Writer`s Block

Want to write a book? A story? An article? A personal journal entry expressing your thoughts?

Having trouble getting started, or finding the right starting point? Maybe you have notes all over the place and feel overwhelmed. Maybe you don’t even know what to put down in notes. Do you put it off? Do you frequently stop and critique yourself?

There’s a great technique in Natalie Goldberg’s book Writing Down the Bones. A great way to begin if you’re stalled, or stalling:

Get a notebook or paper (large pages with lots of room). Get a pen that allows you to write quickly. A large page to write on encourages you to feel free from constraint. A pen makes it pointless to try to erase. And, you need a timer. Set it for whatever you want: 2 minutes, 10, 20. Don’t make it a long time at first. If you want, you can write a word or two, or a sentence, at the top of the page to give yourself a bit of focus. But if you stray, no problem.

Here’s what you do next: position yourself, paper, and pen for a comfortable, uninterrupted session. Start your timer. Once you start it, your job is to write without stopping until it beeps. Give yourself permission to write junk. To repeat yourself. To make no sense. To be unconcerned with spelling, grammar, and truth. It’s absolutely fine to write, over and over, the words “I can’t think of anything to write.” Do not stop to cross anything out or correct it. Don’t go back. Keep the pen constantly moving forward. Eventually your creative brain will kick in and tell you, “Okay, let’s try something else.

When you stop, you might be appalled at what you’ve written, or you might find a golden nugget or two to follow up on. This is a wonderful way to open up to what’s hiding inside your brain. You might be surprised to learn what you really think, want, like, hate, plan, know. Maybe you’ll find just one sentence to use as a springboard for your writing project. Maybe you’ll see the beginnings of more than one project. Save it. When you view it next time, you might notice even more nuggets.

You don’t have to show this to anyone. It’s for you. A way to get unstuck and find your flow. When you’re able to separate the doing from the critique, it can improve the rest of your life too. Try it. More than once. Each time you do this exercise, it gives you a chance to bypass the inner censor and tap your hidden creativity.

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