How To Overcome Writer's Block
Karen Petrauskas
Helping business owners blend social media with virtual efficiency, empowering brands to stand out online
"I stared at my screen for so long it all started to go into a blur. I knew I had to write something but nothing was flowing."
How do you write when you really don’t know what to write about?
Is there really something out there called writer's block or is that just part of our imagination that allows us to hesitate in our writing?
And it always happens when you know you’ve got a schedule, a deadline and you’ve allotted that time for this purpose, right?
Come on, I’m not the only person am I that feels that way??
So, how can we overcome this?mental block?and enable ourselves to just write what’s on our minds, and what’s needed to keep our readers interested and engaged?
1)?Make sure you use your allotted time…
Don’t say to yourself that you’ll come back later and try then.
Procrastination?(or putting off!) will always come back to bite you and you’ll end up in regret as finding the time again is often hard and your next available time slot has been allotted to something else.
Even if you’re not sure on what to write, you can use the time wisely doing something else. But ensure that it’s business related. I mean, don’t just switch your computer on and then start watching videos on YouTube! (although it can be educational, I know!)
Do some?research?or schedule your?social media?for the week – catch up on other tasks that have been left or you’ve not had time for. To me personally, it’s important that when you’ve got time allocated for ‘work’ that you use it. It might not be what you planned on doing but something is better than nothing.
Often when we sit down and start on one thing,?inspiration comes?to us?and we end up writing about what we were originally going to write about – and even if we start on another writing task, you’ll be surprised at how easy it is to end up writing the piece you were going to write in the first place. Other times the piece you do end up writing is just what you need for another time anyway – so in effect, you're getting ahead of yourself without meaning to!
Get your creative side working and into the mood. Use things around you to give you inspiration or look up a few bits on the internet to just give you the edge of what you need and you can then take it on from there.
Type keywords into Google and see what comes up. Get ideas or the basis of what you want to say, to encourage you to write what's on your heart.
We can come up with so many excuses not to sit down and write, but the more we push ourselves to actually do it, the more productive we become.
2)?Keep a positive attitude.
I mention about being positive in many of my posts but that’s because I totally believe that the power of?positivity?really increases?productivity. Once you’re in a positive mood your mind starts to gather ideas (and I personally start to brainstorm) and think of things you can do and things you need to do etc. My mind goes on overload when I’m thinking positively and I’ll be focused and determined to get the task at hand completed. When you’re negative, it does more harm that good. Your whole aura becomes hazy and you start to not think or see things in a good light.
This can’t be good for your readers or your followers and they will end up getting bored or finding someone else to give them inspiration.
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Your job as a writer is to give energy and lift peoples’ spirit, to give positive advice and be informative. Negativity will show in your writings if this is how you’re feeling at the time… Time to stop, count to 10 (have a cuppa) and start again.
I love this quote – it picks me up when I start to feel myself getting down…
“The best way of removing negativity is to laugh and be joyous.
David Icke ”
3)?Use experiences as a base for writing.
I’m guilty of this… I’m stuck for something to write – I have an idea of what I want to write about, but I don’t know how to put it down in writing.
I search the internet for ideas and then it dawns on me that I have first hand knowledge of the subject at hand as I’ve got my own experience.
The internet is such a minefield and there is information on absolutely anything you could ever dream of, and we often get caught up in that and forget that we ourselves have experience to share and inspirations to give. This produces authenticity and original content - no question about falling into plagiarism - we write from what we've been through.
We so often try to find something bigger and better and for most of the part, our own knowledge is just as good and it gives a personal edge to the subject at hand.
Never try and give advice on something you know nothing about. If you’re trying to engage your readers then they’ll soon know if you’ve copied bits and pieces from elsewhere because if they’re interested in this subject then they’ve more than likely read more than one article on the subject.
Your experience is unique and it’s personal to you. When you share your knowledge and your expertise, this gives a different perspective to your readers and they will be begin to know your angle and the way you write and what makes you tick! Your followers / readers want real information, not second hand muddled up words. Yes, it might look good but has it really come from you?
Give your readers YOUR experience – YOUR knowledge and let them know how you can help them achieve their goals by your own aspirations.
Conclusion: You do have it in you to write.
Yes, we all come up against a brick wall and writer's block hits us, however we can?overcome these barriers?and we can work around them to use our time effectively and efficiently and to write exactly what is on our hearts and minds to share with others.
I hope this has helped some of you that are suffering from writer's block. Just writing this article has definitely made me think to use my time wisely and to always be proactive!
Thanks for reading, as always I would love to hear your comments below – have you suffered from this – do you have any tips or advice you could give others??Drop a comment below or feel free to share.