Writer's block is the patron demon of the empty page. You might have your project organized in advance and you know what you are going to write. But, as soon as you sit down to do it, and that evil clear white page appears in front of you, your mind suddenly goes completely blank. I am not talking about Zen meditation stare-at-the-wall-until-enlightenment-hits type of blank.



I am talking about sweat beading on your brow, anguish and suffering crawling around in your head, kind of void. And as we all know the tighter the time, the worse the Writer's Block

It is worth repeating. "The tighter the deadline, the worse the anguish of writer's block gets." Now, can you figure out what the origin of this ghastly fall into the void could be?

The answer is clear: Fear! You are frightened of that blank page. You are frightened you have zero information to put there. You are scared of the terror of Writer's Block itself!

It does not necessarily matter if you have finished a decade of researching and gathering information and all you have to do is connect sentences that you can repeat in your sleep, together into coherent paragraphs. Writer's block may hit any writer at any second. Based in terror, it increases our misgivings about our own self-worth. It makes you feel like a born fool who just had most of his brain extracted by way of his sinuses. Even if you had the courage to send forth words into the greater world, they would surely come out as balderdash!

Let us try to be sensible with this mad demon. Let us make an inventory of what might perhaps be behind this frightful and scary situation

1.Perfectionism. You are most unlikely to produce an work of genius at the first attempt. Though you may feel a complete failure if you do not.

2.Editing instead of creating. There's your monkey-mind sitting to your shoulder, whispering as soon as you type "I am here. Listen to me! No, not that, that's wrong! That's brainless! Put it right! Put it right! Put it right! Put it right!" Forcing you to endlessly correct what you wrote instead of creating more.

3.Self-consciousness. How can you think, not to mind write, when all you are able to manage is to pry the fingers of writer's block off your throat for long enough take in a few shallow breaths? You are not focusing on the project. You are concentrating on those stubby fingers around your neck. The fear of Writer's Block is preventing you from writing. You become more and more aware that you have Writer's Block and the more aware of it you are the worse it gets.

4.You cannot get underway. It is always the first sentence that is the hardest. As authors, we are well aware how hugely meaningful the first sentence is. It must be brilliant! It should be distinctive! It must interest our reader's from the start! There is no way we can get into writing the piece until we get past this impossible first sentence.

5.Shattered concentration. Your cat is sick. You suspect your mate is cheating on you. They are going to turn off your electricity any second. You have a crush on the local parcel delivery person. You have a dinner party planned for your in-laws. you . . . need I say more. How can you possibly concentrate with all this mental clutter?

6.Procrastination. This is it, your favourite hobby. It's your soul mate. It's the reason you've knitted 60 argyle sweaters or made 30 bookcases in your garage workshop. It's the reason you never run out of brie. Face it! It is one of the reasons you have writer's block!

How to overcome writer's block

Okay. I can hear that herd of you running away from this article as fast as you can. Absurd! You huff. Never in a million years, you fume. Writer's block is absolutely, undeniably, scientifically proven to be impossible to overcome. I heard it on the radio.

Please, remain seated.

I am here to tell you that writer's block can be overcome.

Oh, just get over it! Well, I guess it's not that easy. So try to sit down for just a few minutes and listen. All you have to do is listen. You do not actually have to write a single word.

Here are some tried and true methods of overcoming writer's block:

1.Be Prepared. The only thing to fear is fear itself. (I know, that's a clich? but as soon as you start writing, feel free to improve on it.) If you spend some time mulling over your project before you actually sit down to write, you may be able to circumvent the worst of the crippling panic.

2.Forget Perfectionism. No one ever writes a masterpiece in the first draft. don't put any expectations on your writing at all! In fact, tell yourself you're going to write absolute garbage, and then give yourself permission to happily stink up your writing room with it. This will ensure you write something and you can edit and improved on it afterwards.

3.Composing instead of editing. Never concern yourself with the grammar, punctuation and spelling or anything else except getting your ideas on the page. Composing is a magical process. Your conscious mind has a very small part to play in it. Composing is done for the most part in the subconscious mind. It surpasses the conscious mind by galaxies. I would say that it is even incomprehensible to the conscious, editorial, monkey-mind. So prepare an ambush. Sit down at your computer or your desk. Take a deep breath and blow out all your thoughts. Let your finger hover over your keyboard or pick up your pen. Then jump in quickly! Write, scribble, scream, howl, and let everything loose, as long as you do it with a pen or your computer keyboard.

4.Forget the first sentence. It does not matter what you write first. You will be changing it anyway. Remember you gave yourself permission to write rubbish. You can sweat over that all-important one-liner when you have finished your piece. Skip it! Go for the middle or even the end. Start wherever you can. Chances are, when you read it over, the first line will be blinking its little neon lights right at you from the depths of your composition.

5.Concentration. This is a hard one. Life throws us so many curve balls. Try thinking about your writing time as a little vacation from all those annoying worries. Banish them! Create a space, perhaps even a physical one, where nothing exists except the single present moment. If one of those irritating worries gets by you, stomp on it as you would an ugly bug!

6.Stop procrastinating. Write an outline. Keep your research notes within sight. Use someone else is writing to get going. Babble incoherently on paper or on the computer if you have to. But make a start. Tack up anything that could possibly help you to get going: notes, outlines, pictures of your grandmother. Put the cookie you will be allowed to eat when you finish your first draft within sight, but out of reach. Then pick up the same type of writing that you need to write, and read it. Then read it again.

Trust me. The fear will slowly fade away. As soon as it does, grab your keyboard or pen and get writing!