Writer's Block Help Guide: How to Overcome Writer's Block?

Do you know what the worst nightmare of a content writer is? A writer's block. Having writer's block might sound easy, but the reality seems to be entirely the opposite.

If you have writer's block, it is difficult to write something down when there should be nothing but words on the page instead of blank spaces and lines. Now, we know how bad it feels when the clock is ticking and you have nothing but a blank page where you can't get your ideas and thoughts.

And this could result in project delays, missing deadlines, and your work piles up further.

The thing about writing is that it is not a science but an art. It takes so much experience and time to perfect that it sets itself apart from the rest of the things in life.

Amidst all the self-doubt, procrastination, and distraction, the focus must be on developing valuable content for your audience as well as for the search engines.

This is only possible if there was a way to overcome writer's block.

In this guide, you will better understand writer’s block and how to deal with it.

What Exactly is Writer’s Block?

A writer's block is a situation that occurs when a writer is unable to create or write anything. Writer's block may also be referred to as a blocked flow of ideas, difficulty finding words, or a lack of motivation.

Writers and artists always tend to be very creative and deep thinkers. 

However, this is what Seth Godin says on writer's block, "writer's block is really just fear of bad writing. If you're willing to do bad writing, then good writing will slip through — it can't be helped."

Some experts say there’s no such thing as writer’s block at all and that the condition only happens to writers and creative types, like artists or musicians. Even psychologists like Susan Reynolds claim that there is no such thing as writer's block and it is merely a myth.

Before you know how to tackle writer's block, it is important to understand why it happens and how our creative juices flow.

How Does the Mind Generate Ideas?

The human mind is a complex system that allows for the creation of new ideas. The mind can generate ideas by combining existing ideas or building on existing ideas. It can also come up with new ideas from an original idea and is able to do this by combining ideas from different domains of knowledge.

You can find your mind exploring other things that you normally do, like catching up on the news, watching a video, or just shooting another tweet.

All these acts will give off different ideas about what works best for ordinary minds at times of writer’s block.

1. Getting Creative Juices Flowing

“Creativity is intelligence having fun.” – Albert Einstein.

There are lots of ways to get creative juices flowing. Whether at home or on the go, you can be creative while working out.

Creativity starts with the mindset; mental mechanics that affect how you think about things, feel about them, what you do with them, and decisions (and actions) made by those feelings.

When you have the creative flow and thoughts running, you can easily overcome writer's block.

2. What is Creative Flow?

Creative flow is a state of mental and physical ease that allows you to be fully immersed in your creative work. Achieving creative flow is the key to producing something of great value.

It is a state of complete focus and absorption in the task at hand. It helps you find new ways of doing things and find solutions to problems that may not have been obvious.

What Causes Writer's Block?

Authors often suffer from writer's block, which occurs when they can't find the words they are looking for to express what they want to say.

As a result, they have to turn down the creative flow, which can significantly affect their writing.

In fact, some authors suffer from writer's block due to a constant lack of creativity in everything they do.

It is pointless trying too hard because you won't force your way through despite what stage you might be at.

Whether the problem of writer's block really exists or if writers just make it up so they sound more intelligent, all people have this problem at some point in their life while writing something important like an essay for school or a book report for class.

Here is a psychology of the creative mind that could probably cause writer's block.

Perfectionism

One of the major causes of a writer getting stuck is their hunt for perfectionism. Most writers stop writing or are stuck because they can't achieve perfectionism in writing. The creative flow of best ideas stops at some point when you have no writing process in mind.

Procrastination

Procrastination is one of the most common causes of writer's block. Writers tend to procrastinate when they have a hard time starting or finishing a project. This is because they are indecisive about what to write or where next.

Tired

Even the most professional writers will get tired at some point and face an issue of writer's block. It is because of their intensiveness and hard work to focus on one project or page for years rather than taking it as a part-time job.

Lost sight of creative vision

It is not uncommon for writers to get lost in their creative work, which harms writing productivity or coming up with new ideas. Before you finish your current writings, you might become distracted by other tasks that can take time away from your regular task.

