It’s amazing, a privilege, the best job ever, but still it can be a struggle. I am a firm believer that writing is a superpower we can all embrace to achieve our goals. It can even get us our dream life if we really focus. One writing myth is that we all sit on a sunny cliff top or in a candle-lit study with a cat on our lap and tap out a novel a week. A best seller, of course. Social media is full of beautiful images of desks, with cat and coffee to reiterate the myth. Some do work that way, but mostly we don’t. We graft and create page after page of words we will later relegate to the trash bin. Oh, I’ll come on to that later.

Writing is work, just like the office job you escaped from or the study you thought was a thing of the past. You will need to work at it. Some days you won’t want to. That’s fine. Walk away. But if this is your dream job and you want to be a professional, suck it up and do the work. But what about on those days when you sit down, and nothing happens. No ideas. No words. You make coffee, clean the house, walk the cat, get lost down the rabbit hole of social media. You look up, again, how you can dispose of a body or how long it takes to reach Mars. Strictly for research, of course. We’ve all been there. But that book won’t write itself.

Stream of Consciousness

One way to work past that block. Sit down. Find a blank page on Scrivener, Notes, Word whatever your chosen manuscript of choice and write. That’s it. It’s not rocket science. This is a trick I learned when I was a student. Just write. It can be about anything but type words OR handwrite words, but write. Create a stream-of-consciousness piece. Tell a story. It can be literally anything. 

Tell the computer or page how you feel, what the weather looks like, who your main character’s sister is dating. Literally anything. My tutor used to say it can be any old rubbish but just let go, don’t hold back, just go with what your brain delivers to your fingers. By engaging your brain in the creative process but allowing it to lead you, it’ll create something unique. 

It might be an idea to avoid your current work in progress completely for a day or two, but know you will have to go back to it. If it’s the right book. If you are truly stuck, maybe that book is not the one you should write, not right now, at least. There is no shame in putting it away and writing another genre or story. You can come back to it later, or not. This is one reason I’m an independent author. I choose what to publish and when. If you have a deadline or contract to finish, as I mentioned earlier, you will need to suck it up and write. Unless you approach the editor or publisher and discuss options. The sitting down and writing, this stream of consciousness can kick-start you past the block. 

Timed Sprints

Another way to beat that block. Set a timer on your phone or computer and type or write. Many writers now do groups timed sessions via Zoom or on YouTube. It works. Pick up the pen or tablet and write. I can almost guarantee you’ll beat the timer and keep going. 

Still Stuck?

Move. Do yoga. Go for a walk. Grab a dictating device and walk around the block or just around the room. Get some fresh air, move your laptop to another place. Break the routine. You get the idea. 

A Harsh Truth

Writers are the only trades who allow themselves the myth of a block. You may need to take a step back. Revisit the reason you do the job in the first place, but if you want to write as a career, you need to find your own way to write each day. Of course, some days might be boring, others simply difficult or stressful. If you seem to have forgotten how to write, you can always go back to the grind of the 9-5 or get a job cleaning toilets to remind you of the total privilege it is for us to say out loud, I’m a writer. There is no shame in taking on another job of any kind, to supplement your income until you succeed as a writer. It could give you some characters to write about and remove the stress that caused your ‘block’.

Oh, and whilst I’m here, please don’t send your words to the trash bin. Create a folder for deleted scenes and character detail. Your words are valuable and you might use them later. They are brilliant snap-shots to reboot your creativity, give to fans as secret background info on characters or plot or might even become the start of that spin-off series.

This is far from a comprehensive ‘block-breaking’ list, so how do you reboot your writer’s brain?