Although I’ve never read any books or articles on the subject of writer’s block, I’d like to share some tips on how to overcome it, based on my experience as a writer and blogger. I hope they will be of help to others who have endured this condition from time to time.
First, never try to write when you’re tired. Always make sure you are well-rested and that you get plenty of sleep the night before trying to write.
Second, never force yourself to sit down and write about something if you haven’t already picked out a subject. Furthermore, it probably isn’t a good idea to start writing until you have some ideas/phrases jotted down to use as a template to work from. Trying to write without having such a framework in place is like trying to build a house without first having drawn up a design or a set of blueprints.
Third, the ideas and phrases that I referred to above are best captured while you are away from your desk, computer, or typewriter and not thinking about or concentrating on the task of writing. To paraphrase the late John Lennon, writing is what happens when you’re making other plans. For those of you who are not familiar with it, Lennon’s actual quote was, “Life is what happens when you’re making other plans.” However, I’m sure he wouldn’t mind me twisting it a little for the purposes of this article.
At any rate, have pen and pad available at all times of the day so you can write down those ideas and phrases that pop into your head as you are going through your normal daily routine. You’ll be surprised at the amount of good stuff that hits you right out of the blue at the most unexpected times. It would be a shame to not be able to recall it when you are ready to begin writing.
Fourth, when you finally have your notes together, you are ready to create your outline. From there, just write your article. Start putting those phrases together and, as your fingers tickle the keyboard, you will get into a groove and even more ideas will come to you. Such is how an article is born.
Fifth, have some relaxing music playing in the background while writing. It’s amazing how this will facilitate the thought process. You will be able to concentrate better and you might find that you won’t get tired as quickly. Smooth jazz and tunes from the 60’s and 70’s do the trick for me.
Sixth and finally, always have several completed or partially completed articles in the can to fall back on just in case. This is something that will remove the pressure of having to complete an article within a desired or required timeframe. In addition, this methodology gives you more chances to enhance your articles prior to publication than you will get with the write-one-publish-one system.
The way to accumulate a few of them is to take advantage of the times when your writing juices are really flowing by writing as many articles as possible. You’re not always going to be in a mood to write, but when are, go for broke. It’s kind of like the way an ant spends its summers saving up food for the winter.
For example, I post exactly one article to my blog each day. However, that doesn’t mean I write exactly one article a day. In fact, there are many days in which I don’t write a darn thing. I’m just not into it on certain days. But there are other days in which I am on a roll and end up writing as many as eight to ten articles. That’s an exceptional day, of course. On an average day when I‘m in a mood to write, I’ll do about two or three.
Hopefully, by following these tips and those that you have picked up elsewhere, you will never have to worry about writer’s block again. May you always find great pleasure (and perhaps a little profit) in writing!
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