We are content creators.
We are expected to dig deep into topics, provide solutions to problems we have no idea how to solve in a simple and engaging way. Our worth is scaled by the quality of our ideas and how well we execute them. Unfortunately, there are times when our creativity takes a break. Staring at a blank canvas for hours is not what you want, when deadlines are approaching. The bad news are – you suffer from the writer’s blues. The good news? With these tips, you’re definitely going to beat the writer’s block.
The writer’s block is as old as writing itself.
To make it worse, it comes in different forms. You may either be stuck on generating content ideas or have too many, not too smart ideas, like this one:
What exactly is the writer’s block?
The term “writer’s block” first appeared in the late 1940s. It was actually a psychiatric condition, according to Austrian-American analyst Edmund Bergler, who studied writers suffering from productive blockages. In his paper called “Does writer’s block exist?” he argued that people write because they have inner problems and they try to solve them by putting words on a piece of paper. As a result, the only way to overcome this problem is through therapy.
The writer’s block you have, however, is a bit different.
It’s not a disease, which was designed to prevent you from meeting your monthly sales targets. It’s not a virus that eats your creativity. It happens when you:
Self-doubt yourself
You may be feeling disheartened about your article, because the engagement rate was disappointing, or received some hateful comments. Mixed with the high expectations of your work, which is nothing wrong by the way, it’s a formula for a creative blockage. If you start your article or presentation with thoughts that your end result is going to be disappointing, then chances are – you won’t actually finish a masterpiece.
Pressure
While pressure can stimulate your focus, experiencing it on a daily basis is destructive for your creativity. Great ideas don’t come right after you say cast a magic spell. You cannot schedule creativity.
Like Teresa Amabile from Harvard Business concludes in one of her studies:
“while our participants were giving evidence of less creative thinking on time-pressured days, they reported feeling more creative on those days.” You think you’re cranking out your best work, but you’re probably not. Or as Boyatzis told me, “You show me somebody who says, ‘I’m an adrenaline junkie, I perform my best under stress,’ and I’ll show you an idiot.”
Time to crush the writer’s block
The writer’s block is something that you can beat with the right tips and the right attitude. Here are some tricks, which are proven to work:
Write
And by write, I mean freewrite. As counterintuitive as it may sound, take 10 minutes every day to put whatever’s on your mind into words. Any topic is fine. Even 100 words are okay, as long as you start writing. Put down a short article every morning. This exercise will help you get your mind into the writing process, without bringing any unnecessary pressure like deadlines.
Here’s a friendly advice: make sure to capture all your ideas and short posts in a place, where you can return to later if you happen to forget them. If you cannot recall a great idea from a freewriting spree, you can always check your phone and have all your creations neatly organized in pCloud. They won’t even take space from your device.
Reread your most successful publications
Remember the first time you were on a creative crawl. What made you write every word with so much passion? Take some time to reread some of your best performing content, whether that’s the article that converted the most or that school project you aced. What materials did you use to finish it, how was it structured? After you have answered these questions, take a note of all the things you did differently and try writing again.
Change your environment
As I mentioned in the beginning, one of the reasons we get the writer’s block is due to pressure and sometimes, it can stem from your environment. Find a small hipster café, go to the park, take a short trip and bring only your laptop, without an active Internet connection. Become alone with your thoughts and mind-map your ideas. Write down everything that’s on your mind and review it when you return back.
pCloud Drive is one good tool, which you can use offline. With the Sync option, you’ll be able to choose folders from your PC and have them available on all devices. The plus side of this method is that, even if you have no Wi-Fi, pCloud Drive will remember your changes and sync them when Internet get back. You’ll easily be able to
You’ll easily be able to sync your thoughts with your office computer or your phone.
Change your writing time
Habits are something powerful. In our efforts to be more efficient from the moment we wake up until we go to bed, we form habits that may actually be destroying your creativity. That’s because creativity is something that doesn’t tolerate a routine. Try changing your writing time, get out of your comfort zone. Believe me, your mind will trigger some ideas you would otherwise never think of.
Make weird challenges:
With every piece of content you write, you start forming your own, distinctive writing style. And sometimes, in our aspirations to be true to our writing style, we introduce limits that aren’t there. Compromise your writing style! Think of a new concept every time you write something. Include a new methaphor, use a certain pun, make rhymes or even change your post length.
Find something on the web that has inspired you, note it down and use it in your next content endeavor. You can easily save text extracts, directly to pCloud with the browser extension pCloud Save.
Honestly, I’m using this tip right now. While I was writing this blog post, I was in a writer’s block as well. My challenge was to justify the writer’s block with psychological evidence. This got me into a research that triggered so many other ideas, that would otherwise stay hidden.
Having the writing blues can be discouraging. You may feel like you won’t ever be able to get over it. If that happens, keep in mind that you’re not alone. The writer’s block happens to everyone, occasionally. With the right attitude and tools, however, you can crush your block for good.