If it ever happened to you to stare at some blank piece of paper and have no single clue about what your story is all about, it’s a fact: you’re suffering from writer’s block. No need to worry, though! In order to help yourself recover from this so called writer’s temporary madness, you need to consider several aspects. No more patience to compose quality text? Sign in to different adjuvant sites on the Internet and find alternatives to settle back in your habit. Or, why not, enter a writing competition, meet people, socialize and listen to the ideas coming from outside. Most of blocked writers rather sit back in their couch, drink tones of coffee, watch soap-operas or just scribble in a pathetic notebook. Does it look like an aspiring author to you? Hell no!

Following a dream is not an easy task to handle. Don’t just sit around like a veggie and feel sorry for yourself! Do something! Get into action! Act now! Write anything that comes through your mind, fill hundreds of pages with words and don’t expect to sell whatever you’re writing under a mood like this. Just put down the words, read them loud, make conjunctions, come up with logical or illogical affirmations, anything! This will keep your imagination alive and give you space to breath. Otherwise, your creativity is going to atrophy and I bet you don’t want to waste tones of ideas away! Keep in mind that the best trick to exercise your talent is to write without stopping.

Write a lot, write with anger and power, write with contempt and do not let it go unless you get hungry or you need to go to the bathroom. Yes! That’s not a joke at all. This scam actually works! This way, you’re going to fool your brain and steal the inspiration out of it by constantly writing down whatever you’re thinking on spot. Writer’s block stands no chance against this rush of adrenaline, excessive zeal and mad determination.

Relaxation exercises to relieve the pressure out of your mind and body are also a good approach. Experts recommend Yoga practices but this is far from mandatory. Buckets of ice-cream, a glass of wine or some good classical music – these is just temporary “medication” for a blocked writer. As being said before, the best method that will eventually kick this weakness’ ass out of the picture is…constant writing. Write like crazy, do exactly what you’re not supposed to do when suffering from this kind of blockage and invest all of your human efforts to recover your strengths for the next chapters that you’re about to finish…soon!

Hitting the wall. Losing one’s muse. Grinding to a halt. These phrases describe a very discouraging situation also known as writer’s block. Why does it happen and what can we do to correct the problem?

Creative difficulties occur for a number of reasons. Perhaps things were running smoothly and then our story ran out of gas. Maybe we have grown careless with our processes and habits, rendering us unprepared for challenges. Our enthusiasm may wane, draining all motivation. Bottom line: we hit a wall when we lose sight of our goal. Without a clear target, we begin to drift and our story may stall.

How can we prevent the proverbial wall from appearing? How can writers apply the power of defined goals to their situation?

An outline provides a writer with a clear path to follow. Writing without an outline is like driving without a map – we don’t know where we’re going. A basic synopsis, complete with ending, will keep our story flowing forward. With an outline, we always have the option of skipping ahead to the next scene just to keep creativity flowing, thus preventing writer’s block from stopping us cold.

An outline will also keep us from wandering from our original idea. Think of all the time we save when we stop chasing rabbits! A physical outline is far more effective than a mental one, too. Our brilliantly conceived story will hold our interest if we can view concrete ideas and plans. Relying on the wisp of an idea in our minds is too vague and eventually leads to frustration. Write out the basic plot and set it in stone.

It takes more than an outline, though. The real strength of our resolve to stay on target resides between our ears! Our attitude and determination will play a pivotal role in our ability to move past obstacles. How strong is the desire to see our vision develop into a tangible story that others can enjoy? It will not matter how well constructed the outline if the story does not ignite the fire in our soul.

Is it really that simple? An outline and our attitude? Yes, because all it really takes to overcome any challenge or problem is a dream and a desire!

So, make preparations before the wall appears on the horizon and the inspirational muse goes missing. Plan a course of action and get excited about the journey. Remember, we don’t have time for obstacles in our path. We’ve got a story to write!

