What to write about when…
So, this afternoon I had planned to complete the task to write another 2 posts for my blog, as part of the homework set by John for week 2 of Partnership to Success.
Now, writing posts is NOT one of my strong points, and often I just sit there for long time
looking at various related topics, and have a real hard time getting started. This problem has happened to me many times before!
I thought about how many people experience this, particularly when starting out their blogging.
If only I was one of the many people who writing comes naturally to… Who never have to sit there stressing about ‘what to write’. Do these people even exist?
I decided to do a bit of research on the causes of so called ‘writers block’, and some solutions, and write about that.
It seems ‘writers block’ is more common than I had thought, I am certainly not the only one who regularly hits this brick wall.
I found conflicting statements such as “Every Writer experiences the Block” to “There’s no such thing as writers block” and even scientific research carried out on subjects in both 2006 and 2013, both involving people taking part in creative writing inside MRI machines, both showing substantial increases in Frontal Lobe brain activity.
To me there is no doubt that it can be a real problem, writers block is very widespread, and the suggested causes, and likewise the suggested cures, are just as widespread and different.
My conclusion from the research I did is:
There is no one reason, nor one cure. The problem lies differently with each person, and hence each person has to decide for themselves, what action to take to suit those particular circumstances.
Some of the popular reasons that I related to were:
- Too many distractions. Many people need no distractions to think and write
- Too much stress to concentrate. When stressed, you just can’t be creative
- Too much self criticism of your own work. Trying to get it perfect as you write
- Being too tired when you are trying to write, (same as for stress above)
- You just can’t come up with an idea to write about
- You have too many negative thoughts about why people won’t like your article
Some of the cures that I found while researching are:
- Find a place that motivates you, and write there
- Listen to music that you find inspiring, to get you in the right mood
- Get rid of your critical thoughts, just write, then review and fix it up later
- Jump past the bit that you are not flowing with, come back to it later, or cut it out if necessary.
And lastly, some solutions I have found work for me are:
- Write first thing in the morning – often as your day goes on stresses add up, and these can block your writing
- Do some research on your topic – don’t copy what you find, use it for ideas, jot down points to write about (this one works for me, and is exactly what I did to create this article)
- Brainstorming – write down a heap of brief notes related to the article you are trying to write, then re-write them in a sensible sequence, then you can pick the ones you want, and just expand on each topic, as you write the article.
- If you get ‘The Block’ part way through your writing, often it helps to re-read what you’ve done and it can just flow on again from there.
Please let me know in the comment section below, if you have experienced “Writers Block” and if so how did You overcome it? Or if you didn’t overcome it?
Thanks and All the Best,
Peter
Leave A Response