10 Tips to Beat Writer's Block for Good

Now that I've been writing fiction again I've become reacquainted with an old, not-so-good friend: writer's block. It's probably the toughest hurdle for writers to overcome. No matter how much you want to write it can seem so hard when you feel completely uninspired.

So today I thought I'd share some of my favorite ways to overcome writer's block. A few of these use social media because let's face it- when we feel stuck we tend to wander to social media. But we can also use social media sites to help us write, rather than just distract us. :)

1. Go here. Press start (it's at the top of the screen in the corner). The first page you land on must be in your opening sentence. You don’t have to write only about that topic- just relate it somehow to what your main character is doing/thinking about. If you land on a name, create a character based on that name. If you get a date, write about why that date changed your character's life. The possibilities are pretty much endless.

2. Don’t work well under pressure but can’t resist the adorableness of kittens? Here you go.

3. If you're on Instagram, go to the Photos tab of the Explore page and randomly click on a picture. Use that as your opening scenario. (If you don't like the picture just pick another ;)

4. Your OTP is on a date. Yes, this is permission to write fanfiction. Feel no shame.

5. Turn your favorite song into a story.

6. Pick a number from 1 to 16 then match the number to one of the personalities on this list (from top to bottom). This is your main character’s personality. It’s a starting place so don’t feel like you have to nail the personality completely accurately. Just write.

7. Explain the first status on your facebook newsfeed.

8. Go to this gallery. Pick a painter. Pick a painting. This is the first scene/character of your story.

9. If you still can't get yourself to write, spend some time reading through one of these tags on tumblr: writing, prose, poetry. I dare you not to be inspired.

10. If all else fails, don’t write, just read a book. A good book will inspire you. A bad one will make you angry enough to do your own writing.

Hope you guys can use some of these tips!

But whatever you choose to do to help overcome your writer's block, the most important thing is this: the way to beat writer's block for good is to not let it make you quit. So many times when I've felt completely uninspired it only took a few minutes (sometimes hours) of pressing through for things to start to flow again.

Sometimes writer's block is just a mind game. You just have to wait it out and you might find some of your best writing on the other end. So don't quit.

Happy writing. :)

#writing #2015