Writing, especially writing and trying to sell large projects, like novels, is a clear-cut example of an area where self-motivation is essential. While this post is written especially for writers, the techniques I’ll talk about can be applied to practically any kind of project where self-motivation is needed.

Motivating ourselves to write can be hard: blank pages stare at us implacably, or we get 75,000 words into a novel and then realize there’s a basic flaw that will require a huge rewrite, or we’ll get dozens of rejection letters for every acceptance.

Writers generally need enthusiasm for a story to do a really good job of writing it, need to sustain their involvement in a project for months or often years, and need to be able to face rejection after rejection without giving up. Even very good writers typically see many rejections before they sell their work (Stephen King, when he started his career, put a big nail in his wall and spiked each of his rejection letters on there as he went. Fortunately, it turned out well for him in the end, although he collected hundreds of rejection letters before he really got off the ground). Self-motivation is tough in this kind of environment. Here are some tools for maximizing it. These notes can be useful to any writer, but they’re mainly written with fiction in mind.

Pick Your Project Very Carefully

A certain kind of writer tends to write whatever they’re most passionate about, regardless of length, genre, marketability, and so on. Another kind of writer tends to write whatever seems to be the most salable, whatever the market seems to be crying out for. A third kind of writer tends to follow some particular pattern dictated by their writing practices, being propelled neither by passion nor by saleability but by process. All of these approaches have their good points, and each can have real drawbacks under certain circumstances. The approach I would suggest is different from all of these: it’s to put extra effort into brainstorming, then making a careful selection from the possibilities.

What I mean by this is that when it’s time to start a new project, say the last project is finished, or has been scrapped, or needs to sit in a drawer for a while before you can get any perspective on it, or this is your first novel instead of looking for an idea for a new project, you look for a lot of ideas for new projects, using a variety of methods to come up with them. Review ideas you’ve jotted down or the ones that have been in your head. Look at some of your favorite books and see what you like most about them. Sit down and brainstorm at least two or three ideas out of the blue.

But why go to all this trouble when you have an idea you already know you’re burning to write, or that you think will sell well? Because our first ideas are often not our best ones, and a little time spent picking the right goal can save a huge amount of time working on the wrong one. It’s well worth slaving away at this brainstorming phase for a few hours even if at the end of it you opt for the idea you were interested in in the first place, if for no other reason than to understand deeply and clearly exactly why that idea is the best one for you to work on. And many times careful consideration of possibilities will yield a much better idea than anything that would have come up on its own.

Then comes the choosing. Passion counts for a lot: it’s very difficult to make a reader passionate about a book that the writer wasn’t passionate about when it was written. But other factors should probably figure in too, unless you’re only writing for yourself. Marketability? If you really want to sell your work, it would be ill-advised to ignore this unless you’re of the opinion that it’s impossible to tell what will sell. So writing a vampire novel because you love writing about vampires isn’t a bad idea, and writing a vampire novel because they’re in demand (let’s suppose) can work out well, but by far the best reason to write a vampire novel is that you’re passionate about it and someone’s clamoring to buy that kind of thing.

This applies to any decision: we often try to make choices based on one overwhelming factor, like buying something because it’s the cheapest or because we’re enchanted with it. But any of our priorities we put aside when making an important decision will come back to haunt us later. If the cheapest item breaks long before the more expensive version would have, or if the thing we’re enchanted costs so much that we end up short on the rent

But what does choosing well have to do with self-motivation? There are two key things: first, it’s not that helpful to motivate ourselves toward a goal we don’t actually want to reach. While even working toward a wrong goal can be educational, the same can be said of working toward the right goal, and the right goal has the additional benefit of paying off, which is an educational experience in itself.

Second, if we are working toward a wrong goal, sooner or later we will realize it isn’t something we really want to achieve (or we’ll achieve it, and the expected payoff will never materialize), and then we’ll be back to zero, with the sense that work gets us nowhere.

