How To Get Over Writer's Block
We've all been there. You have an essay to finish (or start) but almost no time to write it. You wish the ideas would just flow, but you feel stuck. Writer's block has taken over. This dilemma is common for everyone––students and professionals alike––but is also easily fixable. Because the best part of writer's block is that it's all mental, and once you overcome those hurdles, your writing will become faster, cleaner, and more cohesive. Here's how ⬇️
Lower your starting expectations
Think about any time you've written an essay, speech, or document. The first version that's on the paper isn't what you turn in, right? It goes through edits, revisions, and changes before you hit submit, because that's how the writing process works. Every. Single. Time. So, there's no need to try to create the perfect paper from the start. Accept that your first draft might not be the best, and frankly, it might be horrible. But that's okay! Once you tell yourself that you don't need to instantly have an exceptional essay, your writing becomes easier and more natural.
Don't follow "the process"
In elementary school (and maybe even afterwords), you learn that writing follows a process: research, outline, drafting, editing, revising, final essay. But go back to the essay you thought of from the last section––have you ever waited until you were fully done with an essay to make edits to it? It's more likely that you've written a few sentences or a paragraph and then gone back and read over it. Maybe you changed a few words. Maybe you deleted the entire thing because you thought it was bad. You weren't following "the process" then, so why do it now?
Change the order around; go back and forth. In fact, you could even start your draft with your conclusion and work backwards. Getting the ideas flowing with how you intend to end your essay is a much better use of your time than staring at a screen or paper and trying to figure out how to start. It's okay to jump around, mix up your actions, or do something obscure.
Change your setup
Not abiding by rules set in stone isn't only reserved for physically writing. All of the elements of your experience can be adjusted, too:
Struggling to get ideas out of your head? Turn on text-to-speech and just talk, even if it doesn't make sense. You can go back and edit later.
Taking yourself too seriously? Get rid of Times New Roman and replace it with Comic Sans or a bright color. Adding whimsy to your process will make your writing more natural and less 'cookie-cutter.'
Feeling like writing is simply too ambitious? Close your device or put your paper away. Take out a few sticky notes and just start jotting. It doesn't have to be coherent, just try to get a few ideas out of your brain.
Break it up
Just like every other task or assignment, trying to tackle it all at once is ambitious and exhausting. Instead, try splitting it up. Instead of "I need to write this paper in the next two hours," try "I need to write 5 sentences in the next 15-20 minutes." Writing isn't exact, so your timing (or process as a whole) shouldn't be, either. And once you've done this, there's a good chance that you'll find the momentum to keep going. Think about it this way: a plane doesn't start in the sky. It has to speed up, take off, and then fly. Let your writing do the same.
In the grand scheme of things, writing is never so serious that you need to ruin your life over it. If you find yourself getting stuck, take a few steps back, get what you already have out of your brain, and loosen the rigidity of your process. You want your writing to be good, but sometimes (most times), it takes a few tries to get there. And if you liked this writing, then check out our other posts below or in the Blog page.
