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Writer’s Block….
The dreadful haunting that goes bump in the night for every writer at some point or another.
I have good news and I have bad news.
The bad news first: Writer’s block is basically inevitable.
The good news? I’ve spent a lot of time researching different ways to address writer’s block and ultimately compiled a list of self-assessing questions to ask when the inevitable happens.
Let’s dive into those questions now, shall we?
How long have I been at this?
This is my least favorite question to ask myself when I’m stuck. As much as I don’t want to, though, asking is important. This is because getting a proper break from your writing is crucial to successfully creating something you’re proud of. If you’re sitting down and forcing yourself to write, you know damn well that it’s going to be trash. Don’t do that. Take a few deep breaths, get some water, maybe a snack. Go for a walk and come back later.
“Go for a walk” can refer to so many things, by the way. It isn’t necessarily literal. Going for a walk can mean going from your home office to the upstairs bedroom to retrieve a book and coming back down to read it. It can mean a trip to the grocery store or even going outside to throw a ball for your dog. Going for a walk means whatever it needs to mean for you to get away from your craft for a little while so that you can return with a fresh mindset.
What was the last book I read?
If I am absolutely lost at a dead end of inspiration and can’t muster any sort of creative gumption, I try to read something new. If I’ve been on a horror kick, I’ll pick up a romance novel. If I’m reading romance, I’ll shift to something more southern lit based. You get the picture.
My reasoning for this recommendation comes from personal experience. Typically if I’m at a loss for words or content in general, it’s because I’ve been trying to create the same thing for too long. The same scene or even a different story with the same characters. I’ll adhere to a specific genre or theme, and it keeps me in the muck of it with nowhere to turn. Pick up a new book, turn on a new audiobook, or honestly it doesn’t even hurt to check out a new blog or online media source for the sake of just changing it up a bit.
When was the last time I ate?
This sounds silly to a degree, I’m sure, but stay with me. I’m a firm believer in assessing immediate needs, even when they feel unrelated to the problem at hand. Food is 1 of 3 essentials (I’ll outline the other two in this post as well). Food is required for cognitive function. Actually, let me rephrase that. Food is required for efficient cognitive function. We need it to think clearly.
I want to take this a step or two further. I want you to ask yourself when the last time you ate was, yes. But I also want you to think about what it was you ate and what time of day you ate your first meal. In my experience (I am far from a doctor or a medical expert), but if I wait too long to eat my first meal of the day, it throws my entire creative process through a loop. Really, it throws all of my productive ideation out the window entirely. I’m just…off. All day. My advice to you is to ensure that your breakfast comes early after you wake up, and that it’s substantial. Don’t eat a handful of berries and call it a day. Hit all the food groups, eat what you feel like you need.
How well did I sleep last night?
This is essential #2, holding hands with the time and quality of the food we’ve eaten. Your quality of sleep determines how well you function as a person with a working brain. If you’re running on very little, or even too much sleep, I’m (and again, not a doctor) here to tell you that your mind isn’t going to conjure anything remarkable in terms of your writing because it doesn’t have an adequate amount of rest in the tank to process properly.
So the question to ask yourself is simple, sure. But what do I do if I didn’t get enough sleep the night before? Well, dear reader, it isn’t what you want to hear but I personally feel like stepping away from your craft for the day isn’t the worst idea. Take a day off, take a nap and try again tomorrow.
Check out this blog post on practicing proper sleep hygiene
How much water have I had to drink?
Water. Intake. Matters.
If you have dry lips, cracked cuticles or other indications that you may be thirsty (a parched throat included), then you’re already dehydrated. Add electrolytes to your water if you aren’t one to enjoy it by itself. If I feel like I really need extra hydration, I will swap about a third of my water glass out for Gatorade or another hydration-enhancing beverage. Anything to get a little more sodium/sugar into my body to take in the water more efficiently.
Try to keep track of your water throughout the day and note how it corresponds to your creative process. If you drink a bunch of water and feel lethargic, note as much and maybe cut back a little bit of your intake the next day. Remember, this is a process, it isn’t something to just switch on and switch off.
Where are my distractions, if any, coming from?
I’m the queen of spending too much time selecting the perfect playlist for my productivity. I’ll waste a solid 30 minutes trying to pick out music that I think will boost my creative flow, but in reality, I’m just wasting time for one reason or another.
More often than not, our distractions stem from 1 of 2 places: either your housemates (family, roommates, the dog, the cat, whatever) don’t respect the boundaries for your craft, or you haven’t taken the time to eliminate the digital distractions. Or both. No judgement.
Digital distractions refer to phone notifications, tablet notifications and even the linked notifications that show up on your computer if you’re like me and your computer and phone are integrated to any degree. SO, with that being said. Turn off the potential for distractions. Maybe this means setting a timer and turning your phone on silent until that timer goes off. Maybe it means putting your phone into another room. Whatever the case, try to take note of changes that can be made.
When am I most creative?
We all have a golden hour when it comes to our craft. Finding it, that’s the challenge. In my experience there are a few ways to figure out what time of day you’re most creative.
Keep a log of when you attempt to write, and note how much you’ve accomplished. Word count, time spent on your project, etc. Just a quantitative measurement of what you’ve done. After about a week or two of keeping track, look back on it and see what times you were able to crank the most out.
Another way to find out when you’re most creative is to ask the people around you. How often are you informing your friends and family (when applicable) that you’re going to sit down to write? Are you finishing up your writing session with “I wrote XYZ today” or “I got so much/so little written” ? If not, maybe make this a habit, make it a point to get that input so that you have another track of when you get the most done.
My third and favorite way to uncover my creative golden hour is simply to test out different theories. I take Monday, for example, and write in the morning. Tuesday the afternoon, Wednesday the evening, and then I repeat the cycle until the week is over. When I have enough to assess from a big-picture standpoint, I assess and adjust. Eventually I narrow it down to a specific time of day where I’m uniformly more creative.