The Writers’ Block and How to Recover from it

So out of nowhere, you feel like you don’t want to write anymore. In essence, you are suffering from WRITER’S BLOCK. You are not alone. Even veterans experience these “laziness” episodes once in a while. My strategies that might jumpstart you include:

1. Find an activity that unplugs you from writing momentarily. It could be a hobby such as cycling, lengthy nature walks, or even a casual job that works you up. The idea is to stay away from your computer screen for some time and focus on other stuff. It also helps you dissipate the excess energy in you.
2. Block access to social media, such as Facebook and YouTube that are likely to drive you to endless clicks or watching irrelevant content.
3. ABSTAIN from XES if you can. Don’t even think of strangling the LANGUR as an alternative. The effect is the same. You waste kilowatts of brain energy that leave your brain flaccid for some time.
4. Reward yourself with decent sleep. Remember to switch off phone(s) to avoid distractions.
5. Avoid junk foods and sugary beverages. They tend to dilute all the creative juices from your head.
6. Take a cold shower. Well, if you are a “coward” you may start with warm/hot water, then splash yourself with cold one towards the end. The startling experience tends to kick your a$$ back to reality.
7. Minimize overreliance on these writing AIs and paraphrasers (e.g Jarvis and quillbot). They gradually take away your creativity such that whenever you come across jobs (e.g case studies) that require human judgment, you feel demoralized.
8. Occasionally change the writing environment. Do it from your place, a friend’s place, a workstation, or a library.
9. Set goals, and work towards them in baby steps.
10. Don’t be a lone ranger. Learn to work with other writers even if your flow of jobs is insufficient. Have that SOS writer who can easily save you in situations when you like doing nothing, except imagining how you can survive without toiling.

Disclaimer: This list is not necessarily compiled in the order of tried and tested interventions!

By Eng George Mwaurah