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Writer’s block; whether you write professionally or for leisure, you will eventually get hit with it. It never fails. Sometimes it hits you when you have a blog post due or when you’re working on an editorial for an upcoming catalog. But what do you do when you can’t think of anything?
Here are my 5 tips for dealing with writer’s block:
1. Step away and clear your head. Take a minute – take five minutes in fact, and get away from your desk. Go outside and take a quick walk. Stare off into space. Think about anything other than the task at hand. A few minutes away will do you wonders. If times allows, walk away and write another day. I don’t know how many times I’ve tried writing something to no avail, only to have an ‘a-ha!’ moment days later.
2. Revisit your old work. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel. Look at what you’ve done in the past for inspiration on how you can get your current writing assignment done.
3. Listen to music. Music can help get the creative juices flowing, or at the least, distract you a little bit from the task at hand.
4. Write, even if it’s bad. Get all of those lame ideas out of your head and onto paper (or on your laptop). Free up that brain space to allow the good ideas to come in. Cherry-pick what’s useable and trash the rest. Sometimes you just have to write it out to find your inspiration.
5. Keep notes. If you write a lot like I do, have some way of collecting your notes so you can reference them later. Keep a pen and pad by your bed in case you wake up in the middle of the night with a killer idea, or use an app like Simpleology or Evernote. You never know when that creative idea will strike.
When in doubt, do what works best for you. There’s no 100% guaranteed way to cure writer’s block but with the steps above and this post, hopefully you’ll break through.
Until Next Time,
Tom Zobel