World of Words #10: “Writer’s Block? What’s That?”

Hello Fellow Writers!

Writer’s Block. Those two infamous words that writers never want to hear or experience. But, unfortunately, we find ourselves having to deal with it from time to time. It’s inevitable. In fact, it’s to be expected. That way we can be better prepared to handle it and work our way through it. There will be a time when you hit that wall in your project. It happens. Maybe you are just in the beginning stages of your project or maybe you are well into it and you’re just hitting your stride, and then…out of the blue, your creative mind abandons you. Your story loses its way and comes to a standstill like gridlocked rush hour traffic. You will feel drained of all of your creativity and like you are the worst writer ever. That’s ok because, whatever the cause of your writer’s block, sometimes you need to step back and breathe. You need to allow some distance to get in between you and your project so you when you come back to it, you will see it with a fresh set of creative eyes. However, when this happens, it doesn’t mean that you can’t still be productive in your writing.

As writers today, we all have to wear multiple hats. It doesn’t matter if you are traditionally published with the power of one of the “New York Big 5” conglomerates behind you or if you are self-published or “indie” published. In all of these situations, you are most likely wearing the promoter’s hat, the public relations hat, and on and on and on. So, when you hit that wall called writer’s block, don’t continue to butt your head against it. Instead, go around it until you find yourself in a creative position to actually move that wall. This is really when you have to trust your project, but also examine it with a magnifying glass.

If your project is built on a solid foundation, then never fear, your creativity will return and you will get back on track. But on the other hand, if you look at your project and you see holes, then that could be the cause of your writer’s block and you’ll probably need to fill those holes before you can move on in your project.

Let’s say you are dealing with the former. Your project is solid and you just find yourself at a creative impasse with it. No problem. Like we said earlier in this post, step back and allow yourself and your project to breathe. In the meantime, stay busy with other writers’ tasks. Get on social media and promote your work, write a new blog post, or update your website. You can also begin outlining another project, do some research, or other reading. Whatever it takes to keep yourself busy and productive until you can get back to work on your project.

So, what’s the bottom-line here? When Writer’s Block rears its ugly head, take a short break when needed, but always find a way to keep working. In fact, as I type this block post, I’m experiencing a bit of writer’s block with my current novel. And that’s ok because there is always plenty of other work to be done. So, as we head into 2018, let's all make a writer's resolution to keep writing no matter what. This machine only stops grinding if we allow it to stop. 

HAPPY WRITING!