Beat Writer’s Block, Every Time
- Nov 8, 2023
- 4 min read
Written by: Dr. Rachel Knightley, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
It can be so tempting to wait to be ‘sure’ about an idea. Instead, giving yourself permission to develop your thoughts on the page lets you start – and finish– what you truly want to write.
Before the pen gets anywhere near the paper, the brain is very good at giving it reasons to stop. “I don’t have any ideas.” “X would do this so much better than me.” “How do I know if this is the right idea?” “I’m not a creative person.” They can all sound logical when we’re the person thinking them. But break each down to its components and we find these “reasons” are not composed of facts about ourselves and our lives but of one single feeling: fear. The good news? The problem of writer’s block is never lack of ideas. Its cause is quite the opposite– and one to celebrate, once we learn to harness the power and enjoy the results.
There is no ‘wrong’ answer
The blank page can be a scary place. Its possibilities are limitless, which translates more easily to overwhelm than freedom. The pressure feels as limitless as the possibilities.
When we’re scared, we lean into hypervigilance: editing each sentence we write (or each sentence in our head so it doesn’t even make it to the page). This micromanaging means we lose our sense of curiosity – when curiosity is all we need.
Curiosity is creativity
Each one of us has an enormous – and entirely unique – mix of thoughts, feelings and possibilities. As writers, each of us is working with a unique artist’s palette except where our ‘colours’ are our memory, imagination, observations and questions about our world. When we replace the self-consciousness of trying to be “interesting” with the curiosity of being“ interested”, we allow ourselves to mix these colours freely.
Creativity is confidence
Curiosity lets us focus on the story, instead of our fears about it. What looks like confidence on the outside, feels like focus on the inside. The more interested you are and the better you get at following your interest, the more freely you write (and the better you can edit later). Here are five ways to make sure you start writing, and keep writing:
1. Think on the page (not in your head)
Working with writing prompts – whether that’s words, photos, postcards or lines of dialogue you overhear on the street and jot in your notebook – means you ‘pick a lane’ and start moving forward. It’s easy to think “I don’t have any ideas” but if you’ve got your prompt and ten minutes (see next point), it’s possible to say “What the heck” and let the pen start moving. Even if you don’t have an idea when you start, simply keeping going means your mind will reach out for and connect with other memories, images, thoughts and feelings. It’s these apparently random connections (from your artist’s palette of memory, imagination, observations and questions) that your unique work emerges from. By relinquishing control enough to “think on the page” instead of editing in your head, you will get something you’d never have got otherwise.
2. Give yourself a time limit (‘not enough’ is best)
It’s easy to tell ourselves we don’t have “enough time” to write. To believe we need an empty day, a tidy home, and/or a completely free mind. The truth, however, is that authors are only human and the “perfect” time (either in amount or what’s going on in our lives) rarely– if ever – occurs for any of us... Giving yourself a warm-up lasting a specific, short time and you can give you more ideas to develop in your story than might have come from a whole free day with no deadlines.
3. Vomit that draft (then edit it later)
Just as a theatre company or orchestra does not invite the audience to their first rehearsal, a writer’s first draft is theirs and theirs alone. Write for yourself, privately between you the writer and you the reader/editor, and you’ll take more risks, relinquish control, and give “future you” a wealth of material to edit and develop. It might make you feel squeamish to see imperfect, incomplete thoughts emerging from your pen or on the screen. Still, whether you’re working on a novel, speech, presentation or job application, seeing all that possibility in front of you allows you to improve it meaningfully and efficiently.
4. Say the thing
One of the best pieces of advice I’ve received as a freelance writer was when an editor told me to ‘say the thing’. Rather than let ourselves get caught up in strategy, and care more about how we sounded than what we said, this advice reminds me every day that the most important thing is what I want or need to say. This stops me getting caught up in presentation and losing my sense of what’s style and what’s substance. It lets me write what I truly mean, as specifically as I can. Once I know what that is, then it’s time to “style it out”. Specific beats stylish, every time. After all, we’re here to communicate. That means abandoning the perfect and going for the specific.
5. Show up for your writing
Life, work, art, relationships: in all these things, it’s never about being perfect, it’s about being there. It’s not about getting it ‘right’ first time: you don’t have to be ‘perfect’ with your drafts. It’s getting your body used to using the muscle memory that makes writing a normal part of life that “thinking on the page” is all about. Just like the physical gym, these “writers’ gym” exercises build your strength and resilience when you do a little every week, or every day.
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Dr. Rachel Knightley, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Dr Rachel Knightley is a fiction and non-fiction author, presenter, lecturer and writing and confidence coach. Her background in directing and performing for theatre formed her fascination with the power of the stories we tell ourselves to shape our identity. She writes and presents for magazines, YouTube channels and Blu-ray extras, lectures in creative writing and works with private clients online and in southwest London.
