How to Get Over Your Writer's Block

What is writer's block?

Writer's block is when you have a college paper due and you are clueless as to what to write because your mind is blank. It doesn't matter if you just spent all day at the library doing research, for the life of you, you just can not think of anything to say. Writer's block is also when you are writing a novel and you are about half way done, and all of a sudden you can not think of anything to do with your character, you just draw a blank about what to have happen next.

Sound familiar? Most of us, who write for a living, or have to write as part of our job function, especially if we have deadlines, will experience Writer's block from time to time. It is inevitable that at some point in our writing career we will need to complete a writing assignment and when we sit down at the keyboard, we are greeted by a blank screen that just stares back at us, taunting us.

WRITER'S BLOCK!

It is particularly bad as the deadline approaches and you feel the pressure to perform. What is a writer to do? What do you think causes writer's block?

FEAR! You read that right, fear is the gremlin that initiates writer's block. The fear may disquise itself, wrapped in fear of failure, fear of not success, fear of not wanting the novel to end because you don't know what you will do next, or fear of deadlines approaching.

Because fear starts in self-doubt about your own self-worth, combating fear can be difficult. What breeds fear in us? What makes us doubt our abilities?

1. PerfectionismYou feel that you absolutely must produce a masterpiece of writing. If you don't that you are a failure!

2. Editing instead of composing.
You constantly edit your work as you write, to the point that you edit more than you write.

3. Self-consciousness. How can you think, let alone write, when all you can think about is this paralyzing fear of writing and what it is doing to you.

4. Can't get started. It's always the first sentence

that's the hardest to get down. There is a lot of pressure put on us to create a perfect first sentence.

5. Shattered concentration.