You’ve been there, staring blankly into an empty Word document, the sea of white seemingly an insurmountable foe, mocking you, laughing at you, daring you to write something. Anything. Yet for some reason you can’t, you call it Writer’s block or a case of laziness. Either way, that blank document remains empty. And it continues to snicker, howling with laughter, as if saying: I knew you couldn’t do it.
All writers feel that way at one point or another, and it never goes away. You can be a beginner or an expert writer; at certain points, that blank document will laugh at your face while pointing at you. So how do you get over this? How can you stick it to the snorting, finger-pointing ocean of white in front of you?
1. Use Your Eyes instead of your Mind
When I look at my right, I see an uneaten apple. So I scribble “Apple” on a paper. I write an arrow from that word to an empty space in its upper right and think of the qualities of that particular apple: it is red, sweet, and probably juicy with a little moisture on the outside. I write: “sweet”, “juicy”, “red” and “a little wet” on the pointy side of the arrow I drew earlier.
I do this little process for several arrows more, never digging too much into apples in general but the qualities of this particular apple: my apple.
2. Stop caring about how the words sound for now
Everything can’t be pretty on the first try, so go on ahead and write anything based on the information you had in Step 1. By the way, the purpose of that step is to allow your mind to think in small bits, just like the way you eat a large pizza one bite at a time (sorry I’m not that good in analogies, but you get the point).
For my example, I write:
“Apples, why’d it always have to be apples?” I grumbled as I looked at my lunch. Sheila always prepared them, and for some reason she couldn’t quite grasp the idea that food, no matter how good they taste, gets old when eaten every day.
Could be better, but I have already made my first step.
3a. Go for a walk, or stay away from writing for the time being
Writer’s block always puts up a fight. Even after you have written that first paragraph, it will still be there, waiting for you to stop writing and then bam! You are out of ideas again. At this point some people prefer to stand up, walk outside, take in nature and let it naturally inspire them to write again. This is pretty good advice, except that it doesn’t work for all people. Like me.
So here’s my advice for those people:
3b. Let that Little Momentum take you wherever it can
I find this advice more applicable for me: I go ahead and write whatever it is that enters my mind from that point.
“Apples, why’d it always have to be apples?” I grumbled as I looked at my lunch. Sheila always prepared them, and for some reason she couldn’t quite grasp the idea that food, no matter how good they taste, gets old when eaten every day.
I don’t know why Sheila always prepares this. Maybe I ought to talk to her after I get home later. It’s time for a change, apples just won’t cut it anymore; I’m a man, dammit.
Does it look like I’d always kill for an apple? Does it always seem to her that I’m looking forward to opening my lunch box and seeing an apple in there?
I’m getting a divorce.
Yes, I know it’s silly, but think of it as a brainstorming session: just get the ideas out there. From that point, you can remove the apple entirely out of the story and make it about you and your wife Sheila.
Remember Step 2: Stop caring about how the words don’t mesh or the ideas are cluttered, you’ll take care of it later. Just write everything you can think of until you exhaust yourself.
Long story short, anytime you feel you are out of ideas, think of your “apple”, and Sheila will be born. Then you can laugh at the filled-in Word document in front of you if you like.
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