Sometimes, even the most talented wordsmith can struggle to put pen to paper and suffer from that dreaded condition they call writer’s block. It’s nothing to be ashamed about, of course – some of the greatest writers in history have been known to hit such walls. F. Scott Fitzgerald – author of such classic works of literature as:
- The Great Gatsby
- Tender is the Night
- The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Fitzgerald was a well-known sufferer of this wretched writing affliction. Luckily for F. Scott, in one instance he found that he was able to shake it off with a good afternoon bus ride, followed by a stroll and a haircut. Ironically, he wrote about this very experience in Esquire in 1936.
For some of us, however, it can be a bit more complicated than that and involves a bit more of a struggle – not to mention the harsh reality that some of us are too busy and on too tight a deadline to go for a wander to the barbershop.
For those who write for a living (or for leisure too, for that matter), there are few sights as frustrating or daunting as a page (or word document) that’s blank or just has a title. There are a whole number of reasons we now and then find ourselves unable to write – sometimes it’s because we’re shattered and other times it’s because we don’t feel as well-versed on the topic at hand as we’d like to be. Whatever the case, though, we need to overcome it and quick – we’ve all got deadlines to meet.
There are many supposed methods for tackling writer’s block – each of which work better for some than they do for others, as you’d expect. Below are some ways you might be able to help yourself snap out of it and crack on with your writing again.
Do your introductions and conclusions last
Not being able to come up with a good opening sentence (or paragraph) is a very common and annoying obstacle for many of us. I’m fairly sure I must have wasted hours of my life writing out introductions to various pieces of writing, only to scrap them completely.
This is something that until fairly recently I’ve done throughout my life, but have now realised that some openers just don’t come easily or quickly. Many of us know when an introduction’s right or not as soon as we’ve written it, so writing out unsatisfactory ones and crossing them out for half an hour’s no good whatsoever – it’ll annoy you and obviously it’s not going anywhere (the same goes for the concluding paragraph). Instead, you might want to think about brushing them aside and jumping feet first into the main body of the piece.
I think many of us struggle so much with introductions sometimes simply because we don’t even really know what we want to ‘say’ in a piece when we start writing it. This is normal though, and a lot of the time you’ll find a piece of writing shapes itself as you go along.
Get your main sections or points of discussion down on paper
If you do have a fairly good idea of what you want to say or cover, grab a notepad and a pen and scribble down a small list – basically to tell yourself what you’ll be writing about.
Some writers like to do this sort of thing with everything they write, whilst others never do it. You could do this on your word document, of course, but I personally like to get out my pen and notebook and physically write them out.
Very few of us actually need to write anything by hand these days, which is quite a shame, really. I find that writing things out on paper can be quite cathartic when you’ve been bashing away at a keyboard all day – even if it’s just a few words or an urgent food-shopping list.
Get stuck in and write whatever comes to mind
Especially if you have indeed decided to leave the introductions and conclusions until the very end, just jump straight into the main body and write, write, write. Don’t be afraid to put something down that you think you might dislike when you come to read it back: you can always cross it out or delete it and that’s it – gone. It’s not as though someone’s going to pick up your first drafts and read them aloud and laugh loudly at you and encourage others to do the same – first drafts are a part of writing and always will be. You’re kind of supposed to look back at a first draft and notice how bad it was – it’s only a skeleton, after all.
Don’t be too precious with it
When I first started writing for a living, I took far too much time faffing about, scratching my chin and violently ruffling the hair on the back of my head as I thought long and hard about how to phrase something. I’d have five or six different ways of saying the same thing in my head and would spend ages trying to figure out which one I should go with.
I’ve now come to the conclusion that with my own writing that it doesn’t matter that much, and that the first one that springs to mind is usually the best one for me to go with; if it doesn’t read right I’ll see that straight away when I read it back and can adjust it or remove it altogether if I feel the need to. Getting the thought or the idea down onto the paper or the document is the most important thing – the refinement process comes later.
Don’t be overly self-critical
Very few of us can write something and like it straight away – some of us are never entirely happy with what we write. Reading old pieces of work back a few months or years down the line can be rather excruciating for many a writer, but again, this is completely normal.
