Five Ways to Break Writers Block

Writers block is a problem that affects every blog writer from time to time.  You have used up every post you thought of writing when you created the blog and you are now at a loss. All of a sudden your mind seems mysteriously empty of ideas and what used to seem natural, now feels like an endless struggle.

If you have found yourself experiencing this lately, here are five suggestions of ways to break out of writers block and get moving in the right direction again.

Scheduling – If you make writing part of a routine, your body will get on board and your mind will soon follow. Remember, writing is as much rote work as art; part of the getting the job done is just sitting down at the same time every day and pounding out words on your keyboard.

Avoid freaking out. Panic is a vicious circle, because the more you panic, the more likely you are to continue panicking.  Calm down, take a breath and try to sneak up on your writing when you are not letting the fear of having nothing to say cloud your thoughts.

Take a break – Sure, scheduling is important as mentioned above, but rest is too.  Sometimes you need to be doing something completely different, or as simple as watching TV or taking a walk, while your mind functions in the background.  Your mind does some of its best work when you are not actively bothering it. Sometimes, you just need to get away and relax your mind to get the juices flowing again.

Deadlines – Have clear goals and pick days, even if they are arbitrary, when you intend to get them done by. It is important that you make the deadlines reasonable. Don’t get overambitious and make deadlines that would require you to double your output right away, because then you will just fail to meet your expectations and panic.  Reasonable deadlines, though, are a good way to help keep you on track, and help pace yourself.

Figure out if there are reasons behind the writers block. Sure, it is possible you just need a break, but it’s worth thinking about whether there has been anything else in your life going on that’s played a role in distracting you.  You may need to at least start dealing with those issues before you can get back to your regular writing schedule.

Multiple projects – Sometimes, when you get too fixated on a specific topic, you need to reach outside and simply write about something else.  Juggling multiple projects, or even topics and subject areas, is a good way to avoid writers block.  While you are totally stuck, having nothing to say about what you originally wanted to, you may be able to pour out words about something else and that can get your brain moving back to the original topic.

Writing exercises – It sounds silly, but old writing exercises from high school and college can simply be a way to get the mind moving again and is your best friend when it comes to having words spill out on the pages of your posts.  The key is really to get those words flowing on to the page anyway you can, and if they are about something unrelated, it might help to loosen up your imagination.

Writing is not an easy business and the more you write, the more you have to think of new topics to write about.  If you get stuck, try out one or two of these tips, and hopefully you will be back on track in no time.

You can leave your comments below with your own tips and tricks for battling writers block.