How To Write Through Writer's Block (Or At Least Understand It Better)

Writer's block is a term that is widely used and widely misunderstood. It is the sense that you are unable to write, not fundamentally, but right now, on your particular project.

We all as writers have times when we aren’t writing, don’t have a good idea, or just don’t want to do it right now. But writer’s block is a deeper sense of that. I can come to feel like a paralysis, a very deep psychological block.

But I am going to reveal something to you now, a kind of secret. Writer’s block is not mysterious. It’s not a real paralysis. It’s usually some kind of anxiety issue, and the real solution is to find out what is blocking you emotionally.

There are ideas everywhere. There are endless stories to be told. What you need is not to believe that writing, or rather the inspiration to write, is a magical, transient thing, but that it lives in a body of technical and craft skills which when mastered, will always support you in your creativity and your creative purpose.

You’ll still have days when you don’t feel like writing. You’ll still have phases when ideas come more easily than others. But you will know you are able to write. You will have the skills you need forever.

There are plenty of tricks to help break you out of a writing funk: a regular writing schedule, writing a little of something every day, even if it's not really what you want to write, free-writing and stream-of-consciousness exercises or just reading other writers. Just changing your writing environment or working on a different part of your novel can do wonders. Accept that your first draft won't be perfect. But more than that, accept that your novel can be written endless different ways. No one way is perfect.

Moreover, once you have a publishing deal, your editor, if they are worth their salt at all, will have plenty of ideas on how to improve your story, your characters, your prose. That is a good thing. Allow yourself to write poorly and revise later. Set deadlines and do your best to keep to them. Don’t admire perfectionism because it’s often a synonym for procrastination.

You can write a novel. I’ll go even further: anyone can write a novel. But some writers have a vision that creates work of genius. For the rest of us, the answer is learning and developing our skills as novelists.

How To Write A Novel Chapter By Chapter available here: https://www.amazon.com/How-Write-Novel-Chapter-Outlining-ebook/dp/B0DJ8TMVWL?ref_=ast_author_mpb

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