Writer’s Block Revisited

If you write your own blog posts, articles, or sales letters then you know that sooner or later you’re gonna have to face that mythical monster – writer’s block.

I guess, for bloggers you could call it “blogger’s block” but it’s just one of those things that you never really appreciate until it happens to you. In fact, if you asked me months ago, I would have told you that writer’s block doesn’t exist.

“It’s all in your head.”

Then one frustrating night, it it hit me hard like Mike Tyson’s left hook. I had been working under deadline pressure and my muscles just started to tense up. I got frustrated staring at the same block of text for hours, but I refused to take a break. Eventually I caved and got some sleep…

I said, “some sleep…”

It wasn’t a huge surprise when I woke up at 1:44 A.M in complete agony. Some weird kind of muscle spasm tore something in my back. And the laptop was laughing at me from my desk. So yeah, writer’s block does exist. And if you let it stress you out, it can darn near kill you.

So when one of my readers wrote in with her own stories about writer’s block, I was all ears. She talked about trying to get her voice recorder out while driving. Desperately trying to avoid “road ragers” and suffering from insomnia with her notepad on her nightstand… always a few feet out of reach.

She sighed, “I wish the Creativity Gods would just give me the time of day when I should be ready to take dictation.”

To which I replied:

“I have a recorder that I sometimes use, but like you, that thing is never handy when an idea pops up. After years of struggling for ideas. Now I force them. I grab my brain like a lemon and squeeze all the idea juice onto paper. No more insomnia.”

Which totally works, till you try to squeeze water out of a rock like I did that one painful night. So I thought it was time to revisit the whole topic and give some safer advice. Because I don’t want you to suffer from the half week of muscle spasms that I’ve been through… and I think this advice will save a lot of laptops from being tossed out the window too.

Here it is…

Don’t use your muse like a pinata.

I’m sure you’ve seen those paper dolls you beat with sticks for candy. And that approach works fine for a while, but eventually your muse will get a little peeved at all that abuse you’ve been eking out and she goes on strike. If you persist, then she’ll call her pimp to stick a shiv in your back. And you’ll wake up in screaming agony.

True story.

Besides, there’s a safer way to get ideas. I’ve said it many times before and I stole the idea from a genius but here it is again: Get a timer.

1. Set it for 20-30 minutes.
2. Don’t stare at a blank screen.
3. Write anything, even nonsense.
4. Keep writing till the timer beeps.
5. STOP, STOP, STOP WRITING.

Follow that advice to the word and you’ll never suffer from writer’s block. At least it works for me. But if by chance you ignore that advice completely and you’re in real desperate circumstances with deadlines looming, then go to “Plan B”.

Plan B

Most of the “writer’s block” frustrations that I have are not your typical “can’t write” anything, “stare at a blank page” types of frustration. Nope, after years of abuse, my muse has told me that enough is enough, and that I need to stop working insane hours and give her a break.

I mean, I could sit at a desk all day if I had the time and write straight through breakfast, lunch, and supper without even checking the clock…

There’s only one catch.

The more hours I put in, the less hours my lazy muse helps me out. She sits there on her couch watching reruns of “Three’s Company” and laughs while I rewrite the same paragraph for four hours. Then to spite me, she gives me an awesome idea as soon as I put down my pen or keyboard.

It’s almost like those ghosts in the haunted house in Super Mario Bros. You know, Nintendo? My buddy’s wife is addicted to that game. Anyway, As soon as you turn your back, they start moving, but they freeze whenever you look at them.

Well, that’s pretty much how my muse works too.

So “Plan B” as I like to call it is the hardest thing in the world for me to do, but I think it will kill writer’s block faster than anything else.

Quit working!

At least for five minutes, in severe cases, hours.

It’s not procrastination when you would rather be working. It’s another form of work. But you have to be at your best when you write. You have to transfer that magical emotion that will get people to bond with you and like you.

You can’t do that when you’re wondering how far your laptop would fly as a frisbee and that my friend, is the best advice for curing writer’s block that I have.

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block?

if you’ve had your own experience with writer’s block that you would like to share with the community that would appreciated. Unless of course, you’re suffering from writer’s block right now?

See you soon,

Jason The “Better Networker”
The Jason Better Blog

Jason Better

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32 Comments

Dwayne Huggins on January 20th, 2010

Hey J

I haven’t suffered from writers block yet, but thanks for Plan A and B for when she does turn up.

Dwayne

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