Writer's Block: The Definitive Guide

This a complete guide to getting rid of writer's block forever in 2021

In this guide, I'll be showing in different chapters to avoid having writer's block, having a firm idea of what writer's block is, and know the symptoms and causes of writer's block.

So if you're asking questions:

Cure to Writer's Block

Ways to Avoid Writer's Block

Causes of Writer's Block

Writer's Block Exercise

Then you'll love the actionable methods in this new guide.

Let's get started.

• Chapter 1: Introduction To Writer's Block

What's Writer's Block?

Writer's block is an ailment, chiefly correlated with writing, in which an author is incapable of generating new work or experiences, a creative deceleration. This creative stall is not a result of commitment dilemmas or an absence of writing skills.

 

Symptoms of Writer's Block:

Laziness: it becomes a problem when it starts to affect financially.

Lethargy: you're becoming tired of the idea and your brain is trying to create a new idea to replace the old one.

Lack of Ideas: you start to get stuck when your ideas are insufficient and not well outlined.

Writer's Block is subjective depending on the kind of writer. Non-Fiction writers do not easily get the ailment, but Fiction writers are prone to the ailment because they have to use their imaginations vividly to create.

Chapter 2: Causes of Writer's Block.

They are over 20 causes of writer's block posted by different bloggers but I feel they exaggerate some of these causes. So in this chapter, I'll be showing you the 7 best causes of writer's block.

• Depression: when the mind begins a long-term lowering of excitement or inability to visualize happiness, over 89% of the brain goes creatively dormant. In this state of psychotherapy, writers find it difficult to write down any useful words or even a sentence. It just a white blank page staring at you continuously mocking your condition.

• Negative Speaking: this is a form of self demotivation, by saying words like; "Can I finish it." "will people like it. "I'm noting special." These words can make one quit writing entirely. And if you continue in this, you'll not only harm yourself, you'll deprive the world of your creativity which is a crime.

• Low Self Confidence: self believe is a key to a successful and happy leaving. If you can't believe in the idea you've developed or about to develop they won't work. Any idea you get is an extension of your pure creativity, and if it's not being nurtured with quality morale then it's you and your blank page.

• Distraction (Social Media): distractions can come from different forms, being it your kids, pets, family members, loved ones, and even the internet. Social media can distract your creative process and cause a block in your writing, maybe for hours of scrolling through your timeline and feeds. Liking and commenting.

• Too many expectations and desires: it's good to have expectations and burning towards a certain project you are after but when they become much and they cloud your mind with excessive, you may find yourself staring at your empty page daydreaming about the beautiful idea in your head.

• Stuck in Revision Limbo: the context write now and edit later, makes it easier to focus on the writing aspect of your project. But when you begin to edit, edit, and edit until you've lost some ideas. Sometimes it's not intentional, perhaps people do it to gain inspiration. I advise you to stay away from doing that entirely.

• Not knowing how to portray your idea: it's a known fact that everyone can imagine and get an idea for the next New York Times bestselling book. It's one thing to do that, and it's another to be able to outline the idea and work on them. In some situations, you might have outlined the idea, and possibly even wrote an impressive number of words, and for some reason, you get stuck, and the idea just wouldn't add up anymore. Then you are left with an incomplete draft that might end up in a trash can.

Chapter 3: Cure For Writer's Block.

The internet is chunk with several methods, techniques, and guidelines to cure writer's block. In this chapter, I'll be giving you a more definitive means to cure writer's block.

• Listen to Music: music has been psychologically proven to be a major cure for writer's block. Psychologist Dr. Becky Spelman has established a list of concentration-boosting tracks, which also includes songs by Enya, Van Morrison, and Claude Debussy. Each song selected is considered ‘pleasurable’ while having a low ample BPM (beats per minute) to avoid distracting you from the job at hand.

She announced: “Paying attention to the current moment using as many of your senses as possible to heed things in your environment before you start work will assist in focusing the mind for the task ahead.

“Modern life is full of distractions so a concerted feat to be more mindful will help empty your mind of excessive interruptions before you begin.”

List Source: Mirror

• Improve Your Self-Confidence: having self-confidence is a key to not having writer's block, and if you can successfully hype up yourself to believe that you're worth something, and set up some feasible goals that you can achieve then you're set. Accomplish something during this period. Something as simple as completing a crossword puzzle or finish a scribbling game can boost your morale largely. 

• Exercise: during this period your body and mind need a workout. During the workout session, you improve your brains by reading a self-help book or a short fiction that is in the same genre you're writing in. Take therapeutic walks down the street, stretch your body, and when you're done you go back to your project a new person. This period may last for a day, weeks, or months. So I want you to see this as an opportunity to get back in shape and sharpen your word arsenal.

• Find a Hobby: finding a new hobby is as good as exploring new ideas. Hobbies like; Painting, Crochet, and Culinary Arts, can ease the mind and the flow of thoughts that causes the block. I noticed that when the block gets cured many people dump those hobbies. I don't want you to do that. I implore you to have fun with those hobbies and channel more creativity from their, and end writer's block forever.

• Learn a New Language: this is a very creative approach during your writing process. Learning a new language can incite an idea of a character you want to write about, and it can make you as a writer be flexible enough to create a more profound character that challenges all the other characters you've ever developed. A new language is a gateway to learning about the culture, tribe, norms, and traditions of that certain language you chose to learn. This can give you a more depth background of diverse characters and reduce insufficient ideas that cure writer's block.