Always Keep In Mind What Excites You

Whatever gets you excited about writing a book is worth thinking about regularly. If you find your writing has turned into drudgery and you’re just trying to slog through until the end, you’ll have a lot of trouble motivating yourself and may not produce particularly great writing either (though there can be exceptions to that last part). If you hit this point, one approach that can propel you forward is to ask yourself “What would really get me excited about this project right now that I’m not already doing?” Kill an important supporting character, cause a disaster, give the protagonist what they’ve been striving for and see them realize that it isn’t their real goal at all, add a new character who churns things up … this is another case where more excitement for the writer tends to mean more excitement for the reader. All of this has to be kept in balance with your vision for the story, but if you can’t think of anything that keeps you excited about the writing and is consistent with your vision, maybe it’s time to rethink the vision.

The exception I know of in which drudgery can yield good writing is when you know your story much better than your reader, and so what feels like old hat to you is new and fresh for the reader.

If You Stop Feeling Motivated, Retrace Your Steps

Here’s a question that can be handy in projects that seem to have lost their drive: where was my motivation when I last saw it? Sometimes feeling like you’ve lost your enthusiasm means that you took a wrong turn somewhere. Maybe your interest in the story was being kept up by a minor character who according to your outline (if you use outlines) needed to leave the story a little while ago, but the story hasn’t interested you as much since. If so, it might be worth rethinking that decision. Maybe a character did something that violates who you were hoping for them to be, or made a choice to serve the plot instead of doing what they would really want to do if left to their own devices. Maybe you’re writing a section of the book that isn’t really needed.

Regardless, always be ready to take advantage of this great advantage of writing, that you can make a complete mess of something, but then go back and do it better and get full credit as though you had written it perfectly the first time. There’s a post on this subject on my writing blog: Avoiding Your Story

Use Support, Encouragement, and Deadlines

One of the best motivators for a project is to have a real deadline, with a real person is waiting to see your results. This can be accomplished through joining an active writer’s group, blogging about your writing and including planned deadlines, getting one or more writing buddies and reading each others’ work, signing up for a writer’s workshop for which you’ll need something to be completed by a given date, working on a project for a contest or market that has a firm deadline, or getting truly interested friends or family members to read your writing as you go. It’s powerfully motivating to realize that someone is waiting breathlessly for the next chapter of your book.

If you use this last approach, by the way, you may want to ask the person to write down any feedback they have, but only to give that feedback to you right away if it’s absolutely crucial. The rest can be collected at the end so you can consider it for the second draft. Getting constant feedback can cause constantly reworking what you have, which, well, let’s just make that subject a section to itself.

Don’t Spend All Your Time Reworking

Yes, often writing can be improved by editing or rewriting, but only to a certain point. After a while, more work on the same project will begin to suck the life out of it. Make your story as good as you can make it at the moment, then send it out without spelling errors or major problems. You can set it aside and revisit it once you have perspective, or rewrite it after a rejection if you have a major new insight about it, but don’t just keep fiddling with it it’s perfect: nothing ever is, to the best of my knowledge.

Writer’s Block Is Just Fear of Writing Something That Isn’t Good Enough

On my writing blog I have a lengthy post about writer’s block, which I’ll summarize here as it applies to motivation: it’s always possible to write something, even if that something turns out to be meandering gibberish. So writer’s block doesn’t prevent a person from writing: it makes them hesitant because they might write something bad. Since everyone writes something bad sometimes, this isn’t as dire a situation as it may feel like at the time. Screwing up is an appropriate thing to worry about with surgery or disarming bombs, but it usually just gets in the way to fret about it with something like writing. Remember, you can always fix it in the next pass, and sometimes bad writing ends up being an exploratory draft (a great term I first heard from Orson Scott Card) that will reveal exactly what you need to do to write the really great draft you’re going to put together next.

