New Ways to Cope with Writers Block

I love writing, it is one of my biggest passions. Writing enables us to express what is going on inside our heads. Every one of us has a story to tell whether it's about our latest crush or life in general. However, there are days we can have days where our minds can go blank, and we just can't think what to write about. We end up exhausted on these days just trying to think about it, and then we end up writing nothing.

I am not a 'newbie' to writer's block. I fight with it quite often, some days I'm blazing with ideas and others are not so good. However, as writing is my main career goal, I have to play scrabble with my head and at least find something to write about. Here are some new tips that I recently discovered were helpful when your mind has gone to sleep!

1. On days when you can't write, read lots.

Reading and writing go hand in hand. Reading your favorite books can trigger ideas. It evokes imagination and gets you thinking, and this can lead to ideas for a new story. You're not copying the story your reading, you are simply getting ideas from reading for your own story.

2. Take regular breaks.

If you are writing 24 hours, 7 days a week, you are going to suffer from 'burnout,' and your mind will shut down causing you to not be able to think straight. Set a goal of writing for at least 1 hour, take a 30-minute break, then carry on. This will enable your mind to relax and unwind while clearing out the mental clutter. By the time you get back to your work, you'll be able to think straight and come up with ideas.

3. Have non-writing days.

The title above the photograph says it all. Simply have a few days when you don't write. It is all very well writing every day, but you are not a robot and you need space. Use this time to have some quality time with your family, catching up with other things or persuing holidays. People take breaks from work, even if they are not every week, so treat your writing as your 'work' and take breaks yourself. Your mind will thank you for it.

4. Mind-map your thoughts.

Mind-mapping is a pattern of clouds or bubbles in which you can write your thoughts. You can connect these with lines in order to see how they fit together. When you do this, mind-map the characters and their roles in order to see how they fit together, then mind-map the plot. You don't need to think of a story title at this point, that will come to you once you have finished. Just simply write the actions and role of each character and the main theme of the plot. The goal is to be as creative as you can, allowing the story to come together. You are most likely to find that you come up with a title at the end of this activity.

5. Annotate

This means highlighting interesting passages from stories you have read. Once you have done this, try and work out what makes this piece interesting? Are there any catchy phrases or words that appeal to you? Is this a descriptive piece? When you have done this, you should list any descriptive ideas brought to mind by this piece of work in your own words, that you may be able to use in your work. This is not copying, you are simply playing with the words in order to come up with your own words.

6. Pictures create interesting stories

The picture above inspired me to write my first story in the 'Horror' community. You can read it here

The Evil Haunted Forest

This was my first story of this kind on Vocal. Sure, I read a lot of horrors, vampire books (Yes I do also read Buffy and Angel!), and ghost stories. However, it was the spookiness of grey/black and white tones combined with people hiding behind the trees only showing their hands that gave me the ideas for my story. A picture can represent many words and every picture tells a story. You might want to analyze a few and see what you can come up with yourself. I'd love to read them.

7. Create lists

List all the thoughts on your mind. Do not think too much about it, just write them down as they come. What did you see today? Who did you talk to? Was there an interesting conversation you heard? You can then go through these lists to see if any of them can spark a topic for you to write about.

I really hope you find these ideas useful, and I can't wait to see what you write next.

Hearts a free, so please leave one on my work. Tips are appreciated but they are optional.

You can read more of my interesting stories by following this link:

https://vocal.media/authors/carol-townend