If you are experiencing Writer’s Block, it means that you’re not having fun with your writing. You’re probably trying to be perfect. Your inner critic / editor is telling you that your writing is not good enough.
“You should wait until later when the quality will be better.”
“You have to wait until you get more inspired.”
The list of reasons goes on and on.
WHAT TO DO?
There are numerous ways to get beyond this common affliction.
One way is to let go of the need to be perfect. In fact you can drop your standards altogether. Just let it rip. You might even want to write whatever comes to mind, even if it doesn’t seem to be related to anything useful.
If you’re feeling blank, you can write “I feel blank. I don’t know what to do. I’ll never get past this.”
If you’re worried about various non-writing things to do you might write something about what you’re thinking. For example you might write “I have too much money and I don’t know what to do with it all. And I can’t decide where to take this month’s vacation.”
You can write whatever comes to mind. When you have some free attention, you can start writing about your intended subject, perhaps “Fly Fishing for Vegetarians.”
You’re not being perfect. You’re writing a first draft at this point. You can always come back later and edit whatever you like. For right now you simply want to get words into your computer or down on paper.
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, START YOUR GARBAGE
There are boatloads of fun techniques for getting past writer’s block. One such way is to deliberately write garbage. Go ahead and write something such as:
“The purple cow had a hernia and went to the farmer for surgery. She took orange pills to slow the flow of water through the Panama Canal. There were numerous techniques to proliferate the onslaught of June Bugs.”
Although your garbage may vary, you can use the above example for comparison.
The idea of writing garbage is that it gets you writing something. It helps you get past the inner critic. It can even be fun. It gets the creative juices flowing.
THE POWER OF THE SUPER CONSCIOUS
With stream of consciousness writing, you might surprise yourself and come up with some good stuff. I wrote a 50,000 word novel last November by simply writing what came to mind. There wasn’t even a plot plan. There was only one character known at the start of the writing.
Amazingly things come together pretty well if you just let it rip. You’re bypassing the logical mind. You’re tapping into a higher level of consciousness that can deliver unexpected wonders.
Unexpected characters entered my stream of consciousness novel. At the time I didn’t know what they were doing there. Later they became vital to the story.
You might intend to write factual information. However, if you have fun writing as above you’ll get a ton of fresh new ideas. Your creative juices will be flowing. And you’ll be writing.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jim Kitzmiller is a retreat leader and personal coach. He has created a popular email course on Bliss, Creativity, and Power. His guided meditations get over 1,000 plays per day on YouTube.
He is the author of “Rocket Fuel for the Soul — Blissercise Self-Help Manual.” It presents over 400 stream of consciousness writing exercises that blast through writer’s block and bring the writer to a state of bliss. http://MeditationVacations.com/wb
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