• Cook Following a Recipe Book: this might sound absurd but following a recipe book can help in writing your novel, short stories, self-help books, poetry you chose to write. It gives you an idea on how to follow patterns and being creative following those patterns to success, which can be transcribed based on the fact that the idea you chose to explore has a pattern, and each character has a time frame, each scene has a procedure and manner things work out for the book. So following the step-by-step rule of a recipe book is a great way to get back on the creative house and slay writer's block like a fictional hero.

• Watch a Movie: whenever I feel stuck trying to develop a scene that works only with great dialogues, I take a break and watch a movie. I don't just watch does movies because they are entertaining, I watch them for the fact they have great dialogues. I use subtitles to enjoy more of the movie, and it makes it feel like I'm reading a book.
  
  
  
  
  
  in these two screenshots from the blockbuster series, (Peaky Blinders and The Originals) you will see that the dialogues are so great, they seem like a writing prompt, and with that, you've gotten an idea to write something about it, and the moment you do that you've cured yourself instantly.

• Re-Read your draft: Re-reading your draft might not seem fun at the time, but by doing it your mind gets refreshed on the idea you had when you started, and reading your draft might incite more ideas to write more. I believe this should be listed as one of the quickest and best ways to overcome writer's block.

• Use Writing Prompts: writing prompts have been curing writer's block for years now. It's one of the oldest methods of curing writer's block. They are over 5,000 creative writing prompts on the internet nowadays. I'll be giving you some prompts you might need right now and I promise you that your cure is in one of them. Check out these quality creative prompts from Bryn Donovan.

• 15 Ways to Begin a Story: Even when you have a basic idea for your story, sometimes it’s hard to know where to begin. I think one of the best things you can do with your first five or ten pages gets the readers to care about what happens to your main character (or to one of them.) Writers are often tempted to go into a lot of backstories at the beginning, telling readers about the world of the novel or about everything that happened before the story begins. It’s usually better to weave that material into the story here and there and begin with action. But there are exceptions to this rule (the Pixar movie Up, for example), and exceptions to every rule

• The arrival of a letter, email, or package.
• An invitation—to join a club, attend a dinner party, or do something shocking.
• The main character is in a frustrating situation.

• The main character is in an awkward or embarrassing situation.

• An escape—from a boring meeting, or prison.
• Someone discovers a dead body.
• A funeral is held for someone in the family or the community.
• A birth.
• The beginning or the middle of a disaster.
• The aftermath of a disaster. 
• A character does something which will be discovered later: slips a love note in someone’s purse poisons the wine, or plants a bomb in a car.
• A game or contest.
• A kiss.
• A performance, or the conclusion of one.
• The main character declares that he is in big trouble.

With these few prompts, I hope you get a cure quickly, and if it works please tell me.

• Refresh Your Mind: discovering or learning other forms of art may seem stressful. On this sort of day, I just seat in my room sipping coffee and asking myself a load of questions about what caused the unnecessary surge of emotion that lead to being blocked. And after that therapeutic period, I find myself fulfilled after I have placed the emotions or whatever it was in place.
• Read for Inspiration: reading can be fun when you know how to steal like an artist. Check out this list on how to steal like an artist. You should note that reading a book won't help if you're reading a good book at the wrong time. Try reading a book on the genre you're writing about.

Chapter 4: How To Avoid Writer's Block.

During my research, I found out that many blogs make the same mistake by posting a cure instead of posting a sufficient means to avoid writer's block. So in this chapter, I will be showing you the basic steps to never getting writer's block.

• Positive Speaking: Speaking positively is expressing an idea, thinking a thought, or asking a question in a way that drives towards what you want instead of away from what you don't want. Mantras are also a good form of positive speaking, they help in boosting self-confidence.

• Avoid Social Media: social media has its positive days, but when it comes to your project you should form a habit of turning off your mobile network to get away from the juicy information social media has to offer. Say no to liking and commenting on celebrities' pages. Concentrate and achieve your goal.

• Outline and Plan Your Ideas: The goal is to be able to finish what you started, and without sufficient planning and outlining of your ideas, you might get stuck and become frustrated. So to avoid having writer's block plan and outline efficiently.

• Free write: The Freewrite by Astrohaus is a distraction-free writing instrument developed to help the modern writer get in a flow state and stay there. In a time of buzzing notifications, clickbait headlines, and constant connectivity, Freewrite provides a rare sanctuary for writing. It's the first real tool for professional and aspiring writers that is without compromises. It has the best keyboard for writing, the best screen for writing, and saves seamlessly without fuss. Sit down and just write. To get this tool click this link - FreeWrite Tool.

• Morning Pages: This is a creative tool designed by Julia Cameron. It is the bedrock to avoiding writer's block by writing daily. Morning Pages are three pages of longhand, stream of consciousness writing, ideally done first thing in the morning. There is no method or technique to doing this, the only catch is that you just write all your ideas down.

Chapter 5: What to write when you have writer's block?

Many people keep asking these questions over and over again. I have asked these questions countless times too. And after extensive research, I've come with a technique called the three W's.

The three W's is a simple method to know what to write when you have writer's block.

• Write About What's Around You: this method is so fun that it gives you the freedom to write whatever you stare at from your window.

• Write from a Different POV: Changing your favorite writing pov can help you creatively, that's why I advise you to write a short story in a different pov.

• Write a Plot in Multiple Ways: writing a plot in multiple ways is a fun thing to accomplish. So just pick up your notepad and dive into your creative world.

Now it's your turn, I want to hear from you.

Which one of these chapters are you excited about?

Are you going to use this content when you're having writer's block?

Let me know by leaving a comment.