When Creativity is Blocked

What, Why, How to Help

The fifth largest cause of writer's blocks according to Robert Boice, is procrastination, which stems from several components. As Boice puts it, "Writing that can be delayed, will be" (Boice, 1993). Procrastination however, can stem from a fear of failure and task averseness, as well as poor self-confidence and time-management skills. When procrastination happens, it can lead to emotional stress from shame because of procrastinating and also from the stress that would then come from trying to complete a large amount of work in a small amount of time. Procrastination can also be a coping mechanism of failure—if a student had a very short time to complete her essay because she began it at the last minute, and she then received a poor grade on it, she could blame it on her procrastination. This would make writing and thinking about writing emotionally stressful to the point of a blockage (Boice 1993).

About Me

While Boice only speculates that these are the most frequent causes of blockages, they do fit in with my personal experiences with writer's block. For this response, I reflected over which of Boice's five theories of blockages affected me the most, but I think that they are all intertwined. I initially thought that my biggest blockage would stem from the fear of failure. I think this affects me because I am at a point in my writing career where I am beginning to be recognized for it, and I hope this success will continue. When I start writing a new project, however, I am afraid to show it to people because I am afraid they will tell me it is stupid or that they will not like it. This anxiety over failure makes sense to me, because not writing something out of a fear of failure lowers expectations of failing. But I think that not writing out of fear of failure, in a way, also contributes to failure. Thus, this is a difficult place to be in.

When I am blocked and I attempt to start writing despite this fear of failure, I also tangle with the inner critic. Generating ideas can be tough for me because I am not sure if they will be good enough. The inner critics can judge an idea before it is even on paper and that is not a helpful thing to happen. I think that having inner critics also tangles with Boice's third cause: perfectionism. I set high standards for myself and my writing, which makes failure seem that much more inevitable.

Last, I think my early childhood experience also greatly shaped my attitudes towards writing, as did my education even after elementary school. When I was in second grade, my teacher greatly encouraged creative writing. She set aside time each week for my classmates and me to work on stories about whatever we wanted. Each month, she would edit one of these stories for us and we could get it printed into a book. This was one of my favorite activities in second grade because I loved getting my stories turned into books, and it was helpful to get my teacher's feedback on spelling and grammar while she edited these stories.

As I progressed through school, teachers became more critical of creative projects and my peers began to disparage them more. Creative projects turned into essays, which would eventually have either a right or wrong answer. Poems would be graded, as would short stories, and having a grade attached to these stimulated my inner critic, drive for perfectionism, and fear of failure surrounding writing. As I progressed through school, greater emphasis began to be put on the importance of math and science classes than art and English classes. In fact, my friends would talk about what they wanted to be when they grew up and say they wanted to be some kind of scientist or engineer because of how much they would be paid for it. It was a well-known fact in high school that "artists and writers never got jobs beyond being baristas at Starbucks." This kind of social pressure made the fear of failure in writing, the inner critic, and an obsession with perfectionism even that more prominent: The fear of failure was a legitimate concern, because failure seemed so prominent in the arts, especially if failure was defined as having a day job. The inner critic became louder for me in high school because there were ideas that I thought my parents, friends, and teachers would find acceptable, and those that would "suck." An obsession with perfectionism occurred because so much emphasis in my high school was put on grades. If my stories weren't perfect, it seemed they wouldn't be good enough for anything.

Much of this anxiety surrounding writing for me subsided during my senior year of high school when I joined an online writing platform with an anonymous user name. (Oh hey, Wattpad!) This platform surrounded a community of writers who could post whatever they wanted online: stories, poems, lists, rants. It was a community of people writing books, and I decided to try it. I never initially dealt with writing blocks in writing for this community because there wasn't any pressure put on my writing. No one knew who I was and if I wrote a story that people didn't like it did not matter to me. Eventually, however, I received success from this platform and my family and friends came to know about it. This has put more pressure on my writing, though it is still great to have my family and friends' support.

The What To Do About It

Psychologist John Binkerhoff (1997) takes on Robert Boice's ideas and builds on them to come up with possible diagnoses and treatments to writer's block. Binkerhoff looks at Boice's six causes and wraps them into one: having unrealistically high expectations. Binkerhoff attributes these unrealistic expectations to having four tacit components: failure of involvement in writing as an act of discovering, failure of regiment, deficit in self-management of pessimism, and keeping writing private (Binkerhoff, 1997).

To combat these, Binkerhoff first suggests addressing the problem of involvement in writing. He claims that blocked writers write just to explain an idea, and this can be unhelpful for writers if they resist ideas that come to them along the way. Binkerhoff suggests freewriting on a regular basis to help writers notice what they are thinking.

Second, Binkerhoff suggests writers stick to a strict regimen, in the form of a chart or schedule. If a writer can have the discipline to write even when they do not feel like it, it can help them avoid distraction and get words on paper.

Thirdly, Binkerhoff suggests that writers improve their management of self. He explains that it can be helpful for students to generate their own strategies for planning their writing. If they can develop introspective skills, understand their inner critic, and then break their writing into manageable tasks, they will find writing much easier.

Lastly, Binkerhoff suggests writers collaborate with each other as part of a social network. This will help them to elicit feedback from each other and not be caught off guard by feedback right after they publish. Binkerhoff also writes that social networking will give writers a balance in their lives between writing and experiencing social aspects of life (Binkerhoff 1997).

In Conclusion...

In my experience, Binkerhoff's suggestions are useful and since discovering his research, I have been more able to overcome my writing anxieties. I initially was wary of adding strict regimen to my writing routine because I thought it might take the fun out of writing and of being creative. I thought that doing something because I had to do it would turn writing into something that I did not want to do, and I also thought that writing under a schedule might put pressure on my writing and further inhibit my creativity.

This was far from what I experienced when I actually tried writing under regiment. In using this strategy, I decided to designate one hour each day for writing: my lunch hour, between 12 and 1. At first, I did not accomplish much in this hour and instead I thought about my anxieties towards writing and how I hoped the strategy would work. As I continued it, however, I found that I was able to develop more creative ideas than I would have been able to if I were waiting for inspiration to strike.

I also found that the more I wrote, the more I could come to terms with my own success. I have begun to be less afraid of failing as a writer as I have come more to terms with how often writers fail. I think that the old adage about writing is true, if you want to be a writer, you need to write. I think it is that simple, and I think it is that hard.

Thus, learning strategies to make writing easier is extremely important. I'm glad I took on this project because now I can take what I have learned and apply it to my goals in life. I can also take what I have learned and share it with writing communities and help make the world a little more creative.

Thank you and goodnight!