How To Combat Writer’s Block

Image Courtesy: The Scribbling Site

Normally, I wouldn’t do such a thing as give advice on how to blog because let’s be real, you gotta know what you’re giving advice on. However, don’t be alarmed. Even though these come from an amateur, these are tried and tested and ready to go.

Three weeks ago, I was in a weird space. Although I had a couple of ideas listed out, I couldn’t for the life of me write a decent post. I’d write and I’d hit backspace. I’d write a whole para and erase it. I’d sometimes go as far as writing entire posts and then hit delete on it all. I was super exasperated and decided to just give it up altogether.

But can you really give up?

a) You can give up – Sometimes. Pushing through a writers block can be super hard when you think you’ve reached a dead end.

What’s crucial is to know you’ve hit a dead end, regardless of the number of ideas you might have. If it’s time to take a break, it’s time to take a break. Really no point carrying on the exhaustion into another week when you can get it done with right now and start afresh.

I’d definitely suggest keeping a timer on that break if you’re taking one because I’ve gotten ahead of myself one too many times and a breathable timer this time around gave me enough room to rest and plan.

B) Use social media- I see that I find most of my post inspo from Instagram/ Pinterest or often times from books. Even though social media can be a treacherous place to tread in at times, you can also use it for the good.

What’s key is- fill your feeds with things that’ll inspire you rather than pull you down or offer no value to you. I know a lot of us (myself included) are guilty of that and I can assure you that trash has a way of sapping your energy and draining your creative juices so be wary of your social feeds.

C) Your WordPress reader: much like your social feeds, your WordPress reader that displays all posts from sites you follow can be an energy sapping portal too.

In the initial days, I’d try and follow back a ton of people just to show and recieve support. The consequence of mindlessly doing that came back to me and that was a huge contributing factor to my break.

My feed was cluttered with promotions, languages I couldn’t understand, sob stories more often than I wanted to read and some posts that I just couldn’t bring my self to find the point in. All of those deserved audiences that it was targeting and I realised quickly that I wasn’t the target audience and I didn’t need to pretend to be it just to show some love that was forced.

What has helped me cope with my recent writers block was decluttering my reader and sticking to sites that I truly enjoy reading and associating myself with. I’m not saying anyone is boring or exciting but I’m saying that a lot of people that I followed wrote about content I couldn’t fully vibe with and constantly seeing that on my reader dampened my spirit a lot of the time because I kept comparing myself to things that I wasn’t.

So, be mindful of what you allow on your reader because that’s a big mood influencer too. Showing love and support doesn’t have to be just through a follow.

D) Pictures: I derive a lot of my inspiration from my own gallery. There have been a couple of times in the past where the pictures in my gallery have given me ideas for a full post.

So, if you’re experiencing a serious block, start with the first image in your gallery and go through each of them. I’m certain you’ll find one which will either make you want to write on that very picture or make you want to write something related to it.

Along with the advantage of giving you something to write about, it also gives you an apt feature image. You’re welcome.

E) Follows don’t count: I can’t stress this enough but for anyone that’s just starting out, your follow count doesn’t matter at all. Half of those people usually forget about you after they’ve bounced from your site. What matters most is not even the likes, because it’s easy to just click on that tiny star without fully comprehending and then never return again.

Look for interaction. If anything, that should be your goal because through that, even though most are extremely sweet and really appreciate you, some might even appreciate you whilst giving you constructive criticism to better your work. If you can get more people to break out of their shell and voice out their opinion about your work, that is incentive enough to keep coming back and writing because of how much it matters to others too.

Look back at your comments, see how that space feels like where you’re filled with positive reinforcements and that should give you a little boost.

I hope one or all of these can/may have helped you in some way or another. These have honestly given me a push upward and gotten me out of my recent funk and I’m hoping it’ll give you something to look forward to as well.

As always, thanks for reading 🙂

Category: Life     Tags: , , , ,

34 Comments on “How To Combat Writer’s Block”

  2. Recently, I was faced with a block, and I decided to change media. I grabbed a pencil and a notebook and wrote out my thoughts. I noticed that I didn’t respect the protagonist. So I reworked the story so he could be someone I liked.

    Liked by 2 people

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  5. Certainly a very helpful and a thought provoking post. To be honest, I’m at the point where my writer’s block is at it’s worst. I tried pushing myself and it yielded no result but now I’ve made peace with it….so feeling a little better….hopefully will get back to writing very soon!

    Liked by 1 person

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    • Thank you very much 🙂
      Don’t stress out about it as much as you can help it. Try and write a lot of posts whenever you’re super motivated and save it for the days you’re feeling down so that your consistency isn’t hampered 🙂 And also, again, don’t stress too much- it’ll show in your writing and that might not be too cool xD

      Like

      Reply

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