Don’t Get Too Attached

It’s hard sometimes to look at something you’ve put a lot of work into and decide to scrap it, whether it’s plans for a new business venture that isn’t going to work out, a relationship that turns out to be between the wrong two people, or a brilliant passage in a novel that doesn’t belong there. When you’re faced with these problems, take a step back and ask yourself what will really give you the best result in the long run, then keep the thing or remove it based on that choice (and if applicable, whatever responsibilities you may have taken on).

This doesn’t quite add up to kill your darlings as writers are often urged to do, or as Samuel Johnson put it “wherever you meet with a passage which you think is particularly fine, strike it out.” That’s overstating it. Some things you do that you love will just not fit in the project you’re working on, and it’s important to focus on making that project as good as it can be instead of on justifying all the great things you did along the way. Doing great things is its own justification, and it tends to be instructive as well, whether or not they work out in the end. Fortunately, contrary to Johnson’s point, sometimes great passages are doing exactly what they’re supposed to and ought to be left in.

There’s more I could say on this subject, but I’ve covered the main recommendations I set out to cover, and future posts will have more. In the meantime, how do these recommendations work for you? And writers, what particular self-motivation issues do you run into in your writing?

Whenever you feel like you creativity holds water and don’t know what you’re after, you are most likely to be labeled as “sufferer” – a writer’s block victim. You need to figure out a way out before getting back to work. How can you possibly do that? Quite simple! Just stand in front of a clean mirror and look at yourself, try to reflect at whatever you did wrong and analyze your thoughts.

There’s no way you’re going to see through your own projected image! If writer’s block occurs, it means you’re the one who carries the blame, whether you like it or not. Something is going on and your major duty is to find out WHY. Why is this happening to you? Why are you stuck in the writing process and why isn’t a “doctor” in the house whom you could eventually turn for answers? As long as you’re asking yourself “why”, you’re on the right track.

There is no single doubt that writer’s block can sometimes seem hard as a rock. You may feel uncomfortable because of this feeling of emptiness. But you’re not alone! There are experts, counselors and mentors whom you can talk to. Don’t be afraid to discuss your own feelings and reach out for the best solutions by paying visits to this specialist who can actually help you!

Don’t deny you’ve got a serious problem – you do! Once you stop writing apparently for no reason, I can assure you that there IS a damn good reason in the background. You don’t need to quit your job or abandon your carrier just because of some lack of inspiration or easily disturbed state of mind. This will get solved as long as you keep up with your passion and stick around your pencils.

As hard as rock as it may sound, writer’s block is not for good! It happens for a reason. You can truly take advantage of this “black and white period” by realizing things you’ve never thought pf and reach a deeper level of consciousness all the way down to your inner senses. Ask yourself thousands of questions, give yourself satisfactory answers and hope for better sunny days, that’s the least you can do. Take your time and discern the softness from the hardness of this rocky-road period. If you’re not getting ahead with novels, start writing poetry! You’ll see that stirring thoughts and brilliant ideas will follow your path and help you catch sight of your own life in a different light. This time-out sequence can be a blessing indeed! You just need to see behind this sorrow happening and join forces with your ego to rise upon your imperfections and do a better job. Break the ice by breaking your old habits! Melt the hardness between lines and soften your heart with a lighter individual approach, so that writer’s block to loosen up the web and finally release the muse!

You must have probably heard about those authors who lost their interest for quality writing and went after alcohol to wash down the crisis they’ve stumbled in. Yes, that is an option indeed but hardly the best way out! Vices are not getting along with crisis and that’s a fact. If you ever feel like you’re starting to lose sight of your own writing skills and native talent and don’t know where to turn for answers, don’t let yourself fooled by drugs and alcohol. Sure you can “mourn” the dead body of some unfinished poem of yours but make sure you don’t get to keen on that. Otherwise you’ll lose track of time and waste all of your energy on filling in the Loser’s Cup with Winner’s Champaign.

First, you owe it to yourself to stay tuned to reality, even if, sometimes, it is nothing but odious. As long as you remain calm and lucid you can hold on to the only hope you got left: that all this mess is going to be swept away and your book will finally get published.

