There is nothing on this Earth worse for a student or writer than suffering from writer's block. It is an infuriating infliction that can last from minutes to years. I suffered a writer’s block that lasted two years — or at least I have given myself the perception that I escaped. The winters were long and harsh, and my Google document page was as blank as my brain.
Well, readers, today I am going to list a few ways to attempt to break from this horrid condition and finish that paper or story you have been putting off for the past week.
- Diagnose yourself — The first clear step in treating writer’s block is to establish that you have writer’s block, which often is confused with the equally destructive condition of procrastination. Common symptoms include staring at a blank Google doc for five hours without writing anything, an extreme lack of motivation and a rainbow wheel of death for a brain. If you relate to any of these symptoms, I hate to break it to you, but you have writer’s block
- Identify the cause of the block — Everything comes from something, so you are going to want to figure out what exactly is the cause of the block. It can be anything from self-doubt, burnout or the intense fear of comparison. Or, in many cases, simply the inability to construct a creative subject that both entices the reader and interests the writer. A prime example is an essay I wrote titled “Free Will and Fate Presented In The Odyssey and The Iliad.” Did I have a shred of interest in the subject? Absolutely not. Did my teacher know that? Obviously. And, it took me practically forever to break out of a block and write that paper. I’m still salty about the grade.
Anyway, now that you’ve got the basics down, it’s time to get out of the funk.
3. Buy a cabin in the woods — This is a thing authors do, I think, so you should do it too. And you can’t just rent one. You have to buy a cabin in some secluded area of the woods. But, not too isolated that it’s like being in a slasher horror film. You need to be able to sit at a desk and look longingly out the window while drinking a steaming cup of black coffee with a feather quill pen in one hand and sheets of ivory white paper laid before you. This is a requirement, so don’t slack off.
4. Literally do anything else — I’m not joking with this. Just do something else, anything else. Take a walk until your mask gets that gross moist feeling and you start to think about the last time you exercised. Find a hobby to financially invest in and center your whole personality around until you immediately drop it a week later. And people will keep asking you, “How’s the crochet kit going?” And you’ll have to search up a photo of it completed and bluff how much you have done when you know it’s still incomplete and laying underneath your pile of clean but also sort of dirty clothes pile. That was really specific for no reason. You can’t judge me.
5. And, lastly, suppress all thoughts and live in denial — If you ignore the problem, it will eventually go away. So, throw all your motivation into ignoring your block and force yourself to power through whatever assignment or creative piece is troubling you. Set a schedule, and keep to it. Forget that the concept of a writer’s block exists and write as if your life depends on it. That’s what I did for this article.
Okay, I think I’m done now. What’s my word count?
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