Why I Don’t Believe in Writer’s Block

Today we are going to take a quick detour from the Web Design series’ main articles and quickly discuss Writer’s Block. We’ve all heard of it, we’ve all used this term at some time in our lives since at least middle school. Usually it’s used as an excuse for your procrastination or to describe the ‘blankness’ or ‘lack of ideas’ and the panic that is flying through your head as you try to force yourself to write but can’t manage to get something down. Here’s what to do instead-

Don’t believe in Writer’s Block!

What is Writer’s Block?

According to Wikipedia, this is a definition: Writer’s block is a condition, primarily associated with writing, in which an author loses the ability to produce new work or experiences a creative slowdown. This loss of ability to write and produce new work is not a result of commitment problems or the lack of writing skills.

Why Don’t I Believe in it?

If you allow yourself to believe in writer’s block, then of course you’re going to be stuck; of course you’re going to think that you can’t write. If you’re writing school essays and you let yourself think that writer’s block is really a thing, how on earth are you going to get your assignment done? Have you ever considered that by believing that writer’s block is a real thing, that you’re actually creating the block and keeping yourself from writing?

How did I Stop Believing In Writer’s Block?

For those of you who do not know me as well as others reading this blog, I have an English degree with a Writing Concentration. My studies primarily focused on research on rhetoric- how writing and communication is constructed and how it interacts with the world in all kinds of different situations (simplified version). In other words, I have a degree on the science of writing… 😍🤩 This means that while in college, I spent a lot of time reading about the research of writing and conducting my own research.

Freshman year, my Writ 101 class read from a textbook Writing About Writing (not an Aff link) It’s an entire textbook of various research studies about writing and conclusions to help others improve their writing and writing process. One such study focused on Writer’s Block, the process of writing, and rules that people tend to follow while they write their school papers and what not. This essay changed my life and my entire way of thinking towards Writer’s Block!

My quick abstract: Mike Rose, author of the study and article Rigid Rules, Inflexible Plans, and the Stifling of Language conducted a study on 10 UCLA students- 5 of which said they experience writer’s block and the other 5 who claim that they did not experience writer’s block, and the difference between those students. Mike Rose concluded

the five students who experienced blocking were all operating either with writing rules or with planning strategies that impeded rather than enhanced the composing process. The five students who were not hampered by writer’s block also utilized rules, but they were less rigid ones, and thus were more appropriate to a complex process like writing. Also, the plans these non-blockers brought to the writing process were more functional, more flexible, more open to information from the outside. (Writing About Writing, page 238).

If you want to be nerdy like me, read the article in-depth. Here is a PDF copy I found online.

What I think Writer’s Block Really Is

To me, “writer’s block” is a way someone hobbles themselves during their writing process. It’s not everyone’s fault that it happens. It comes from years of training you to think about how you’re supposed to write. It starts with the hamburger graphic in elementary school and ends with this stupid mnemonic that I will go over at later in this post. I supposed that could mean that you are getting writer’s block, or, giving yourself writer’s block because you are hobbling yourself….

BUT I don’t believe in writer’s block. I don’t let it happen to me. I believe that if you think you have writer’s block, then you are simply hobbling yourself from writing. Thinking you have writer’s block prevents your creative process! And I know from experience that if I let myself say ‘I am having writer’s block’ then it’s going to take me forever to get my task complete. Don’t let yourself say it. 🙂

How You can “combat” Writer’s Block

Here is what has stayed with me ever since I read Rigid Rules, Inflexible Plans, and the Stifling of Language.

#1 What you really need to do, to “prevent” Writer’s Block is to simply let yourself ‘sit’ with your thoughts. Go ahead and daydream about what it is that you need to accomplish! What minor things should you be thinking about to get the ball rolling or maintain your momentum? Let random ideas just wash over you.

#2 Don’t let “writing garbage work” keep you from writing! For your very first draft (which I often call a crap-draft which is not the same thing as a Rough Draft) just get something written down! Get the parts you can get write down, written down! Don’t tell yourself that just because that sentence or that idea doesn’t fit, that you have to rip up that piece of paper and toss it onto the floor! Instead, set it aside and see if it can find a “home” in your work later. Don’t let a very terrible, clunky, run on sentence stop you from moving forward.

#3 STOP thinking that you have to write everything in the exact order that someone is going to read your work. Write you essays, website copy, blog posts, emails in whichever order comes to you first! Do you think this blog post or my website copy or social media posts, or marketing emails are ever written in the exact order someone reads them? NO WAY. I haven’t done that since my freshman year in college.

You don’t have to write your main point (your thesis, most important part of you emails or website copy) in perfect arrangement or order. If you have at least a small version of the point/s you want to make, write that down and figure out how you will get there and just wait til the end to fine tune it.

#4 There’s ZERO NEED to write in every single detail of your outline. What I learned from Mike Rose was that if you write a few things here and there, the rest will follow because you will be discovering the writing, your thoughts, the very best of your work.

#5 Don’t believed in the ‘rules’ that you’ve been taught in school. A 9th grade English teacher taught us this flow for writing an essay and giving speeches and swore by it: A QT P III RATE (pronounced A Cutie Pirate) It stood for the exact order and format that you had to write your essay in. Attention Getter, Quote/Prompt, Thesis, Preview of your points, POINTS I, II, III, Review, Attention Getter, Thesis, End. And there was TEA in each part of your “main points”: Thesis, Evidence, Analysis *clap clap*.

Apparently you always needed some amazing attention getter, a preview to your essay and then totally repeat it at the end of your article/essay. While some of these key aspects are helpful for when writing a blog post, does it really help you if you repeat exactly the same stuff at the end as the beginning? Does telling yourself that you have to think of a great attention getter for the first 1-2 sentence before you write about what you really need to talk about really help you? The answer is no. Instead of thinking of it as a rule, think of it as a rule of thumb. A guide, not an instruction manual. Suggestions, not laws.

And then I learned when I got to the upper division courses, this stupid Pirate mnemonic doesn’t even produce quality work! Attention getters can come across as irrelevant, conclusions are just copy and pasted (basically) and there are no additional insights. Quality conclusions need to include insights that you learned along the way. Make your arguments in the middle of your essays, conclude each main point with a freshly presented link to your thesis, and conclude with insights or additional information. My writing significantly improved in my upper division courses once I abandoned the stupid Pirate mnemonic.

Final Thoughts on
Why I Don’t Believe in Writer’s Block

You don’t have to throw away all the rules that you were taught, or the process that you have followed for however many years. The best way to kill writer’s block once and for all, is by being flexible with yourself and your writing. Be forgiving and patient. When I’m working on website copy, or even these blog articles, I never write anything in the exact order that a reader will see my work. I write a paragraph here, a sentence there. Sometimes I even start my writing by simply writing in bullet points! Sometimes I even write Sentence #4 before Sentence #1 or 2. Getting down what I really want to say is the most important; and then fine tuning it and finding a home for my words later in the writing process.

If you made it to this part of the article- thanks for hanging in there! I appreciate it and I hope this helped you and helps your writing endeavors!

Answer these Questions in the Comments! I would love to hear your thoughts!

• How do you feel about writer’s block?
• How do you combat it?
• Do hard-set rules help your writing process?
• What does your writing process look like?

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