Overcoming Writer’s Block

Eight Ways to Beat the Block and Get Back to Writing.

Photo by Green Chameleon on Unsplash

Writer’s block… That dreaded phrase. Kurt Vonnegut put it best when he said, “Who is more to be pitied, a writer bound and gagged by policemen or one living in perfect freedom who has nothing more to say?” If you are a writer, you’ve likely experienced this condition. I have many times and I’ve found a few things that have helped me beat the block and get back to my writing.

First of all, before you read another word, take a deep breath. If you are currently suffering from writer’s block, remind yourself that you are not broken. This is only temporary and it will pass. We often expect to sit down and write out a piece deserving of a Pulitzer in the first draft and that never happens. Give yourself a little grace and the allowance to write something bad. Remember: great written works are created through many drafts and edits.

Create an outline for what you want to write.

If you can’t get the words that you want to say onto paper or organize them once they are there, sit down and make an outline. Jot down all of the ideas you have and the points that you want to make so you can organize them into cohesive sections and plot out your full piece. We usually learn how to make outlines in secondary school when writing research papers and then we forget about using them, but they have been one of my best tricks to fleshing out an article and completing my writing projects. (If you need a refresher, Scribbr has a great post on making outlines.)

Read some of your favorite or best work.

Occasionally, I will lose my “voice” in a piece that I’m working on and one of the best ways that I’ve found to get my voice back is to read some of my old writing. I have a list of my favorite articles and some of my most popular posts, and when I read them, I can easily hear my voice. I reread them for inspiration, and after going through a few, I find that I am better able to write from the heart.

Listen to podcasts from experts in your field.

Although I’m not new to the podcast world, I recently began listening to them with more frequency and I’ve been…