Here’s One Way to Break Writer’s Block

The pressure is mounting. You have a deadline for your college mid-term. Maybe you’re enlisted to write a book on cooking your favorite dish, or maybe a fictional book on a murder mystery. 

So you think you’re ready to go. You have your thoughts in order, the research is more or less done, and an outline has been completed. Now it’s time to get going. 

You sit down and face a blank screen. Then … nothing. Minutes go by. Then hours. The longer you sit at your desk with nothing to show, the worse it gets. You’re unable to get this thing started.

Not Quite Ready to Go

What is going wrong?  Unfortunately, you have a severe case of writer’s block.

Indeed, there’s a lot of pressure involved in writing, everything from getting a novel going to finding a way to fill an 800-word article in just a couple of hours, or less. Time continues to pass. What can you do to break this writer’s block?

The good news is writer’s block is not a medical condition. Hopefully, you won’t have to go to the hospital nor you shouldn’t need to get a mental exam. There really isn’t any drug you can take to get your writing piece off the launching pad. However, it would work well if you can get a positive attitude, breathe, and take your time.

My Writing Background

Perhaps it’s a good time to let you in on my personal writing background. I got serious about writing when I was 14-years-old. Since I didn’t have the skill to play sports, I sought to do the next best thing. I wanted to be a sportswriter.

So, I contacted the local newspaper because our high school wasn’t getting the coverage it deserved. The Sports Editor said why don’t you cover it for us? This came before I wrote for the school newspaper. In fact, I didn’t have that much writing experience.

Despite the fact I was fired from my first gig, I was determined to carry on with this career. Nearly 40 years later, I look back on a career where I covered high school sports as well as the college and pros. In addition, I also wrote editorials.

Let me tell you something. When you’re covering sports, you can ill afford to have writer’s block. For instance, typical high school football games end around 9:45 p.m. Your deadline is 10:30. You have to have your interviews of coaches and players, and full statistics (done by you) that you need to have before the deadline.

As you can see, I didn’t even have the story going beside maybe a few paragraphs I threw in at halftime. Now I get a case of writer’s block. Talk about being under the weight of deadlines.

I discovered a way to get through writer’s block. The solution: write.

Here is My Solution

Yep, just write. You don’t need to write about the subject you’re writing about. Just write. Talk about the weather, the food you ate during the day, your favorite TV program. Whatever. Just write random sentences until you start getting the momentum you need to start that elusive piece.

The point is you need to jump-start your story. Much like a car battery going dead. You need to get this writing piece going. As I mentioned before, momentum is the key. Once you start the original piece and you just write about anything, you’ll capture the momentum needed to begin the article or novel or whatever you’re writing on.

Sitting in front of an empty computer screen only adds to your frustration. Sure you can get up and take some walks (which you should do anyway, writer’s block or not), make a sandwich, watch TV, but you’re actually losing your momentum. You need to sit down and just write. 

Maybe get silly about the subject you’re writing about and that may work. Face it, none of this is going to print anyway, so why not write a little humor to break the frustration?

A Warning You Should Heed

One thing I need to stress here is do not write anything that has already been published. Plagiarism is the worst thing you can do as a writer. Please do not go down this route. It’s very tempting, but you’re taking the easy way out and you will definitely regret it in the end. 

My advice is to practice this if you think you’re going to get stuck. Once you get the fingers and brain going, you’ll be on your way to writing bliss.