Self-criticism

Self-criticism is one of the biggest threats that could block your creativity. This happens mostly to creative projects that fail or aren't approved at first submission.

The excessive criticism of writing might be what holds people back from writing well in the first place and keeps them from producing good works at all times.

There are several solutions to overcoming writer blockage while writing, but there are also tips that will help you avoid those situations from the beginning.

How to Deal with Writer’s Block? 

Every famous writer has gone through and experienced writer’s block, and has nuggets for you to pick up from. Here are some ways to deal with writer’s block:

Inspiration From Famous Writers

Keeping creative inspiration can help you focus on your writing tasks. Inspiration is essential for writers because they are always trying to come up with new ideas, concepts, and words that may transform the world of literature.

The best way to get inspiration is by following the industry experts and writers in your domain. Though we might not always agree on their opinion of writing, they do have their followers and readers. 

Follow them on social media like Twitter or Facebook and leave your comments about what you think reading their works can get for you in terms of learning new words, changing the way people describe things, etc.

Cheatsheet: What to do When You Have Writer’s Block?

Some famous writers have written a book on dealing with writer’s block.

Fast, effortless writing doesn’t always mean you know how to write well. 

But if you have a lot of information in your head and can easily put it on paper, then that means you are the best-prepared writer possible for the assignment.

Here is a quick cheat sheet to follow to avoid possible writer's block:

1. Keep writing with imperfect words.

Perfection is not the primary objective when writing. Perfect or no, always keep on trying to write perfectly with words that are somehow imperfect and could give your work a verbal flavor you otherwise may forget about while reviewing it after sometimes many years away from completing this assignment.

Try asking someone who would appreciate your word choice so far.

Dissect an existing work of yours and dissect it again. This is a good strategy for learning to write and trying out another perspective than the one you normally use when writing something. It could even help make it more personal and relateable, thus giving meaning to your actual goal of wanting others to read through.

2. Switch your tool (Docs to pen and paper, try visual storytelling).

Switching up your writing tool to make it different from what you usually use can also help with writer's block, instead of using that same old thing for a long time and not getting anything done.

When using creative writing tools and ideas, you should always switch from one tool to another. From pen and paper to the latest word processor and even drawing tools.

This can help with switching your perspectives (from metaphors, similes comparisons, etc.) that may become redundant in writing creatively.

3. Change perspective.

Changing perspective always makes us look at something different from what we have already written. To keep changing your perspective isn't necessarily that difficult or troublesome. In fact, it helps overcome writer’s block.

This helps with being creative because it isn't forced into our writing but can come from actual personal ideas and imagination, which are mostly based on fact, albeit not fully followed through without any errors.

It allows for the writers to find errors while they write better narratives because of their enhanced creativity by using other perspectives.

4. Meditate/Take a Walk/Shower and let subconscious play with the story.

The power of the subconscious is something significant. It helps write the client's or researcher’s goal for an assignment by making their story relevant to themselves and not another person. One of the best pieces of advice to tackle writer's block is indulging in meditation and exercises.

Physical exercise helps you think better. It reduces your stress, makes you more focused, and improves your memory.

When meditating on your writing, try to forget about everything except the story in front of you and ask yourself where you went wrong.

5. Write to a friend that fits your persona.

It helps you develop a more personal relationship with the real person that’s described in the content, making it seem as though they are talking directly to us. 

You can use creative writing ideas, email, or other writing ideas to practice writing with a friend.

This can help you understand and write for one type of persona. By narrowing your audience to one person, you become more decisive.

A friend can be very important in writing the narrative. They help you build upon your goals by giving advice or comments when needed. They also give suggestions if any errors are made.

6. Steal competitor ideas

This is one of the good ways to come up with ideas as a writer because you will know what is expected from your assignment by analyzing your competitor's brief and their plot structure.

This makes it easier for you to develop an idea that matches those parameters, making it more persuasive. It also helps bring new elements into an essay or paper without losing its originality.

