There were posts a few years back about whether writer’s block was a real thing. There may have been a meme? I can’t remember precisely. At the time I rolled my eyes and decided not to engage.

I found the whole thing rude. Here was one part of the writing community telling the other their experiences weren’t real. They’d say things like ‘you don’t have writer’s block, you’re just scared’ or ‘you’re just getting in your own way.’

How pedantic. Yes, recognising the root of the problem may have alleviated the struggle, but it is still something which blocks the writer from writing. It’s a catchall term because regardless of why a writer isn’t writing, the point is that they are not writing. There is a, wait for it, block.

Now all that’s happened is a writer made another writer feel bad. That’s not going to help. In all likelihood, it probably created a new block. One where the writer wonders they’re so shit at being a writer. Why can’t they just get out of their own way and in sets the despair.

I’m here to say writer’s block is real regardless of how it manifests. Naming the specificities of the block may help and it may not. More importantly at this precise minute your experience is real and valid.

Hmm. It’s almost like there are parallels with people in the LGBTQ+ community being told their experiences don’t exist from both outside the LGBTQ+ community and from within. It’s almost as if there are people who cannot accept that the world and the way they experience it isn’t universal, but that’s a post for another time.

Let’s instead focus on feeling validated and moving on to what can be done to break through the block. The short answer is that in order to write you need to write. Yes, I said it. Write more.

In the words of one of my son’s favourite books We’re Going on a Bear Hunt, you can’t go over it and you can’t go under it. Oh no, we’ve got to go through it. It absolutely does not have to be writing for your WIP. It can be anything from a list to a rant about the block itself to an ode of all your favourite swear words. There are always prompts as well.

If you truly can’t get a sentence down, I’d suggest changing the medium of your writing. If you usually write on a computer get out a pen and notebook. If you already shift between those two why not write with paints, or chalk? Sometimes that shift jigs something loose and whatever’s blocking you falls to the wayside.

If even that fails, then it may be time to look at refilling your inspiration. Yes, I absolutely know that writers cannot simply write when the inspiration is there. There’s a lot to be said for making a habit of writing, but sometimes the brain does need a little pick-me-up. It can’t draw from an empty well.

There’s are the things that work for me:

• Documentaries, interviews, or memories from other creative people. They don’t have to be writers. I watched Gather Brooks: The Road I’m On, a two-episode documentary on Netflix about how Garth Brooks started, and the inspiration I felt after that lasted months. Actually, thinking about it now makes me feel giddy. Like, yeah, I had some false starts like to this author career like Garth Brooks had at the start of his career, but I’m ready now. Let’s do this.
• News articles are good, too. They don’t have to be grim. Archaeological articles about items found are always fun and rife with ‘what if’ possibilities.
• If factual is too much, because all you want is to escape then watch or read something outside of your genre. I’ve slowly started branching out to romance novels, the occasional erotica novel, and a hint of sci-fi. It may show you things in a way you’d never considered.
• And as always, whenever in doubt, people watch. Admittedly this is difficult to do in a pandemic unless you live or work somewhere busy, but at the end of the day any story subsists on people or beings who are people-like. So, it’s good to get inspiration from actual people.

Play around with different methods. Let me know what works for you, especially if it’s something I haven’t listed.