We have all heard of “Writers Block”. It is frustrating, depressing, and discouraging. It is generally defined as a temporary period in which a writer cannot write. For most people, one of the main symptoms is a blank mind. You want to write, your schedule has been cleared to write, you sit down with the intention of writing, then … your mind goes blank. Without words, without thoughts, without prompts, they enter his head.
As tragic as it may sound, some of us have a different hurdle when it comes to writing. I refer to this ailment as “Writers Chunk”. When you suffer from a lot of writers, ideas are not the problem, doing something about them is. The easiest way to detect if you have a fragment versus a block is if you still have ideas. You can visualize what your character is wearing, you can hear what he is thinking. You may even be thinking of two or three chapters later. So if you have all these wonderful ideas, why aren’t you doing something about it?
Procrastination has killed more dreams than all wars, diseases, and disabilities combined. It starts out pretty simple. What is that part of a wagon called? It’s Google time, oops, not a kid’s wagon … I want a western wagon. Well, the covered wagon makes more sense. History of the covered wagon? No, I want parts of a wagon. Two and a half hours later you have dozens of photos, videos, and even a DIY plan on how to build your own covered wagon, but you haven’t written a word.
That’s just one example, of course, but you can also put off writing until after you go to lunch, go to the gym, or change clothes. If you’re not writing the way you want, it could be as simple as keeping everything else a priority. The solution is not to buy another writing book or take another writing course or find motivational speakers on YouTube. The answer is to write. Now before you get mad and say, “duh, if I could do that, I wouldn’t have a problem,” let me clarify that statement.
The answer to writers ‘block and writers’ block is to form the habit of writing. This can be done in four easy steps.
The first step: set a time. When all my children were still at home, I realized that if I wanted to do something for myself, the best time was before they woke up. What works for me may not work for you, but to create this new habit you must set a time with the fewest excuses so that you can do anything else.
The second step: establish a word count. This may seem like you are limiting yourself, but this is a starting point. When I first tried NaNoWriMo camp, I set a daily goal of 1,000 words per day. I got it right for a couple of days, then I only spoke 500 words a day, then I skipped a couple of days. Finally, I wrote 250 words and thought “what is the point, I will never catch up”.
If procrastination is the number one killer of writers’ inspiration, the second biggest evil to avoid is depression and discouragement.
It took me a while to figure this out, but even at just 250 words per day, it’s still one page per day or 365 pages per year. My last book, once published, was only 285 pages long. Which means that I can still edit almost a third of my work later. The point is, don’t set your goals on what Stephen King can do, make your words count. (No pun intended). Once you get in the habit, you can always increase your goal later.
The third step: learn to write. The other bad habit that I myself and many others share is the tendency to edit as I write. To create this habit, DO NOT edit! If I type 250 words and edit as I type, I might only end up with 140 extra words. I am making the goal twice as difficult as it needs to be and I am setting myself up for failure. Related to that, when you write 250 words, treat yourself. To avoid diabetes, I suggest it be something other than food. Even if you only meet part of your word count, something is better than nothing. Give yourself credit for everything you accomplish. Save the “edit” for a different habit.
The fourth step: repeat with praise. Now you’re going to write 250 easy words a day (no stress), at 7:00 am (or whatever works for you) every day, and … give yourself credit. Ideally, you want to start for 30 days, but if you can only do it on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, that’s still an advantage. The key here is to recognize what you accomplish, not to focus on what you don’t accomplish. Let habits work for you, not against you.
Napoleon Hill once said, “All that the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.” Everyone has good and bad habits. To be a better writer, you must believe that you can write every day. As a concert pianist, once you get in the habit, you don’t have to think about what note to play next, just do it. If you could just sit down and write every day, whenever you wanted, imagine the possibilities.
