How to Overcome Writer’s Block

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There are a few experiences in life that all people share and writer’s block is one of them. It doesn’t matter whether you are a Hemingway, King, Koontz or Shakespeare, there has been a time where you found yourself struggling to words on a page.

It can be an exceptionally frustrating experience and one that can have a lasting impact upon your willingness and desire to write. So the obvious question is what is the best way to deal with and overcome the dreaded disease called writer’s block.

In the information age there are literally millions of resources that you can use to help push past this. A simple Google search of how to overcome writer’s block yields more than 218,000 responses. I am going to save you the trouble of sifting through all of those and provide with some practical advice that you can use immediately. When you have more tools to draw upon it becomes far easier to overcome writer’s block.

Writing is a skill and like all skills it can be enhanced through a number of different exercises and daily practice.

• Read, read, read and read some more. Exposing yourself to other writers is a great way to learn new tricks and pick up phrases and expressions that you can adopt for your own writing.
• Build your vocabulary. A larger vocabulary provides more resources to draw upon.
• Write daily. It doesn’t have to be award winning content. Develop the habit of writing daily and you’ll find that writer’s block visits you less frequently.
• Music is a great tool. Use music to help set a mood and tone.
• Quotations- Famous quotes often stimulate thought and can be an excellent tool to use.

That is not an exhaustive list of resources and it is not meant to be. There are lots of ways to deal with this and they are applicable to everyone. Sometimes the best thing you can do is walk away from the note pad, typewriter or computer for a while. A little reduction in stress is always helpful.

So I am curious. When you encounter writer’s block what sorts of tricks do you use to overcome it? Leave me a comment and let me know. I look forward to hearing your suggestions.