Pebblepup's Writing Den

So, you have writer’s block. that’s a problem many writers need to solve. It is not unusual. in fact, it’s quite common. How do you solve it?

The first step in any kind of problem solving is to identify the problem. Sometimes you resist writing because you don’t like the topic. It’s all well and good to say that, but often you have no choice in what you write. This is 90% of writers block. You don’t want to write what you’re writing. You’ve lost interest or something. That happens a lot. If it’s something you’ve invested a lot of time in. You don’t want to lose that time or lose that investment,which makes it difficult. So, what do you do in that instance? It depends on what you’re writing, but sometimes if you change your point of view. That can help. For example, if you’re writing a piece of fiction. And you’re stuck in a scene. Try writing it from the point of view of another character in the scene. Sometimes that’s all you need to do. Other times you might have to do a little bit more. If you’re not writing fiction. You need to do other things to help figure out why you’re not doing well with writing it. Look over what you’ve written. Try to put it in other words, rephrase it. Sometimes that’s all you need to do. Rephrase it. But if you’ve lost enthusiasm for it, or you never had any enthusiasm for it to start with? That’s a different problem.

If you’re writing an essay or something for a class at school. Take the opposite position and see if that helps. A lot of times you’re writing something you don’t believe. Another thing you can do is make a game of it. That only helps if you’re doing something that’s like a persuasive essay, though. If you must write an essay on something you have no interest in, try researching it more. See what other people have written on the subject. That’s not to say you should be plagiarizing. But getting an idea of what other people think can be helpful.

If you are trying to write a proposal to get someone to do something, think of what words would sway you to do it. Write those down. You might find that helps you get through it. Sometimes it boils down to thinking of the money. That often helps too. If I get this done, I get this amount of money. Reward yourself. It doesn’t even have to be money. Tell yourself that if you get that piece of writing done, you can have a steak dinner. Or ice cream. It doesn’t even have to be food related. Tell yourself, :If I get this done, I can go play pickleball.” Pick an activity you like to do and make that your reward. That works too. The trick here is to motivate yourself. In the case of schoolwork, you can use the grade. That works for some people, not everybody, but it does work for some people. Think of the reward. Give yourself some kind of reward. But if you can, switch whatever it is you’re writing and write something else. That’s all there is to it. Good luck and keep writing.