Writer's Block Psychology

Most of us writers experienced this kind of thing in one point or another point in our career as a writer. Just staring at in blank documents in our computer or in a blank page of our notebook and while the time is running out, nothing is happening.

I can say that writer's block or creative block is old as the art of writing itself. If you think that it only happens to us writers then you're mistaken. Well it can also happen to all creatives out there, ofcourse in different walks of life such as musicians, artist, poets, entrepreneurs, bloggers and many more can suffer from it.

But if it's your first time to encounter this term you may wonder what precisely is writer's block? Are you just gonna give up easily when you experience this? What should you do to overcome it?

Maybe you're already suffering from it and you're just unaware so in this article we will discuss it , the causes and how you can break from that curse.

First, What is writer's block?

According to Merriam Webster Dictionary "It is a problem of not being able to think of something to write about or not being able to finish writing a poem, story and etchetera".

From that definition provided you can now easily catch what is this all about. The way it manifest and the reasons why it's so hard to begin and unable to find aspirations to finish a piece varies from person to person.

Well writing is indeed a challenging work and more on mental process. It requires more cognitive expenditure than any line of work that exist out there. It may seem easy to others but it's not. Anytime you can run out of ideas and writer's block will hit you so bad.

Here are some of the main factors involve in writer's block.

FEAR

Well fear is completely normal in our life and we experience it through out our journey. It becomes a problem when it hinders you from moving forward, making you stagnant and not able to make new moves. As a writer this will hit us hard if not overcome. In terms of our work,we might fear of putting them out there. We might fear that others will judge and criticize our works. We might fear that our work will be rejected by the publisher or readers.

SELF CRITICISM

Sometimes we are our own critiques and that greatly affects our mood in starting to write. Most of us writers compare our works with other individuals, to more successful individuals or even to our own previous work.

PERFECTIONISM

When it comes in creating something or a piece it's normal for us to put efforts and more time to it, to get everything perfect before we even start to write the first sentence. This is one of the most common blocker for writers and creatives of all walks to start their piece. This cannot be avoided for this will serve as protection mechanism of writers and creatives from onerous reviews coming from their audience. Unfortunately, executing this will take a huge toll in our mind on how we will write our first sentence to make the first paragraph and it can lead to the point of not writing even a single word.

EXTERNAL PRESSURE

In other cases this one is the reason for writer's block. The writer doesn't really want to write but they are pressured to do so by their family or teachers in school just to have an output.

Here are 6 ways you can do to surmount this writer's block.

1) EXERCISE

By this you can combat writer's block and it's one of the best way to beat it. Many studies has already proven that by doing physical exercise it enhances our mind to focus better increasing our productivity each day, it also reduces stress and enriching our memory.

You can do Aerobic exercise such as running and jogging that don't need a lot of equipments. This kind of exercise can be a way to develop new brain cells particularly in hippocampus, part of the brain that is responsible for us to visualize new situations. More studies proven that by doing regular exercise it improves the creativity of our brain which is mainly needed in writing.

So when times writer's block hits you , you can do this to refreshen your mind and that will trigger for your brain to work efficiently.

2) SWITCHING TASKS

This one can be a great way to reset your mind when you are stuck staring at the blank page of document or notebook squeezing your mind to construct the perfect first sentence. You can switch to different task or work such us doing paintings, taking your dog for a walk or cooking new recipes. While doing something like this one, you're giving your mind to open up to various ideas that you can use to come up with a better topic.

3) FREE WRITING

With this one you can escape being imprisoned by writer's block by letting yourself to write your thoughts in a sheet of paper, any thought that you can think of and you'll write it without rules that you need to follow. You just let you imagination roam around freely.

It's easy to say but it's hard to execute but it takes time and practice if you'll try this kind of method in batling writer's block. But this is also an opportunity for you to compose a certain topic with that random thoughts you can write in a free way.

4) CHANGING YOUR WORKPLACE

Sometimes refreshing our mind is the best way to come up with new ideas and our workplace contributes a lot to it. So when writer's block attacks you, try to change your workplace from your usual place to somewhere else just like in a coffee shop or at the park.

By doing this your changing the setting of your mind in order for it to function to it's full capability.

5) WRITING DRAFTS BEFORE GOING TO BED

Before going to bed try to make atleast a short draft of what topic you want to make an article. By doing this you're brainstorming your mind to come up with a wider perspective about that draft you made before you sleep at night.

Also there are instances that our brain proccesses those drafts, digging deeper for you to be able to make a great sentences and paragraph out of it.

6) GIVING YOURSELF MORE TIME

Sometimes when we think of a topic for an article or for an essay or anything, we want to finish it in one go. We try to squeeze every single bit of idea about that certain topic from our mind amd that causes our brain to be drained. It should not be like that and you'll just encouraging writer's block to attack you.

When you can think of a topic for your piece, always take your time composing your thoughts about it. Widening your point of views about that topic. For example, reading more articles about that certain topic to gather more information and have a better understanding about it . By doing that your giving your mind the chance to formulate better perspective about that topic of yours.

CONCLUSION

All of us are experiencing this kind of thing but don't worry about it for as I said above there are ways for you to overcome it and preventing it to happen because when writer's block attacked you and you didn't overcome it, your day that is meant to be productive will go to waste and it also making you more lazier than usual so better watch for it.

That is a huge disadvantage to us as a writers if this one cannot be prevented. So while you have time try conditioning your minds in order for you to combat writer's block.

The final decision is up to you if you'll let writer's block hinders you to do what you love. It's up to you if you'll let it drag you down.