If you follow me on Twitter, you will have noticed that I have been occasionally tackling the whole concept that new writers often say after working on a short story, a novella or a non-fiction book. If you have ever sat down to write something, it is bound that you have experienced what everyone calls “Writer’s Block”. Whether an author simply starts a new project, or decides to ditch the whole idea… It is something very serious. So let’s uncover the bullshit factor that is within it.

What is it? 

Writer’s Block happens mostly during the 15K mark and is when the author just can’t come up with ideas on how to progress the story; the creative spark simply vanishes.

How to cure it?

The answer is really simple. Just bloody write. There is no shortcuts to overcoming a creative problem. If you have an outline already planned for your book, set a daily target that you will always meet. Whether it’s 1K or 2K, just write! And give yourself the permission to write garbage. Writer’s Block often means that you have very high expectations from your writing which is totally fine and actually a very good thing. But you have to understand that everybody has a good day that follows a bad day.

So if what you are writing is not satisfactory to you, remember that you can always come back and fix something terrible because it will always be there, ready for you when you are. That’s why we have a first draft (that almost never is shared with anyone. Ever.) and a second draft. Often, books and novels get to the 6th draft period before it is ready for Beta Reading.

if all fails, you can always re-write the whole damn thing too.

The bullshit factor

Now, we have to identify when a writer is truly going through the phase where his creativity isn’t matching his expectations, and when children just spout some bullshit just to sound “cool”. I actually had an encounter that went like this:

“I’m actually a writer, and been working on a project for some time now”
“Oh? So how far are you?”
“I reached the 6K mark…”
“Oh…”
“Yeah, I have Writer’s Block”

See? Now that is just someone pretending to be a writer just because it sounds cool when he says that he has Writer’s Block. It’s really frustrating when you deal with them and it is just better to remember “don’t feed the troll”.

Have YOU had Writer’s Block?

Actually, I had days where I finished an entire chapter in a weekend, and those days where I simply can’t bring myself to write another line! I still go through it every day. But I make it a goal of mine to write every day. Chances are, the spark will kick in and I’ll go back and fix it, making it appealing and just sound awesome.

So, while I do have those bad days, I simply don’t give up. And I urge you to do the same! Writing is an art in itself, and if you don’t practice it daily, it’ll just get harder and harder for the spark to ignite the flames of creativity that dwell within you.

Until next time,
Regards