, you reach a stage where you need help understanding what to write.
6. Describe What you Know Already
Even after seeing five ways now, you may still wonder how to overcome writer’s block. A simple tip, which I will say now, will clear your confusion and give you scope to eliminate it.
I hope you remember me discussing getting momentum with your writing earlier. To achieve that, you need to start writing something that will push you to write your content. But you need help with knowing what to write.
To achieve momentum, I suggest starting by writing what you already know. What do I mean by this? Try to write a small story about your day from the morning, how you feel, your mindset, etc.
Thus, it would help to put less effort into thinking and writing. You already know what happened, and you can quickly start writing.
— This practice will help you get started and get involved with your writing as you write a story. Soon, you will forget you have writer’s block and can write your content quickly.
Note: Do not write about negative stuff in this practice; it will lead to more mental strain, as you are already stuck and do not know what to write. The idea is to help you get started in your content writing journey.
7. Procrastinating till the Deadline
One more reason you may face writer’s block is “postponing.” Assume that you plan on writing an article or piece of content with a 10-day deadline from now.
— If you are not taking any action, seeing the long deadline and thinking that you can sit just one day before the deadline and finish it, it could be a better strategy, my friend.
In the end, you will be under pressure to meet the deadline and unable to write. This happens when I need more time to finish writing my blog post or social media content.
Did I say in the previous section that I manage my blog, my full-time job, and my little child?
Occasionally, I need more time to write due to unexpected emergencies; other times, I feel like not writing. For this reason, you may skip writing, leading to inconsistency and affecting your content’s quality.
Since writing has become a habit, I can pick up the pace even if I start to work on my writing project a bit late. Of course, there will be initial difficulties like writer’s block. But I am confident that I can cross this phase with ease.
To achieve this, I suggest you set up a dedicated time each day to write, even if it is just 15-20 mins. Thus, you will have ample time to finish your content and can add/delete/modify content if needed.
8. Create a Writing Prompt
Writing with a prompt is my favorite practice. I assume you remember we used some questions to write about what we already know to overcome writer’s block.
Like, “How was my day? How am I feeling now?“
— These are called prompts, and they give you proper direction when you write. Similarly, these prompts can help you write your content.
Consider that you are writing content to share your personal experience as a story. For this, you can create prompts for this as –
- Which part of my situation I want to share?
- What was the situation?
- How do I feel?
- What did I learn?
- How can this learning help others overcome similar problems?
Thus, your story will have a proper structure, direction, and a base on which to write better. I use these kinds of prompts in my everyday journal.
9. Find your Most Creative Time
Along with all the ways we have discussed to overcome writer’s block, the one we will discuss now is the most crucial, and you can see instant results.
And that is to identify the time you are most creative naturally. Do you agree that the time you spend writing impacts the output quality you get?
For this reason, you will need to find out when you are most creative. To identify this, try writing at different times throughout the day.
With this, you must figure out when you can write better naturally without external force.
Also, when your creativity is at its peak, words will come to your mind quickly. But this creative time is different for everyone. Some people are most innovative in the early morning, and some late at night.
I like to write in the morning before everyone wakes up or anytime during the day when I sit in a quiet place without any distractions.
Thus, by determining the best time, you can make the most of your content writing experience and produce better output. At the same time, it takes your worry to search for the best blog writing tips for a beginner.
10. Reward Yourself After the Successful Writing Session
Do you agree that rewards are the most satisfying and motivating way to achieve your goals?
I love this reward system because, since childhood, my parents used to say that if you achieve this, you will get this. I am sure many of our parents did it.
Though we get tempted about getting the reward, it motivates us to keep working towards it.
— Similarly, you can do the same with a writing session. Keep a reward in mind to push yourself to finish your writing session and get that reward.
Mostly, when I finish a tough writing session, I spend an evening after work without doing anything and just painting; I enjoy it.
Rewards can be as small as spending outdoors or as big as gifting yourself with something or an experience. It entirely depends upon you, your goal, and how big a task you have tackled.
But remember that this reward system is just a motivation. I suggest not going for too fancy, unrealistic, and high-on-budget rewards for this purpose.
Final Thoughts
I hope this article answered your question, “How to overcome writer’s block?” with the ten ways we discussed.
To conclude, remember that writer’s block is a journey, and you may experience it multiple times during your content creation journey.
So, with practice, try to make this block (a creative process) part of your writing journey.
Feel free to use the tip that resonated with you the most. Also, if you need help finding unique ideas for your blog, check my detailed article.
You will find more exciting ways to overcome that blank page for your content.
Happy Blogging!
