Writer’s block is something everyone deals with at least once. It’s not something anyone enjoys, and it’s not always easy to get over. I personally always suffer severely from writer’s block during the first month of the semester. In fact, I’m struggling with it right now. So hopefully, these tips and tricks to get over it will be helpful for not just whoever’s reading, but myself as well.
The concept of writer’s block started in the 1940s when Dr. Edmund Bergler, a famed Austrian psychiatrist, coined the term. Many agree the concept of writer’s block came from the prestigousness of the psychiatry field during World War II. Bergler was also a follower of Sigmund Freud (this is where things get kind of weird) and he argued that writer’s block inherently stems from: “oral masochism and a milk-denying mother,” as explained by the National Library of Medicine. Otherwise known as being verbally bullied and neglected by your own mother. This is definitely a very odd thing to say – I don’t know if it is true in any way, but it’s what he claimed.
Other scientists disagree with this.
As explained in an article from the National Library of Medicine: “Stress leads to panic, and some scientists believe that the reticular activating system in the brain stem will shift higher functions associated with writing from the cortex to the limbic system under duress.”
There are several different arguments on what causes writer’s block but essentially, some scientists agree on the fact that it’s something that happens within a person’s brain – unrelated to mothers.
To figure out how to hopefully cure writer’s block, it would probably be helpful to know and understand the causes.
A lot of the time it doesn’t always seem like there’s a reason for it, but according to the National Library of Medicine, writer’s block can stem from a simple lack of inspiration, physical illness or mental health. This can include stress or pressure from outside sources or from whatever it is a person is writing compounded by a sense of failure. Some reasons I can think of from experience include: being a perfectionist, having no motivation, not understanding the topic or simply not enjoying the topic.
Now that we have the background of writer’s block, here are some possible solutions to overcome (or honestly just cope with) writer’s block.
First, there are all the ones English teachers share at one point or another:
- Brainstorming: either listing talking points or ideas or discussing with others (or a wall)
- Simply writing words down and seeing what comes of it
- Taking a break: working on something else, going outside, reading, grabbing a snack, etc.
- Eliminating distractions: putting on music (preferably instrumental because of the psychological benefits), moving away from noise or a friend who simply doesn’t know when to stop talking (we still love them though).
Then there are other random ones from sites such as Purdue OWL, Writers.com and Penguin Random House that I found that are related to or entirely separate from the previous list:
- Break the writing into chunks: giving yourself a set time or amount of paragraphs/words to write before you step away from it
- Establish a ritual: making a coffee or snack before you sit down, meditating or putting the same playlist on.
- Exercise: go touch grass, take a hike, take a walk or go to the gym
- Change your surroundings: I’ve found this to be very helpful. I get to used to a place that I start to get nothing done but moving somewhere I’ve never been always seems to help.
- Change your rhythm: working at a different time of day than normal could go with the ritual one. For example, waking up earlier and writing a paragraph for 10 minutes into your morning routine.
- Don’t binge-write: sometimes sitting with something for too long gets you stuck (I’m bad at this, don’t be like me).
- Be bored???: I guess this makes sense. Bore yourself out of it.
- Sleep on it: go to bed, sleep hopefully a full eight hours then come back
I hope these help with overcoming or at least coping better with writer’s block and I will for sure, be keeping these in mind while writing my next essay.