Every writer has experienced writer’s block. Successful writers just know how to break through it, not by Divine intervention or sheer genius, but dogged persistence.
In fact, if you want to write for a living, you need to accept that writer’s block is part of the territory, and write anyway. The worst thing you can do is to wait around ‘for the right mood.’ A writer writes, whatever the mood. It is a commitment and a habit, not a flight of fancy. But when you’re stuck, and the blinking cursor on the blank page only seems to compound your performance anxiety, these tricks can help.
Start in the middle
We know, all too well, the importance of the opening paragraph. We have mere seconds to grab the reader’s attention, and can spend days agonizing over the perfect beginning—and end up not writing anything at all! So save the introduction for last. Dive to the meat of the article or story. Imagine that you’re building a house, setting up the pipes and the structures before worrying about landscaping the front lawn or picking the perfect front door.
Ask questions
Are you stuck because you don’t know where to take your article or story? Ask yourself questions. Put yourself i nthe shoes of your reader, interviewing you on your character/argument/research. Then answer each questions. You may end up using the q&a format itself, or taking off from one paragraph—either way, you’ve made headway.
Pretend you’re just sending an email to a friend
Sounds corny, but it works. You get rid of the pressure (‘just sending a draft to Aunt Petunia’) while stile doing the work. Just open your gmail, start typing away, and copy-paste it to a word processing software when you’re ready.
Write somewhere else
The change in scenery may jumpstart your creative juices. J. K. Rowling did a lot of her writing in coffee shops. You can also try writing in another part of the house (dining room? your lawn?). I don’t let computer issues stop me. Sometimes, I revert to old-fashioned pen and paper (which never run out of batteries) and scribble a draft in the park.
Take a hike
Or a walk. Or a run. It’ll boost your energy levels and flood your brain with oxygen.
Doodle and scribble
This is the writer’s version of warm-ups. Try doing morning pages, which basically involves setting a kitchen timer to 3 minutes and then dumping down all the thoughts on a piece of paper (read The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron for more info). I also like coloring books and art journaling. Or, when I feel I want to say too much and don’t know where to start, I make a mind map.
Give yourself a deadline
Feeling lazy? I have those moments. I shake off the blahs by telling myself, ‘i will only write for 30 minutes, but i need to do at least 2 paragraphs.’ Not bad, right? Usually by the end of 30 minutes I want to keep on writing. It will also force you to focus. Think about how productive you are when you’re just about to go on a vacation, and are getting things done as fast as you can just so you don’t have to bring home work.
Photo from windedwords.blogspot.com
עיצוב הזמנות לחתונה,הזמנה לחתונה,הזמנות לבת מצווה ווגרפיקה יחודית להזמנות לחתונה רק עם