We’ve all experienced it as writers; that hollow feeling you get when you stare at a blank page or an empty Word document.
Struggling to get words down or finding yourself bereft of inspiration is a horrible sensation for a writer, but so-called ‘writer’s block’ will afflict just about anyone who writes at some point.
Let’s take a look at some common causes of writer’s block, and how you might go about breaking through it.
What might cause writer’s block?
The cause: Not enough ideas – This is probably one of the more uncommon types of writer’s block, because most creative writers have a head full of ideas. It is, however, the scariest form. There’s nothing worse for a writer than feeling they have nothing to write about.
The cure: There are a number of things you can do in this situation but, first and foremost, remind yourself that ideas will come eventually and you maybe just need to take a break. Drawing a blank like this could be caused by creative burnout, so don’t beat yourself up if you’re not feeling inspired. Instead, you could try consuming lots of other media and seeing if it sparks anything. Read, naturally, but also watch films and TV shows or listen to podcasts. The more you absorb the culture and ideas around you, the more likely you are to discover something that sparks your own imagination.
The cause: Too many ideas – This is a very common cause of writer’s block. It’s the paralysis of too much choice, the same feeling you get in a shop when confronted by shelf upon shelf of shiny products and can’t decide which you want. Having too many ideas and not knowing which to work on can lead to you to simply not working at all.
The cure: In order to overcome this form of writer’s block, you need to make a firm decision on which idea you are going to work on and, crucially, stick with it. This has to be the idea that interests you the most at this given moment. There’s no point in mentally scrolling through all the ideas you have, because you’ll end up perpetually trapped in this cycle and never get started. Think about how many times you’ve opened Netflix and spent hours flicking around trying to decide what to watch, only to give up and go to bed. If you’ve already decided on a movie before you open the app, you don’t have this problem. It’s the same with writing. Decide on what you will write before you sit down at your desk.
The cause: Your ideas are not well-formed enough – Following on from that last point, you need your idea to be concrete rather than abstract. If your idea isn’t fully-formed, you probably won’t know where to start with it, and if you do make a start, what you produce may not be usable further down the line.
The cure: Before you sit down to write, work out what you need to get out of this scene or chapter. How does it serve the plot? Which characters are involved? How does it fit in with the scenes before and after? Try to really drill down into what you want this scene or chapter to do. You could even try writing a detailed summary of the scene to get you started.
The cause: Fear – All writers are plagued by fear – fear that nobody will want to read your novel, fear of bad reviews, fear of your work not being perfect. I could go on. Fear can be paralysing. Your writer’s block may be down to a conscious or unconscious fear around the quality of your work and how it will be received.
The cure: The best way to deal with fear is to confront it. Be honest when you ask yourself ‘What is it I’m actually afraid of when it comes to writing my manuscript?’ Once you know what you’re afraid of, you can begin to rationalise it. For example, if your deep-seated fear is that your work will get bad reviews, you could rationalise it by telling yourself a bad review is just one review, and other people will give positive feedback. Or promise yourself that you simply won’t read the reviews, full-stop. Once you reframe your fear as something not entirely rational, you might break the hold it has over you.
The cause: Self-criticism and Imposter Syndrome – Most of us are our own worst critics, or suffer from Imposter Syndrome. Thinking of yourself as a fraud or struggling with low self-esteem as a writer can make it really hard to carry on with your work. If you’re plagued by self-doubt, you may lose any motivation to write and end up blocked.
The cure: Remember, if you put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard, you are a writer. You can take comfort in the fact that you are not alone when it comes to Imposter Syndrome or low self-esteem. Even writers topping bestseller lists can struggle with this. One of the best ways to cure it is to reflect on what you have achieved, not on what you think you should have achieved. Make a scrapbook of all the good reviews you’ve ever had, all the stories you have completed, all the competitions you’ve been placed in. Even the smallest of achievements should go in there, so on the days when you’re feeling writer’s block because of low self-esteem, you can flick through it to raise your mood.
The cause: Always waiting to feel ‘ready’ to start – It's very easy to procrastinate by telling yourself you’re not ready to start. Maybe you need to find the perfect notebook, or you’re waiting for the new week to begin, or you just need to do a little more research on some very niche topic for your book. Whatever it is that means you’re ‘just not ready yet’, it’s nonsense.
The cure: This is the most ready you are ever going to be. Nobody starts writing feeling they have all the answers, and there will always be more planning or research you could do. But the word to focus on in that last sentence is ‘could’, rather than ‘should’. If you’re using a lack of research as an excuse to start, then just remember that you can go back and do some more research after your manuscript is written, but if you don’t start writing now, there will be nothing to edit. The only cure is to just dive in and stop putting it off.
Writer’s block is really just your own mind throwing obstacles in the way of you making progress with your work. Once you know why you are feeling creatively stymied, you can work out how to overcome it.
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