Guest Author, Sally Yolanda... Talks about writers' block

Welcome to guest author, Sally Yolanda as she takes over Write What Inspires You and chats about writers' block

How to Overcome Your Writer's Block with this New Perspective

by Sally Yolanda

What is the biggest fear among writers? It is not the fear of losing their job or the fear of losing money? It is the fear that they will run short of creative ideas and thus, experience a block. The dreaded writers’ block. The name of this terror can bring jitters to even the most experienced writer out there.

Reasons behind writers’ block

It can really sap the motivation of even the best writers out there. Why does it happen? There are a couple of views on this. It can happen owing to exhaustion; can happen because you are trying to force yourself to come up with neat ideas and that process is creating resistance to you, within you; it may happen owing to an intense, internal fear that the work you produce may never be good enough for people, that it may invite mockery and laughter and as a self defence, you subconsciously throttle your thinking process.

And within the factors, which give rise to this “block”, lie the answers to the question of how to solve the problem of writer’s block. The most important thing in this would be to change our perspective towards this issue as well as to methods we use to solve it.

Change our perspective, unblock the block!

One of the most important things we should realise is that we should stop fearing failure. Fear of failure is what makes a person even hesitate from starting on something new. So one great way of approaching writing challenges is to take them as stimuli to create something new. If something does not work out, use it as a starting point to explore other ideas, to stretch across different fields to find something that help the endeavour to go forward. Success need not come in one shot. Sometimes you have to try many different approaches that may take variable time to show their results. When a writer stops fearing failure, he may tend to develop patience. The ability to wait. For that creative spark, that idea. This would also help him or her to be open and receptive to all ideas that float across.

Stop taking things personally. Let Go.

Another way is to stop taking it as a personal threat to your ability to write. Maybe it is the way of telling the body to take it lightly or the mind to recharge itself. Use the opportunity to do other things, which had got pushed back to the back of your mind; go for outings, vacations. Take your problem off your mind. You can also engage in discussions with yourself or with a silent listener such as your pillow. Such kind of “pillow talk” may help you to reach within yourself to find out things or thoughts or attitudes that may be actually being a hindrance to your creative process.

Do creative relaxation.

Instead of forcing your creative mind to work under circumstances that it may deem unpleasant or unsatisfying, let it relax. Let ideas float in. Try out even the weirdest sounding ones. Sometimes, all it takes is a change in approach to the situation and bring it on from there.

Get rid of distractions!

It is all possible that your creative soul is not getting that space and silence it needs to chew on ideas in peace. Maybe all the noise from the electronic media, the Internet and the mobiles are distracting and leaving the mind in a state of overstimulation. In such a case, it would be useful to go on sabbaticals where you can stay away from all distractions in the world and work on your writing.

Reduce self-criticism

Another way of improving your writing is by decreasing unnecessary criticism of one’s own work. Changes can be made at any point of time. A great way of motivating the brain to work is through exercise and sleep. Getting lots of sleep, doing couple of runs in a day is sure to let those nerve cell gets recharged. Getting an outline of what you want to see in your writing and embarking upon it is a great idea to get the ideas coming and noting it down.

Experiment with new!

Changes in writing between routine, boring but necessary writing tasks may help you in recharging and refreshing your mind at regular intervals. This will reduce the kind of thoughts that lead to the occurrence of writers’ block.

Develop the habit of writing from consciousness first. Allow the thoughts, whatever they are, to pour out, to run out in whatever form they take. Do not try to force them in a particular direction. Edit them later. So, there are multiple ways of looking at the phenomenon of “Writers’ Block”. Changing your attitude towards it is a great way of overcoming it! So, go for it.

Bio: Sally Yolanda is an academic counselor at Assignmentwritinghelp.com. She has been teaching online courses for bachelor, masters, and doctoral level education programs. Her interests include online teaching and learning with focus on active students engagement.

Visit Sally at: 

Website- www.assignmenthelpuk.com

Twitter - https://twitter.com/yolanda_sally

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/sallyolanda

Thanks for taking over the guest author spot. It's been a pleasure hosting you! 

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Best wishes,
Donna M. McDine
Multi Award-winning Children's Author


Ignite curiosity in your child through reading!

Connect with Donna McDine on Google+

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