Silver's Helpful Writing Tips

3 Steps to Overcoming Writer's Block

Writer's Block, one of the most feared things an author can come up against. Some authors claim it doesn't exist while others seem to struggle with it on a routine basis. But what causes it? Why do some people wrestle with it while others do not?

I took a look back over my life to the times when I had dry spells in my writing and found an interesting pattern emerge. When I joined Wattpad, I began to see the same pattern there too, and on Facebook where I am a part of several writing groups.

This theme seems to apply to many writers, which is why I wanted to address it in today's post, and the three things you can do to overcome it and be able to tell the story you want to share.

1) Stop Stressing Yourself

Hear me out, okay? We all live with stress to varying degrees, but that stress can also swallow up your creativity if you don't learn to manage it. How do you do that? I'm going to break it down into two sections: Internal and External.

External Pressures

We are surrounded by external pressures every single day; work, family, friends, relationships, etc. and as writers, those pressures can be suffocating. How many times have you heard, "That's a nice hobby, but that won't pay the bills," or "Cool, so what do you do for a real job?".

Maybe you feel pressure from family because they've told you that you'll never finish a book, or your readers are hounding you about when the next book will be out. If you're on Wattpad, you know that at times your readers will harp on you for the next update of a story.

This pressure to create, to prove people wrong, to make something of yourself can lead you to hit what I call The Wall, also known as Writer's Block.

Internal Pressures

The external pressures tend to lead to a build-up of internal pressures. These are the negative emotions and thoughts that you have about yourself that will completely cripple your writing. Thoughts of, "I'm not good enough," or "Why do I bother, no one will read it anyway," or "Maybe I should give it up altogether," are common when internal pressures have built up.

Feelings of shame can make you feel like you're drowning. Guilt about not meeting the expectations of others can leave you feeling isolated. This negativity can, and will, keep you from writing your story. How could it not? If you're writing solely for others, you will constantly worry about whether or not you will meet their expectations of you; and what if you fail?

So the cycle goes until you set the pen down and walk away. How do you escape this cycle? You give yourself permission.

2) Allow Yourself to Write

This may seem like an oversimplification, but I cannot stress to you how important this is! This is how you start to break through The Wall. How though?

Don't Let Others Set Your Goals

If you're writing a story, it's first and foremost your story, not theirs. You decide what you are going to write, how you're going to write it, when you're going to write it, and what it'll be about. Period.

This does not permit you to steamroll over people. It means that you respectfully stand your ground. You teach people how you want to be treated.

Write For You

Author's need to write stories for themselves as much as they do for their readers. Far too often I've watched as authors burn themselves out because their readers wanted to see a story, so the author started to write it, only to stop part way through. Why?

Because it wasn't their story, they were writing only for the readers. 

While this isn't a bad thing, it can drain an author and leave them feeling discouraged.

Just Write

I hate it when people say this to an author who's struggling writing something. It's pithy, unhelpful, and all around useless. 

Why? It doesn't answer the author's unspoken question: I need help.

When I say this, I don't mean it in the same way. When I say, "just write," I mean giving yourself permission to write your story and not worry about grammar, punctuation, and style (you'll figure that out as you go).

Stop editing your book while you write!!!!

Seriously, you're cutting off your legs before you even start running. If you're worried about those things listed above, try using Grammarly. I use that for all of my writing, and it's been an enormous help.

Set a word goal and track your progress. I use WriteTrack for mine, and it's one of the reasons why I hit my 50k word goal in 29 days during January.

3) Stop Asking For Advice

Ironically, I've found one of the biggest causes for authors is other authors telling them "how to succeed". You may be asking yourself why should be listening to my advice if I'm telling you not to.

The answer is relatively simple: It's an opinion, not a science.

When you spend more time asking for advice on style, form, etc. what you are really doing is robbing yourself of the chance to find your own voice as an author!

No one, I repeat, NO ONE has got this down to a science that they can duplicate, and that is because we are all so unique. You won't be able to do everything I've done, and vice versa. And that's okay!

If you want to learn what style of storytelling you want to use, read and read a lot. Read in your genre, read outside of your genre, read, read, read.

As author's, we sometimes rely too heavily on fellow authors who know nothing about us, our story, our lives, our experiences, and we expect them to have all of the answers.

Stop the madness.

Take Away

Here are some things that I hope you will take away from this

:1) Learn to manage external and internal pressures.

2) Don't let other people set your writing goals or tell you that you can't do it.

3) Write for yourself; tell your story.

4) Give yourself permission to 'just write'. Edit later.

5) Stop asking for advice on how others do it. Write and discover YOUR style.

If you want some tools to help get your story started, head over to my website and check out the worksheets I've created. They are fun, straightforward sheets designed to help you discover how you write and the story you have to tell.

God Bless guys.