Our individual writing styles change all the time, naturally: we are all, as writers, a product of what we read and the styles and habits we thereby pick up. Mimicking the style of a great writer is something that many of us find ourselves doing – including great writers themselves!
The more varied your reading material, the better a writer you are likely to be – all the styles you take in will play a big part in how your own writing style develops and changes.
As a writer (in any capacity) you’re likely to do a lot of reading in your own time as well, continuously, and this is how our styles change over time. I can’t really read anything back that I’ve written once it’s more than a couple of months old or so; the more time that passes, the more dissatisfied I am with it when I reread it, and so I try not to. Many other creative people are the same – filmmakers for example; some can’t stand to watch their own films, even when said movies are widely considered classics.
Woody Allen is famously said to hate his 1977 film Annie Hall, which won four Oscars (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress and Best Screenplay). The funny thing is that there are undoubtedly a great many accomplished filmmakers (and straight-up film geeks alike) out there who’d kill to be able to say that they directed Annie Hall, whilst the guy who did direct it can’t stomach it.
Anyway, getting back to the point, what I’m trying to say is that you shouldn’t worry too much about your writing – what you think is load of gibberish probably isn’t, so just go with it and be confident in what you’re writing. Some of us will always be our own worst critics and there’ll be no changing that.
Writing something is better than writing nothing
If you’re really struggling to write anything at all for the task at hand, go off and write something else for a few minutes. Leave the original piece alone for the time being and come back to it later.
Obviously, deadlines will dictate to a large extent what we can and can’t ‘come back to later,’ but even if it’s just 15 minutes of writing a 200-word review of a film you saw at the weekend or an album you’ve recently bought, just do it.
Hopefully you’ll find that this gets the cogs turning and you’ll shortly thereafter find yourself in writing mode. When you then go back to the piece you’re stuck on, the momentum you’ve gained in your short 200-word exercise will, with any luck, get you hitting the ground running.
We all love a good quote, so here’s a particularly relevant one from American novelist and poet Charles Bukowski, who was another famous writer’s block sufferer:
“writing about writer’s block is better than not writing at all”
He even wrote a poem about it.
If you still just can’t write, try reading something
Abandoning words for a few hours and doing something else can work wonders – case in point being our friend F. Scott up there – however, this isn’t always an option for those of us who write for a living and have strict deadlines to stick to.
There’s no harm, however, in putting your work on hold for 20 minutes or so and reading something for your own enjoyment. It can be:
- a chapter of the book you’re currently reading in your spare time
- an article by a columnist you like
- a write-up of a film you fancy going to see at the pictures
- anything that you’ll enjoy
With any luck this will refresh and kick-start your own writing process – inspiration can come from unexpected places.
Research like there’s no tomorrow
Having a basic knowledge or understanding of the topic you’re writing about is absolutely imperative.
No matter how good you are with words, there’s only so much you’ll be able to write – blagging your way through it by inserting fancy synonyms will only get you so far (and, quite frankly, will probably make your writing read clunkily).
Get onto Google (it’s great, you know!) and just get searching; the more specific your search terms the better – you’d be amazed what useful pages or posts you might find.
Whatever you’re trying to write about, the chances are that someone, somewhere has already written about it. Finding these articles and using them as points of reference is not ‘stealing’ at all – it’s research!
Of course, you should bear in mind that what you’re reading on the internet may not be 100% correct, and therefore the more research you do, the better.
Don’t overthink it and don’t try to be too clever
This is another one I’ve been guilty of in the past – I’ve thought far too much about how to go about writing something or which angle to take, and in the process have wasted a lot of time.
One of my tutors at university told us all once, in a seminar, to take what we think is the best sentence we’ve written in an essay and then get rid of it. She said that if the essay then reads back and doesn’t make sense, the chances are we’ve put too much stock in one sentence and have tried to be a bit too clever. Ever since then I’ve tried my best to avoid writing any sentence that I’ve had to think very long about, and it’s stood me in good stead.
Writer’s block is something we’ll all encounter from time to time, and we all have different ways of shaking it, but staring at a screen or a scribbled-out page of notes probably won’t get you anywhere. Hopefully you’ll find that one or two of the abovementioned points will help you out when you get stuck.