It is always lucrative to steal ideas for inspiration but not copy them.

How to Prevent and Achieve Creative Flow?

The writer does not have to be creative all the time. So if you are stuck in a rut, get out of it.

Getting rid of your distractions will help bring back some positive energy, and once this happens, you will see that finding writing ideas is easier than ever.

The best practice is to use the writing assistant tools like Scalenut SEO Assistant to achieve your creative flow.

Using Scalenut AI copywriter for writer’s block.

Scalenut comes with excellent writing capabilities to help you get rid of writer's block. It offers tons of templates to help you get creative.

Scalenut AI Assistant works for any business and for every use case, be it any kind of writing. 

Here are some of the best use cases that may help in writer’s block: 

1. Introduction template

An introduction template is a great tool to get started if you have no clue on how to give your blog an enticing beginning.

The tool scrapes through various ideas from the internet to create an enticing introduction. 

You can also make use of the marketing frameworks like PAA (Problem-Agitate-Solution), AIDA (Awareness-Interest-Desire-Action) or BAB (Before-After-Bridge) to create compelling intros.

2. Expand heading to paragraph

Want to expand a sub-heading into a paragraph? This template can be your best friend.

The heading to paragraph tool can create a whole paragraph for you on a specific subheading. 

All you need is to enter the main topic in one box and the subheading that you want to expand in another. It would take less than a minute to generate a unique section of text out of this sub-heading.

3. Conclusion paragraph generator 

Writers may often face the wrath of a creative’s block in concluding content. Obviously, the conclusion should end so that it evokes the readers to take action. 

A strong ending can give the reader a viewpoint of your entire content. Scalenut conclusion generator gives a vision to your content and ends it summarizing the main points of your text.

All you need to do is head to the short-form writer and search for the conclusion paragraph generator. 

In the box, enter the Topic. Enter the blog outline and a strong CTA for your content in the next box.

Click on 'Generate,' and the AI assistant will generate the text in a matter of seconds.

Scalenut SEO assistant uses AI writing to end the writer's block, saving time and efforts.

4. Answer a question

Answering the questions as asked by the searchers is a good way to get visibility on the SERPs. Using this template, you can craft answers to the popular questions for your main topic. 

Scalenut SEO Assistant suggests popular questions from AI, PAA (People Also Ask), and forums like Quora and Reddit. 

You can generate answers to such questions by using this template. Head to Scalenut Assistant and enter the question in the box.

Click on ‘Generate Content,’ and the tool will generate 2-3 unique answers to the question.

These are just a few exemplary use cases for assistance in writer’s block. You can check more of its functionalities here. 

Besides this, Scalenut also offers various advantages that most tools may fail to offer.

Benefits of Scalenut:

• 40+ use cases for writing copies. 
• Forever free to use. 
• It offers an extensive knowledge base and stellar customer support. 
• Scalenut also offers various frameworks for creating crisps and twists. 
• SEO Assistant analyzes the Top 20 pages of SERPs for the main keyword and suggests the word count and readability for your content. 
• It offers a rich text editor with various formatting options so that you can copy and paste the text. 

Conclusion

Writer’s block isn’t specific just to the newbies or amateur writers. This creative block can surround even the most professional writers and creative minds. 

All that matters is how quickly you are willing to get out of it. 

We hope our detailed guide on writer’s block helped you discover the areas where you need to work and how to break this chain. 

While manual brainstorming can be a good way to end writer’s blocks, it may take up a lot of your time and effort.

A writing assistant tool generates the content the same way a professional writer would do. This AI-enabled tool understands the tonality and style of the content and suggests the best ideas to the writer.

Though you might sometimes need to make some marginal corrections, the SEO Assistant is indeed a goldmine for creative writers and all other writers.

Using this tool, you can easily create content that provides the searchers with the right answers and aligns with the searcher's intent. It suggests the use of various key terms that can contribute to your search relevancy. 

If you are willing to try Scalenut, you can start with the free plan that will assist you forever. Though it has some limitations, it is equipped to check the AI writing capabilities.