Like a golfer with a case of the yips, writer’s block is the communicator’s enigma. It’s a beguiling—and sometimes downright inexplicable—roadblock to success. When writing is part of or the main source of your livelihood (or, if you are a student, you need to write to get to that point of making a living), not being able to come up with ideas, put pen to paper, or effectively revise your work can be supremely frustrating, even fear-inducing. And like a golfer who only gets paid when he or she makes the cut, not being able to produce quality work could ultimately impact your ability to make the grade, get paid, and find lasting success.
Reasons for Writer’s Block
There are any number of reasons why you might fall into a period of writer’s block. Not writing for some time seems to be a reasonable culprit. Perhaps writing is your hobby, and you have been busy with work projects. When you come back to work on something, you have no idea what you are writing about. Or maybe you are a student on summer break who finds that the first paper of the autumn term suddenly seems an insurmountable challenge.
Of course, day to day distractions can lead to writer’s block. I’ve found that, sooner or later, a messy house, piles of laundry, and an empty refrigerator all end up calling me away from my keyboard and jeopardizing my ability to write consistently. Eliminating these distractions and doing whatever you can to create an environment where you can focus on your writing will absolutely help you find flow both in the short term and the long run.
The Fear Factor
Yet as I have matured as a writer, I have found that the biggest contributing factor to a case of writer’s block isn’t necessarily other tasks or clutter—it is fear itself. As a writer, there are any number of things to be afraid of. Fear of meeting deadlines, fear of finding a publisher, fear of making a living. In my experience, these fears often take pride of place in my mind whenever I am looking to write seriously. Worse yet, they can keep me awake at night whenever I know that another day has gone by without meeting my word count or completing the project I intended to have finished three weeks ago.
It’s easy for these fears to multiply. And eventually, you may begin to wonder if you can even make a viable living as a writer. Yet what I’ve noticed when these patterns develop is what you are not actually doing is writing. You are only thinking about writing, or worse, simply worrying about writing. It is a vicious cycle that cannot and will not produce results.
So, how do you overcome your fears as a writer? Quite frankly, I am not entirely sure. If I knew the answers, I would probably never get writer’s block. Instead, I think the opposite may be true: we don’t overcome our fears as much as we encounter bigger ones. Over time, I think our fears—and the causes of writer’s block—tend to compound and increase in scale. A more experienced writer is therefore less likely to get caught up in challenges like finding your voice and style or having the confidence to build a separate narrative. Instead, he or she is more apt to be worried about the value of such writing, the ability to publish, and perhaps the biggest fear of all—will anyone actually read my work and care?
Depending on how you approach writing, these fears can be stifling—even crippling. And the biggest way to have no one read your work is to not write anything at all.
Facing Your Fears to Overcome Writer’s Block
Ultimately, overcoming writer’s block is an individual battle. I won’t pretend to have any more answers than the next person, but what I can offer is a brief assessment of what you can do when facing your writing fears.
1. Find Your Focus
I think the first step in overcoming writer’s block is to quiet your mind and focus on your work. As a Christian, I’ll often open a work session in prayer. This allows me to clear my head and focus on the work at hand. It’s also helpful to get rid of some of those other distractions I mentioned earlier in the article, so long as you don’t spend all your time trying to build the “perfect” workspace.
2. Start Writing
Putting pen to paper (or hand to keyboard) is the most time-tested way to deal with writer’s block. You can’t think about your fears when you are actively working on something. If you don’t know what to write about, a warm-up essay can help you “prime the pump” and get back into writing flow.
3. Build Up to Bigger Projects
If a project I am working on is the cause of my writer’s block, I will frequently start by working on something else, preferably shorter. This may seem counterintuitive, but the small victory of having completed a short essay, poem, or other standalone work can help me feel prepared to tackle a larger, more time-consuming project.
4. Build for Flow
Once I feel ready to handle a larger project (often after a warm-up exercise and even a shorter essay), I will work on the same project for several days in a row. While this may mean rearranging my schedule, it can allow me to set aside my fears and address the source of my writer’s block. If and when you can get into a cadence and flow with your work, you may feel like everything is getting easier and your writer’s block may feel less significant.
5. Ask Others for Help
Of course, despite my best efforts, there are times I can never get into flow with a project and need to turn to others for encouragement. There is no shame in asking people around you for help, whether that be to critique your work, offer constructive advice, or just listen about your problems. I occasionally vent about my struggles as a writer during a monthly writer’s group meeting. Yet often as not, a trusted friend or advisor can be just as helpful.
Overcoming Fear and Writer’s Block
Ultimately, fear can be one of the most enduring obstacles prohibiting a writer from completing his or her best work. And because the reasons for writer’s block can be unique to each person, it’s difficult to offer a “one-size-fits-all” solution to mitigating these fears and writing constantly and successfully. But I hope that these pointers can be of help to you as a writer. The reality is that everyone gets writer’s block at some time or another, and with the right amount of perseverance (and sometimes, more than a little bit of prayer), you can push through and get back to writing in ways that are joyful and meaningful.