The symptoms of writer’s block are similar to chronic depression. You lose your temper, you become anxious and frustrated about your own work, you don’t trust your instinct anymore…you simply choose to lay back in your bed and think of…nothing! You’re probably scared. That’s why you keep asking yourself what in the world went wrong since your last commitment to writing.  As you can easily see, writer’s block waits for no one.  It just comes along with your darkest thoughts and steals away your focus without leaving a note on the fridge.

There have been many well-known writers who suffered of this kind of “disease”. It can ruin someone’s dream and drop down any aspiration in a blink. Word-artists like Scot Fitzgerald and Elizabeth Gilbert got through this on their own. There is no preparation time! By the time you keep asking “why?”, writer’s block hits the floor and smashes your finest future plans regarding your book. No one says those are easy times to get through! It is more like a thunderstorm coming from all the way down the hill and once it gets into your brains you’ll be feeling tired and hopeless. You’ll say “I cannot possibly make a successful carreer out of this! That’s just not for me! Let someone else handle this job and finish the book. I’m all done here!” Oh, no! That is the worst, despicable speech I’ve ever heard! You’re not allowed to feel bad, disappointed and doomed to failure. This is nothing but a toxic attitude! Writer’s block is not lethal; you better keep that in mind! It’s just a phase that is going to pass. Reconnecting with your soul and getting back in touch with your inner conscience – that’s what matters most if you’re willing to wrap up this sad chapter and start a new one for the real book!

No need to drink, smoke or do drugs. Vices are the worst enemy of an artist, as many ended up miserable and crawled to die somewhere around their living room, right next to their unfinished, abandoned books. So much for their happy-ending, if you ask me!

There have been several rumors spinning around writer’s block. They say it’s more like a temporary “damaged” state of mind specific to long-term writers or, better to say, some kind of sudden blockage that keeps the words stuck in the process. “Sorry! The writer is out of order!” – that is another possible interpretation of this phenomenon, somehow amusing for most of the humorous authors all around the world. Despite all these versions, writer’s block is to be taken as a serious issue. It invades growing carriers, it can turn somebody’s life into a total disaster where writing means the only financial support and also, it strikes when we least expect.

A blocked author is not the luckiest person on the planet, that’s for sure! Having no inspirational thought and running on empty ideas for a potentially successful published book can affect anyone’s life, budget and psychological condition if writing is all they’ve got for a fortune.

Many of us simply do this kind of stuff for a living: writing. Once the tragedy occurs, nothing is going to be the same if not discovered on time and treated, one way or another. There is no definite recipe for getting over writer’s block. But there are few secret strategies that can lead the “victim” of this sad happening to recover from crying over spilled milk. Let’s just suppose that one morning some highly creative author gets stuck in finding the right words for illustrating a brilliant idea within the book he’s been working on for months or even years. He will probably fall down into a massive depression and get himself dragged in a complicated state of mind. No exit, no chance to deliver the complete report on time and no Nobel Prize for Literature in the next decades. Sounds pretty lame, eh?

Well…no need to despair! This is just a temporary difficulty in dealing with the task in hand. With a little help and support from your family and maybe a private counselor, you’ll be able to finish the whole book and send it to your publisher sooner than you think. Just think positive and look around for solutions! Try to reconsider your options and find a different approach or style for whatever you’ve been pulling out from your brains lately. Changes apply to everything and everyone! Don’t be scared to change your literary style and switch off that old, dusty storyline of yours. Writer’s block equals change. And change means a better suit for your personal believes and concerns regarding the big picture of your future book. If you’re afraid of change, it means that you’re scared to go for the best and reach out for success. I bet that doesn’t sound like you, am I right? Embrace any challenge and be open to further brand new ideas flying through your head. Put it all down and mark the history of literature by adding your birth name to the Hall of Fame! Writer’s block can change your life forever and for good! That means you can choose another successful path and write down the best story you’ve ever imagined. This can truly motivate you, refresh your style and lift all of your efforts up to the highest peak! So, I guess writer’s block is not that bad, after all!…

