Writer's Block: What it Is and What it Can Be Instead

The scariest part of writer’s block is that it isn’t just one thing. Some people think of it as staring at a blank page and not knowing what to put on it. Others think of it as, simply, a lack of preparation or research, maybe a lack of motivation, or not having the necessary inspiration to put the right thing to paper. 

The short answer is that writer’s block is all of those things. It’s anything that keeps you from the action of writing or desire to write. 

As we’re growing up, we learn how to communicate and identify things by listening. A child might pick up a toy, and to that child, all that toy is is something that they can play with. 

Someone in the environment might say to that child, “Do you like that ball?”

Did the child have some kind of block before learning the word, “ball”? Yes and no. The idea that things have names and the importance of those names is learned over time. As we grow, the names of people, places, things, and ideas become second nature. 

It bothers us if those names are at the tips of our tongues. We become curious when we see something new, and we want to know what it’s called, what it does, and maybe its place in the world. 

Where am I going with this?

For any writer, the idea of not knowing what to put on a page can be incredibly frustrating. It’s a kind of claustrophobia, being trapped among words that aren’t giving the right kind of stimulation. 

If you have ever felt this way, you are not wrong, and even after you read this, chances are that you’ll feel this way again. 

If you consider that there’s a world outside of what you already know, not a world that you are blocked from, but a world that you can be curious about and explore, traversing your blocks becomes less of a burden. 

The thing that you have not written yet is your ball. It’s something that you can play with, mold into shapes, and throw against the wall, but it hasn’t been named yet. As a writer, you have the resources at hand to give a name to that ball if you listen and watch.

Listen to the advice of authors and other rhetors, of course. Taking breaks, moving to a different space to write, talking about the topic you’re writing about with others, outlining instead, journaling. All of this is great advice. It’s popular for a reason. 

I've crafted a couple of exercises (successfully tested on both students and clients) that have inspired creativity and, sometimes, led to unexpected ideas for what their writing project might need.

Exercises

1. Go out of your way to find a story or movie that sounds like the opposite of what you would enjoy, but do this step well. Find something that has good reviews, maybe something a friend or family member enjoys. It’s easy to find a piece of media that will reaffirm your disinterest, but the point of this exercise is to allow yourself to be challenged. Try to find characters, things, or concepts that you like, and try to understand why the audience for that piece of media enjoyed it. 

How can this help?

Writer’s block, as I’ve said, can feel like you’re trapped in a cloud of words you’ve used a million times. By challenging yourself and engaging in something outside of your comfort zone, you’re actively opening your mind to new forms of stimulation. You’re putting yourself back into the mindset of discovering interests and understanding that you can form new ones. This can help you open yourself up to new ideas and new inspirations.

2. Play this silly word game. In this word game, the author came up with silly words, broke them into parts, and made sillier words out of his silly words. For our purposes, don’t stop there. Make definitions of those words. Use them in sentences.  

How can this help?

I like to think of this exercise as a way to reframe writer’s block. Turning your writer's block into a game can make writing less daunting. Writer’s block, then, becomes a word I haven’t said yet, something I haven’t identified yet, something I don’t know. Rather than be frustrated at myself for not knowing, I become excited to learn what it is, and I have fun exploring. 

Writer’s block is a lot of things. It doesn’t stop at not knowing what to write next. It creates anxiety over whether what’s in your mind should be on the page, but that’s not where your journey as a writer ends.