When Writer's Block Hits
A common but conquerable affliction
Image credit: Nataliya Vaitkevich on Pexels
It’s funny how the creative juices flow. We’re often inspired when we’re least able to act on that inspiration. In fact, in my life it seems I’m most often inspired during those times.
It’s kind of like wanting to get healthier . . . all the big plans sort themselves out in the wee hours of the night when we’re trying to fall asleep, but when we wake up fresh and ready to go the next day, the inspiration to make a healthy breakfast or to start the day off with a bike ride just sounds like too much effort.
There’s a pattern to when it strikes
I’ve found that I have a distinct correlation between when I need to write and when I’m able to write. If I have a need for a written piece that’s on a deadline, I’ll get it done, but I will most likely struggle through the actual writing process. The whole thing will take longer than it should, and I still may not be completely happy with the end product.
On the contrary, the ideas flow best when I’m nowhere near a keyboard. I’ll think of something I want to write about, but won’t be able to actually write it immediately because I’m either driving, somewhere I don’t have a phone or paper to jot the idea down . . . you get the picture.
I believe it’s referred to in the mathematical world as inversely proportional, and I suspect it’s a lot more common than most people will think. We bemoan our busyness, telling ourselves that as soon as we have a day or two off, we’ll catch up with the little things. But when we get those days off, we actually accomplish less because subconsciously, we feel we have all the time in the world.
In the zone
When I’m in a writing mood—in the zone, whatever you might call it—the words flow quickly and easily. I might even crank out an entire blog post of up to 2000 words within an hour or less, and I’ll hardly have any revising to do when it’s all on (virtual) paper.
But when I’m supposed to write and I know I only have a certain allotted time to do it, the words just don’t flow. Oh, sure, I’ll get it done. I mean, a deadline is a deadline, even if that deadline is my own because I’ve promised myself I’ll write one solid, informative post each month for my business website. But it will take much, much longer to get the words out, and I’ll find myself revising again and again before finally scheduling the post.
My attempt at starting a habit
I started writing about this in the middle of my first NaNoWriMo attempt, just a few short months ago in November of 2021. For those of you who don’t know what that is, that’s National Novel Writing Month, designated in November each year, where thousands of people all over the world set a goal of writing 50,000 words toward a novel or other types of writing.
My intent this first time was to try it out to see if I could manage the discipline of writing on a daily basis. I was thrilled to see just over 50K words at the end of it all, though I wouldn’t have been surprised if I’d fallen short, never having attempted such a thing. The goal, after all, was to write each day so that the habit became easier and the writing went faster.
I knew that writing blog posts and short articles doesn’t lend itself to meeting the daily goal of 1667 words needed to reach 50,000 by the end of the month. In my case, that would be essentially writing a complete article each day. To have thirty unique ideas to write about. Thirty posts or stories in all.
It turned out to be easier and harder than I expected. I did a little prep to get some titles in a document, and from there I just scrolled through each day and wrote a stream of thoughts on that title/topic until I ran out of steam. Then I went to the next title and wrote as much as I could on it. And on and on it went.
Write and only write
The part that made it easier when writing the way I did during NaNoWriMo is that I didn’t have any real refining to do with this approach. Writing, not editing, was what I was going for. Refining and thinking too much would only slow me down, so this “only write” idea turns it into more of the sprint type of writing than the longer pace of a cross country run.
What better opportunity for writer’s block to plop itself down in the center of my desk, a la Calvin and Hobbes, to stop those words from getting written. There were ideas rattling around in my head, but do you think I could call upon any of them when I sat down? Not a chance.
The sheer amount of time involved in writing a “mere” 1667 words each day was something I hadn’t counted on. Between working my part-time not-at-home job and editing books for my own business, there was precious little time left in the day to write. Ignoring my family wasn’t really an option, so I had to be creative in finding those moments.
Ignore the pursuit of perfection
Hence why I was trying to get that daily habit to stick. The more we do something, the easier it gets. Almost always, anyway. I think the ease has something to do with being comfortable enough to ignore the fear that comes with perfectionism.
When we do something repetitively, we find that task becomes almost a muscle memory. It not only helps us to do the task faster, but it also aids the quality. We’re not thinking so much of the doing, per se, but the “how” of it. Like reading a sentence, we don’t focus on each word, but the idea and the way it flows.
You can’t do it without doing it
Writing can only get better if we write. If someone says they’re having trouble getting started, I always suggest that they write a list of what they want to accomplish that day, or even a list of the types of things they want to write. There’s no pressure to write in full sentences or even fully thought-out ideas.
We simply write.
And if the topic I need to write about isn’t inspiring me, I write on a different topic until I’m able to go back to the needed one. Sometimes this is harder than other times, and I have to force myself to abandon one thing so I can refocus on it later. But it’s much like anything else in that I’ll feel fresh when I look at it next.
Like today. I’ve written about not being able to write. Why? Because I wasn’t able to write. And focusing on something that felt more like a rambling, tangential thought process has now helped me to get that out of my system. I’ve written something, so I know my daily habit is being fed.
And that’s exactly the way to climb right over that writer’s block and show it who’s boss.