One of the main reasons that generate writer’s block is the well known daily stress. A stressful condition always affects anyone’s performance no matter what. So, you better keep yourself away from tension and other disturbing factors that you may encounter along the way. Herbal teas and a peaceful mind is all you need in order to make it to the top with publishing your own book and turn it into an international success. Don’t hesitate to change the words you don’t like and redo it all again if some friend of yours suggests that.

Often, true friends are well-intentioned. If you asked someone close to read your manuscript and that someone tells you that it could have been way much better than this, you better sleep on it! No need to feel embarrassed or offended. True advice comes from true friends! You may consider that sort of happening as some kind of writer’s block either. You also may feel like you don’t want to go on with this and you rather drop it while it’s still hot. That, as a matter of fact, is usually called writer’s block too.

Although this might happen at one certain time, no brave author should feel discouraged or insecure about stepping into the front line and make it big! Your book needs to be finished as soon and as good as possible and I bet you wouldn’t let some inappropriate state of mind to sabotage the whole work. Just feel free to keep up with your efforts so far and try to stay calm.

If you’re going through some serious issues or you got sick you should definitely see a specialist and solve your problems before getting back to writing. Otherwise, your book is going to suffer major “injuries” because of lack of concentration and poor inspiration. Your thoughts and personal believes should reflect the entire content of your story. Without knowing for sure what you’re about to say in your book, you’re less likely to succeed as a best-seller. Fortunately, writer’s block occurs occasionally. The symptoms are pretty easy to deduce and follow: fatigue, constant irritation, wrapped papers mounting up your desk, coffee getting cold, nerves reaching high and motivation going down. Those are just a couple of certain indicators that could eventually help you discover that actually something is wrong with whatever you’re doing behind the writing desk.

Do not ignore these alarming signals! This could mean a tough challenge even for those experienced writers and sometimes it turns to be a hard step to take. Writing is not an easy job at all! It involves inspiration, spontaneity, rich creativity, big motivation for performance and bigger will to get on top of the others! You have to believe that your golden pen is much better and luckier than the other’s. Self trust is a “must” undeniably! Never give up hope, never help writer’s block install itself cozy back in your brains and let it paralyze your thoughts! Be prepared for moments like these and invest huge efforts for recovering your strength and finish the whole deal! You know why? Because the book carrying your name on the front cover is about to be launched and recognized worldwide and you’re about to become the centre of admiration’s universe for people like you! Don’t miss that chance!

Make it happen, make it good!

Writer’s block is not your mood!

Keep away from foggy views

Skip the channels playing News

You’ve got only these to choose:
Writer’s block or…writer’s muse!

Have you ever wondered how many words are lost because of not being said or written just the way they are?

Why loosing such an incredible and irrefutable chance? Say whatever you need to say, make yourself heard worldwide and write down everything you’ve been keeping bottled up inside by now! Make the best out of it! Who knows? Maybe you’re going to become the author of the year for over sale or because of some innovative personal approach. Dare to dream and don’t ever get scared because of the so-called “writing block” people are gossiping all around. That is not a good enough reason to simply let it go and abandon your native talent. On the contrary, you should grow in development with that native talent of yours and put any prejudice to rest.

You should feel proud with this fabulous gift you inherited from your parents and start writing, no matter what! Writer’s block is not an issue you may consider!

Spread your wings and let the unsaid words flow in endless lines down on the paper. If, somehow, you don’t find whatever you’re writing appealing enough, start it all over again but never give up! Hold on to your hopes, dreams and stumble wishes, write without using period, without breathing, without looking back! Read it out loud, change wherever you’ve got the annoying feeling there’s something to be added, removed or reinterpreted, do what you have to do in order to get it right! Forget about any block!

