Overcoming word block
Things to try when the words stop flowing...
- Look around. How’s the lighting in the room? Make it brighter, dimmer.
- Dig something in the garden for 40 minutes. Get your fingers filthy. Think about soil, worms, seeds.
- Have a shower.
- Delete the last few paragraphs. Re-write them from memory.
- Start writing a different section/chapter/page.
- Leave these words for at least 12 hours; focus on something else instead. Return to the troublesome words with a fresh brain.
- Go running, swimming. Then have a shower.
- Go out and relax with friends.
- Make your favourite drink or snack but do not consume it while working; go and sit outside for a few minutes. Challenge yourself to identify trees, listen for birdsong, look at ants and study their movements. When your drink is finished, return to your work.
- Keep a ‘rants’ file somewhere on your computer, or get an anonymous “rants blog” somewhere; if something’s eating you up, go vent some bile there.
- If you have a portable computer, or can write on paper, move to a new location. Ideally, walk there.
- Draw a sketch of what you want to write.
- Find somewhere quiet with no distractions. Meditate on the work. Actually think about the task; don’t take notes, don’t use computers or whiteboards or flipcharts or any other tools. Break your task into tiny pieces, mentally. Look for some degree of clarity. Having reached it, remember it, then stop. You’ll only be able to remember one thing at a time.
Labels: writing
