Writer's Block: Three Ways to Beat it

If this were a horror movie, we wouldn’t speak its name. We’d all hear about the horrors of what happens when it takes hold:

One-hit-wonder authors. Book series that are left incomplete, leaving fans wondering what happened. Deadlines left tattered and destroyed as the calendar ticks onward but word count stays the same. Don’t say it three times in the mirror, or it will appear behind you:

Writer’s Block. Writer’s Block. Writer’s Block.

Some people say it is an excuse and doesn’t really exist, and others swear it comes for you sooner or later. I am going to take a different approach: I think it’s unfair to call it Writer’s Block, because what other profession gives a name to that feeling when motivation disappears and discipline hasn’t kicked in?

We don’t call scientists who come up against failed hypotheses again and again Scientist’s Block. We don’t call a painter who doubts their own ability Painter’s Block.

Writer’s Block is both made up and very, very real. How’s that for helpful?

Writing is a skill you develop, not an ability that is bestowed. (People will disagree with me on that, but this isn’t their book, so I don’t have to give them attention!)

And like any skill, there will be a time when you will feel like you’ve plateaued. The thrill of the initial idea is gone, or you worry that there isn’t really a story there, after all. (This is something you can short-circuit by doing the outline we mentioned above). Writer’s Block is the unfair name we give the natural, uncomfortable feeling you get when you’re doing anything worth doing – the moment it feels like it gets hard.

It's not a block, it’s a natural growing pain. It’s a moment that is a rite of passage – something that separates people who have a written piece of art and people who will always just have an idea that they think is cool.

There are three ways I get over Writer’s Block. No matter what, one of these ways will always come through for me.

1) Take a Break.

Not a month-long “I suck” self-imposed strike, but a break. Sometimes, I’m just not in the right headspace for the scene I’m writing and I haven’t broken it down enough to know what I want to say. When the characters feel stale and my writing feels bad, a break works wonders. I take my bike up and down the street, just looking at the trees and feeling the fresh air on my face. Or I go pick up the kids from school and blast music the whole way there. Drive-Thru Starbucks. A trip to the park. My personal favorite? A nap! Whatever it is you need to do to clear your head – to unplug your system and then plug it back in, again – do it. Sometimes, starting over the next day with a better headspace is better than sitting at the computer hating that you’re not more brilliant.

2) Refill your well.

This one is, next to a nap, my personal favorite. Every writer, every artist, has moments in movies or books or songs or plays that inspired them to want to be a writer in the first place. I have a list I keep on an index card in my office called “For When You Have Nothing”. A while ago, I started jotting down scenes and moments that helped me remember the awe of art and my love of story.

The “Promontory”/ ending of The Last of the Mohicans

The “Running Up That Hill” scene from Stranger Things 4

The ending of “Coda”: The Walking Dead

The Sophia Scene from The Walking Dead

“Honor Him” scene from Gladiator

“Portals” from Avengers: Endgame

The ending scene of Stranger Things 4

When I feel like I have nothing left, when I’m sad or tired or wondering if I will ever write anything good again, I refill my well. I watch these scenes. I read Laurie Halse Anderson and listen to Steve Jablonsky. And then I remember who I want to be, and what I want to do. I remember being ten and watching The Last of the Mohicans and feeling so awestruck just had to curl up on the couch because it moved me so much. I remember seeing Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix in theaters and being quiet on the drive home while my family sorted out what to do for dinner because I just felt so much. I remember being nineteen, a freshman in college, and finishing Libba Bray’s The Sweet Far Thing and sobbing in my dorm room. The moments that made me feel alive because I am a storyteller, and those stories helped me realize that. When I feel tired, I sink back into story. I get re-inspired.

3) Write Badly

This one is everyone’s least favorite. Believe me, I hate it, too. But it’s true, and when options 1 & 2 fail, this option is the only one left. It goes back to discipline vs. motivation, right? Yes, it sucks to write when you don’t feel like it, especially when it shows on the page. When you’re not in the flow – the music isn’t hitting, the characters aren’t speaking like you need them to – it can feel like a waste of time. But stay with me... it’s not. Because several things are going to happen when you write badly, okay?
First, you’re going to be writing, which is a point in the discipline column that we need, right? You’re strengthening the muscles you’ll need for this career. There were moments when I was on deadline or on set when I was not feeling it, but it didn’t matter. Because the words were due to my editor, the actors were waiting, and I needed to do my job. Build that muscle now. The second thing that is going to happen is that writing badly will usually give way to writing well. You’ll either figure out your plot snag, or you’ll get past the part of the scene that is giving you trouble and be well on your way to getting back in the flow.

And when I say write badly, I mean you can write things like:

[Marcus says something awful, here, something that would make anyone want to smack him]

Gloria narrowed her eyes at him, a humorless smirk slinking up the corner of her mouth. “Go to hell, Marcus.” [Put more here???]

Now, a little caveat here: doing this too often will make it so that you’ll have a [finished] project, but it won’t feel [finished]. But doing this is always better than writing nothing!

In the end, Writer’s Block – whatever we’ve decided it really is – is not going anywhere. I still get moments where I’m not sure what I’m doing. But the important thing is to keep going. Because, as Taika Waititi says: “A bad script written is still better than an amazing one that isn’t.”