This only occurs when you’re under stress or carry too much pressure on your shoulders. Avoid nerve-racking situations, stay cool and chill whenever you feel like walking on eggshells. There is no shaky ground under your feet unless you make it look like it is! I know…that’s pretty hard to reflect upon but you’ve got no other choice but this: trust your instincts, believe in yourself and go with the flow until you reach the end of your chapters! Before putting down the final note and start thinking of some impressive title, take a full tour of all of your papers and reconsider, if needed, possible misjudgments, misinterpretations or missing points.

Speak from your own heart and there will be no spare room left for failure. Positive thinking always helps. That’s what professional writers, prestigious poets and word-artists do! Those people don’t know what writer’s block is all about! They just stay away from tension, scandals, bad news and irritating thoughts so they can concentrate to work. After all, readers can easily feel that, at one point, the author got stuck and stumbled over a chapter or two. They really do! If the whole book is fluently written, they’ll notice that there is some natural impulse involved, whether you believe it or not! Your readers are the best critics; they know exactly what you’ve been through while writing each and every line of it. It’s that simple!

So you better take a sip of water, make yourself comfortable in your chair and refrain from taking the pencil off the paper till you’re done and finish the first thought that goes through your mind. Don’t play around the message! Just put it down from the first moment it flashed through your head. You know what they say: the first is the best. Simply think that writer’s block is not an option for you! And there is this lifetime guarantee that such a disaster is not going to happen as long as you stay focused on what you’re doing and trust your senses.

“Why can’t I write anymore?” Sounds pretty familiar, doesn’t it?

Well…this is that certain sort of question that arises in our creative minds once in a while. You all may wonder: “why does this happen when you least expect it?” They say that so-called “blank page” periods most likely occur under stressful conditions and lack of inspiration. But those are not the only concerns when it comes about writing. A professional and highly experienced writer can encounter such block while reaching for the highest pick of his carrier or…why not, attempting to launch brand new published papers on the market. Writer’s block is not necessarily supposed to happen only in time of crisis but under prosperous circumstances too. It strikes anyone, anytime, anywhere without warning!

There are several signals which are to be considered before putting the pencil on paper and dropping the very first lines of a potential successful novel! Every professional writer has to make sure that no distraction or any other jeopardizing factor and harmful environment can ever shatter the silence around. A peaceful state of mind and, of course, a balanced and disciplined life style – those are nothing but essential for a pen-performer, right before committing to writing. No worries, no negative thoughts, no debts, no divorce papers, no screaming and shouting all around the house and…like someone said once…”no flashing toilet”! That’s the number one rule! No dreadful noise around the author’s desk! Don’t even think to start writing before turning off any alarm, shutting the windows and setting silence mode for your cell-phone. However, some of these adjuvant rules are to be obeyed and some are not! It depends on the writer’s particular reaction to all of these external factors. For instance, there are many published authors that cannot possibly concentrate on writing without listening to music at the same time.

Writer’s block can be fooled in so many ways. Certified experts believe that a long walk down the beach or simply going outside for some fresh air, even walking your dog for a couple of hours, can work miracles! Whenever you feel stuck in a limited idea and can’t go on with focusing on some of your chapters, all you need to do is…STOP! Stop working, quit writing and try to do something else for a change, just for a couple of minutes! Make yourself a mid-day snack, take a hot shower, turn your living floor in a dance floor, move, walk, shake your arms and legs all around the house, ride a bike or a bus or just go a drive carrying no destination ahead. You can do all these things everytime you feel trapped in front of the keyboard. Once you’ve taken this moment for granted while enjoying a cup of tea, even just for a while, you can return to your writing with this invigorated mind and recharged batteries. Don’t make a big fuss out of it! Just live the moment as it is, don’t panic and try to recover your lost inspiration. Believe that this is just temporary and be positive about your own creative skills! Don’t ever let yourself fooled by tricky moments like these! On the other hand, there are writers who think they should ask for professional help in order to get over this as quickly as possible. You can also get counseling if you want. Talk to a shrink, ask for accredited advice, follow specific instructions but keep yourself busy all the time! This is crucial! As long as you’ve got something to do around the house, you’ll notice that your writing ideas are coming back, one at a time. You’ll even wake yourself up in the middle of the night for laying spontaneous thoughts down on the paper!

