5 Tips to Overcome Your Writers Block

If you’re stuck and staring at a blank page, don’t worry you’re not alone. Even some of the best-selling novelists struggle when it comes to beginning a book. Writers block typically hits once you sit down to start writing. Your brain just freezes and you end up just staring at the blinking cursor. You really want to write, but you aren’t quite sure where to begin. Don’t let your frustration get the best of you. There are numerous methods to overcoming your mental barrier. Here are a few tips you can test out when you’re trying to break through your writers block:

1. Make a schedule and set deadlines. Decide how many days a week you want to work on your book and for how long. Make sure you stick to your schedule. For some, finding someone to hold them accountable to their deadlines provides more motivation to start writing.
2. Find a place that gives you inspiration. If you’re having trouble getting started while sitting at your desk, maybe you need a change of scenery. Make an environment within your home that you enjoy writing in or you find a new place that gets your thoughts flowing. Just make sure you don’t turn this into more procrastination.
3. Don’t be too hard on yourself. Most writers have trouble getting started because they think what they’re going to write won’t be good enough. Don’t criticize yourself during your writing process, save it for when you begin editing.  We’re our own worst critics – what you may think is terrible someone else may find inspiring, helpful or passionate.
4. Remind yourself why you started writing in the first place. Go back to the moment you decided you wanted to write a book. Think of how it felt when you had that revelation. Are you writing about your past experiences, love, or to help others? Whatever it may be, make sure you love what you’re writing about. The more you enjoy it, the easier it will be to get started and the more engaged readers will be.
5. Get started.  No one said the first few paragraphs have to be the most remarkable sentences that you’ve ever written, so don’t put pressure on yourself.  Put your thoughts on a page as they come to you. You can always go back to edit later.

These are just a few suggestions to help you break through that mental barrier. Don’t let it get the best of you, because most writers will experience the frustration of writers block at some point or another while writing. Once you break through it, you may end up with a book better than you ever expected.

Overcome Creative Blocks by Giving Away Your Services

When the creative ideas or words just aren’t flowing the way they used to (or at all), one possible way to get out of that rut is to create for someone else. Doing someone else a favor may bring on the inspiration.

Stepcase Lifehack says that spending every day writing only for your own projects can lead you to lose steam. One of the site’s suggestions for unblocking writer’s block is to write for someone else:

If you’re a journalist, do a favor to a colleague. If you’re a blogger, do a guest post. A genuine guest post, like giving the best of you for somebody else.
Magically, the words will start flowing. The inspiration will hit you like a Newtonian apple and fantabulous images and ideas will literally explode from your brain.

This idea could be applied to any other creative endeavor: if you’re a web designer, donate a site template for charity, perhaps; if you’re a coder, work on an open source coding project; and so on. Doing this may get you some validation and your mojo back.

Transform Your Book through Revision: The Importance of Drafting

Often we like to think of writers the way we see them in movies—sitting alone in a room with a typewriter, fervently typing chapter after chapter until a stack of perfect pages sits pristinely on the desk. The writer leans back in the chair, maybe letting out a sigh of relief and satisfaction. There it is—a finished book ready to be published and read by everyone. Unfortunately for real-life writers, the writing process just doesn’t look like that. Most writers write drafts—and lots of them. They revise their work over and over until their book is truly complete. Writing drafts is an integral part of the process, so don’t try to sidestep it. Here are some tips on how to approach each stage of the drafting process:

1.  The First Draft

• Just Write. Many writers make the mistake of revising their work as they go—fine-tuning each sentence and reorganizing thoughts at every step. That type of perfectionism so early in the process can really stifle creativity—focusing too much on what you’ve already written can keep you from moving forward in new or interesting ways. So, instead of obsessively stopping and going, let your work form more organically. Leave in typos and misspellings. Allow yourself to ramble and write nonsense. Go on tangents. You may be surprised—and pleased—with where they take you.
• Keep an Open Mind. Remember that often the end result of an author’s work hardly resembles his or her original intentions at all. While your first ideas for your book may be wonderful, try not to get overly attached to that initial vision. Look at this endeavor as an opportunity for your own self-improvement, a chance not only to refine the ideas you already have—to make them more precise and more helpful to others—but also to stumble across new ideas that might strengthen or transform your book in surprising ways. So, don’t delete anything—you may find that something you hate now will be useful to you later.

2.  Middle Drafts

• Explore your options. Think of revision exactly how it sounds, as re-vision—envisioning again. Reflect on your original goals for the book. Then, take a close look at the pieces you have and discover how they can be manipulated to either reinforce or improve that original vision. Consider what new directions you might take. Think about what can be cut, moved, added or clarified. This is a time for restructuring and refining at every level—from sentence to paragraph to chapter to book.
• Trust your instincts. Write as many drafts as it takes for you to feel your book is complete. Generally speaking, the more revisions you go through, the more organized your ideas will become and the clearer your message will be. However, be mindful that it is possible to overwork your writing. Just because revision is important doesn’t mean you’ll have to revise everything. Trust your writing and your voice, but be honest with yourself about what’s not working and what could be made better.

3.  The Final Draft

• Don’t stop now. Now that you’ve put so much care into crafting your book, don’t forget to carefully edit things like spelling, grammar, and word choice. While content is king, it’s important not to overlook this crucial step of final editing. Many readers will quickly dismiss the most beautiful of messages if it’s buried under glaring mistakes.
• Be thorough. This is the time to delve into the technical details. Comb your writing for comma splices, track down typos, and break out your dictionary. Hire a professional editor or ask an English-savvy friend or two to help you find and correct every last mistake.

Breaking the writing process down into these smaller stages will help make the task of writing your book more manageable. If you can embrace the idea that your first—or even your second or third—manuscript isn’t supposed to be perfect, you might find yourself more confident and comfortable as you write. You may not feel like a movie star, but you will feel like an author.