By Sue Darnell
Keywords: writer's-block-writing
Stuck. Totally, completely and absolutely stuck. Writer's block can feel as if you are literally stuck in a cement block. The clock is ticking, a writing assignment is due, and your creative juices are not flowing. Instead of beating your head against a wall, try freewriting.
Take a blank sheet of paper. Sit quietly, and just write whatever comes to mind. No censoring. No analyzing. Simply let the thoughts roll out onto the paper. You can edit later. Freewriting by hand on unlined paper with a pen or pencil works for many writers. Scribble as fast as the thoughts flow. Soon, writer's block gives way. Your subconscious mind takes over, and you find your writing is on track.
Losing track of ideas that seem quite feasible, but float around in your head, never making it onto paper, is an occupational hazard of writing. Getting coherent thoughts onto the paper or computer screen is the hard part of being a writer. After all, who can read what's floating around in your head?
In Finding Forrester, a movie about a young man who discovers a reclusive writer and begs him to teach the secrets of the craft, he soon learns about overcoming writer's block. Forrester and the young man sit at typewriters, facing one another. Forrester wants the young man to begin writing. Serving as an example, Forrester begins typing furiously. The young man sits and stares at his own typewriter, hands poised, with a look of deep concentration on his face.
"What are you doing?" demands Forrester.
"Thinking," says the young man.
"Thinking about what?" asks Forrester.
"Thinking about what I'm going to write," says the young man.
"NO!" Forrester yells. "Don't think! Just write. You can think later."
In her book, Pencil Dancing: New Ways to Free Your Creative Spirit, author Mari Messer looks at creativity as a "dance" between the conscious and the unconscious mind. She says there are two kinds of thinking: rigid thinking and creative thinking.
Thinking rigidly, you tell yourself to stay in control. You mustn't "dance" through life (or writing) without always following the proper procedures. Rigid thinking promotes writer's block. Writing is a creative process. When you think too rigidly, you stifle the process, limit your capacity for creative thinking and refuse to think outside the box. Messer says, "Many writers and other creative people get bogged down because they cling so tightly to control that they can't dance in rhythm with the creative process."
Creative thinking says that you must give up some control. Creative thinking is not thinking, at least not consciously. Let your unconscious mind take over while letting inspiration flow like a stream. Messer says, "Giving up control and allowing the process to have its own way removes a lot of stress. You can always edit later."
Trust yourself as you write. That's the hardest part of the whole process. Fear of failure plagues authors in writing, as in many areas of life. Fight fear if you hope to break free from writer's block. TV psychologist Dr. Phil McGraw, says, "Walk through your fear and behave your way to what you want." The behavior of a writer is to write. Fear paralyzes. Fear stifles creativity. Fear keeps you from going where you want to go and doing what you want to do in life.
Push past the fear of failure and have faith in your writing.
Sue Darnell is a freelance writer, writing for WRG since June 2007. Her other published works include natural health articles, personality-profile features and business promotions. A mother of four and a grandmother of three, Sue and her husband Johnny live in the Atlanta area.
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