The Cure for Writers Block
A lack of inspiration? Insufficient vocabulary? If you think that these are the causes of writer’s block, then you’re dead wrong.
Writer’s block is not a shortage of ideas or an impediment in the flow of creativity; it is simply the unresolved conflict between your writer-self and your reader-self. You’re worried about how it’s going to read before you even write it. In other words, writer’s block happens when you try too hard to impress your readers (or yourself).
When faced with this internal conflict, it’s often because you care too much about how others will read your writing — after all, isn’t the whole point of writing online to share your ideas? And doing that can certainly make you feel vulnerable. Thinking "This has to be perfect" is what is preventing you from writing well, or even from getting started.
The way to overcome this internal conflict is to — above all else — write for yourself. English literary critic Cyril Connely says, “Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self.” You should be more afraid of losing yourself trying to please the audience more than losing the audience.
Write as if you’re the only person who will be reading and judging your work. You can overcome so-called writer’s block by ignoring the possibility that other people might read your writing. Pretend your laptop is a typewriter and that what you write is for yourself, not the Internet. Be the person who dresses to the nines just to dance in front of the mirror at home. You are your intended audience.
There’s a famous saying: What comes from the heart goes to the heart. It means that if you create something genuinely, it will be appreciated genuinely. Do not be afraid of how things will read. Focus on how meaningful it is to you first, because truly impactful writing needs to be significant to you before it can be appreciated by anyone else.
