Facing writer’s block
We have all experienced looking at a blank document or piece of paper for hours, not knowing where to begin—but how can we overcome that feeling of being stuck?
Struggling with writer’s block is something most have experienced. Whether you were working on a story, an essay or a research paper, it’s the same feeling—you’re staring at a blank page and frustration bubbles up as you have no idea where to begin.
Writer’s block can appear in various forms. Sometimes your mind goes blank, while other times you have multiple ideas, but you think none of them are good enough to get written down.
Staring at a blank page is arguably the most dreadful experience in writing. In creative writing, it’s often caused by the fear that your ideas are not innovative enough. And before you know it, you have been stuck for hours with nothing to show. I have had the experience of spending hours or even days, staring at one sentence, deleting, rewriting and deleting everything again.
Academic writing comes with its own unique set of struggles. There’s research to organize and rubrics to follow, making it a recipe for feeling overwhelmed. The pressure of meeting assignment requirements often puts students in a spot where they get stuck before even beginning their assignment.
Using your surroundings as inspiration
Over time, I learned that the only way out is to push through. Staring at a blank page will never help you make progress, and waiting for inspiration to strike just doesn’t work when you have deadlines after deadlines. But writing whatever comes to your mind, regardless of whether it meets your standard of writing, can be a good way to start. Once ideas are on paper, they are ready for you to shape them into something meaningful.
The best inspiration often comes when you least expect it. It could come during a walk, pop up in a conversation, or even strike you on a bus ride when you’re not trying to think about anything in particular. Being present in your environment can also spark thoughts that later turn into insightful ideas.
The best part about writing is that you can always revise it. Unlike a blank page, which just gives you nothing to work with. If you find yourself stuck, changing your environment can also help get ideas flowing. Going to a cafe or sitting in a park can reset your focus.
A switch in your writing method might also help. Writing by hand instead of typing can help organize thoughts better. As the action of handwriting takes more time, it can help structure the cohesiveness of our ideas, which can show us a different perspective on our own writing.
Being kind to yourself
As a writer, the most important thing is to be kind to yourself. Experiencing writer’s block doesn’t mean failure. Most of the time, it means you care a lot about the work that you are producing. So take the first step, don’t be afraid to write down your random thoughts and give yourself a little encouragement, like telling yourself, “Good job, I wrote something!”
One simple idea or a seemingly random line holds the power to unlock your creativity. So just begin, and the path forward will appear. Before you know it, words will start flowing.