This is absolutely normal! And it’s surely a full-size notice of improvement. It means you’re heading the right track so that one day, the dream of your lifetime finally comes true: associate your name with a best-seller on the top shelves of the National Library!

Years ago at a presentation at the UCLA Extension Writer’s Program, I promised an audience to teach them to conquer this beast once and for all. Later, another instructor approached me and said “why did you say that to those people? It’s not possible.”

Poor woman. All she was saying is that SHE cannot break writer’s block, which told me all I need to know about her career. In all likelihood a promising beginning, perhaps an award-winning poem or book…and then pain.

It is not only possible to end writer’s block forever, but you can actually use it to your advantage!

First, let us define it in some useful way: Writer’s block is the inability to:

1. Produce new text.
2. Edit and polish existing text
3. Finish projects on a reasonable schedule
4. Send those projects out for editorial judgment.
5. Continue sending them out until they are sold.

Accepting the above, I’m going to give you a definition of the root cause of Writer’s Block that will actually help you in every arena of your life.

“Writer’s Block is nothing more than a confusion of two different states of mind: the Flow state, where you produce new text, and the Editing state, where you evaluate and polish what you have written.”

The reason WB is such a killer is that most of us have done far more reading than we have writing, and spend far more time in critical analysis of finished, polished work of the masters than in experiencing our own early drafts. So when we try to create text, we measure our first draft efforts against the polished work of the world’s great writers. Immediately, that “this is garbage!” voice goes off in your head, and you have a block.

It is said that novice writers must work through a million words of garbage before reaching their true voice. How in the world will you ever get through it if you constantly judge every word? If you will learn to turn that voice off, you will learn a massive and important lesson about the structure of the human psyche.

But what exactly is “Flow”? It is the psychological state where time seems to vanish, where you “fall into the page”, where the rest of the world floats away as you concentrate. This is similar to the “hypnogogic” state experienced just prior to sleep, and the first thing in the morning. It is experienced in distance running, dancing (remember the lyrics to “Flashdance”? “She’s moved into the danger zone, where the dancer becomes the dance”) and, to be perfectly frank, it is experienced during sexual relations in the moments just prior to orgasm. It is the dissolution of the subject-object relationship sought by numerous schools of meditation.

1) Alternate days (or work sessions) between flow and editing. If necessary, wear different hats, or sit in different chairs for each. NEVER DO BOTH IN THE SAME SESSION

2) Set yourself a daily output that will get you to your goal of one million words in less than 5 years. 1000 words a day will do it in three years. That’s roughly comparable to earning an AA degree. Not too shabby!

3) Explore and specifically study “Flow State” as a discipline. Do your internet searches and find a physical or mental activity (running, dancing, meditation, Tai chi, yoga, etc.) that opens a doorway to this inner world.

4) Listen to largo rhythm, sixty-beat per minute string music. Vivaldi is perfect for this, and induces “Alpha” (flow) state rapidly and effectively. Stay away from music with lyrics, but soft jazz is also terrific.

5) Practice making pictures in your mind, and then writing down what you see WITHOUT judging the quality of your descriptions. You want to enhance the connection between your deep consciousness and your typing or writing.

6) If you can’t find a good meditation technique, just sit and “listen” to your own heartbeat for 15-30 minutes a day.

There are many other ideas, but these will get you started. The most valuable thing you will learn is to “turn off” or ignore the negative voices in your head. And an artist who learns to do this on demand is on the way to integration of the deep levels of the unconscious…and greater joy in the act of creation.