How To Overcome Writer’s Blues

: Photo by craigmdennis on Flickr

It’s often referred to as ‘Writer’s Block’ — that syndrome that occurs when you desperately need to write but can’t think of a darned thing to write about.

I prefer to think of it as ‘Writer’s Blues’. It’s what happens when I’m faced with a blank page (or screen) and it feels as if I’m laced into a strait-jacked that’s strangling my creativity.

There are ’sunny day scenarios’ when I get up, hit the keyboard and keep writing till I’m done. But then there are days when nothing seems to go right, when creativity has been simply switched off and negative thoughts such as – ’what’s the point, no-one’s going to read it anyway, do something else with your life’ — start to reinforce the feeling of gloom.

But we can all take heart from the fact that productive writers through the ages have struggled with the same problem. Joseph Conrad once wrote that his total output for the day amounted to adding a full stop to a paragraph in the morning when a particular gent walked by his window, and then removing it when the same man passed by in the afternoon.

But what if the writing blues are a necessary part of the creative process?

On days when the blues seem set in like winter rain there is often a breakthrough. The clouds suddenly give way and there’s a wonderful moment of inspiration that is nothing less than clear sunshine. This is the moment when true creativity happens and the inner demons of despair are sent running for cover. So the lesson here is — don’t give up the struggle too soon. Realise that something is really going on at a deeper level. All you need to do is allow it to happen.

Here’s a few tips to help you wrestle your muse to the ground

In her book Writing Down the Bones
Natalie Goldberg recommends using timed exercises of ten minutes, twenty minutes or even an hour when you write freely, keep you hand moving, and let anything that pops into your head appear on the page. This feels a little like automatic writing with somebody else in control, but the technique does work. With practice you can write through your resistance to the point where real writing begins.

Natalie describes the process of capturing thought like this:

First thoughts have tremendous energy. It is the way the mind first flashes on something. The internal censor usually squelches them, so we live in the realm of second and third thoughts, twice and three times removed from the first fresh flash.

A similar technique is described in The Artist’s Way
by Julia Cameron. She encourages her readers to start by writing ‘morning pages’ every day. These are basically three pages of stream-of-consciousness writing, or simply moving the hand across the page and writing down whatever comes to mind.

Julia has this to say about her technique:

Morning pages will teach you that your mood doesn’t really matter. Some of the best creative work is done on the days when you feel that everything you’re doing is just plain junk. The morning pages will teach you to stop judging and just let yourself write.

So when the writer’s blues drags you down, let yourself go with these techniques and free the writer within.