On Writer’s Block

“It all begins with an idea,” this website builder says again and again. What do you do when you can’t think of an idea? You look inwards, outwards, sideways, diagonally. . . Maybe even upside-down.

Writer’s block is something that every writer struggles with, and if anyone says otherwise, they’re lying to you. If it’s such a common problem, why isn’t there some quick and easy solution? Great question! Unfortunately, it’s because of the fact that each our brains work in beautifully unique ways, making any “universal solution” far from universal.

When I have writer’s block, I tend to return to old ideas and see if I can resuscitate something from the dead. If and when that doesn’t work, I do something that feels incredibly silly: search the internet for “creative writing prompts.” And if that plan doesn’t work, I just write a stream of consciousness until something significant comes out of it. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, but at least I’m putting pen to paper!

Beating writer’s block isn’t about writing something good in spite of the odds, it’s about writing at all. When a writer can’t write, it’s like a soda bottle being shaken up with the cap still on; something’s going to spew out and it might be messy, but hey, at least the pressure is gone.