Writer’s Block: 5 Things You Can Do When the Words Won’t Come

Anyone who has spent more than a happy afternoon putting words together knows that intent alone does not a story make. Sometimes there’s an impenetrable block that stops the flow of words.

And I’m not talking about the writer’s block that looks like scratching one’s head halfway through a complicated scene. I mean the writer’s block that prevents you from writing anything of substance for years.

I’ve recently come off a long hiatus from writing. In this time, I’d moved to a new state, started a job that required me to write and be creative five days a week, lived alone and then in two unstable households, recuperated from my own bout with the international plague we’re all tired of hearing about, faced burnout, and weathered a mental health spiral—all within four years.

I had gotten to the place where writing seemed as impossible as changing my eye color. Despite my good intentions, I had no story in me to tell. The well was empty.

That probably doesn’t seem so bad to the ears of someone who doesn’t feel like their life’s calling is to write. But when you are someone who feels that way, every lapsed day feels like a failure.

I prayed. I cried. I tried. I tried not trying. I rested.

And I also gave up.

So what got me writing again? Well, that’s a post for another time. But here are some elements I think every writer can benefit from at some point during writers block. Maybe not all of them, but certainly some of them.

Sometimes, there be monsters (aka writer’s block). 5 tips for handling long seasons of #writersblock.

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1. New Experiences

The best thing that happened to me in the years in between WIPs was taking a trip to Europe. And I don’t mean a mission trip, because I’d done a couple of those within the past few years, and they were draining, and suitably so.

But there was a moment in Germany when I put my finger over my proverbial pulse and realized I felt 100% alive for the first time in years. My adventure-loving soul was filled with new experiences, new places, new foods, new languages, new people. Surely, it all would count for something, at some point, because nothing could ever take those experiences away from me.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. said, “A mind that is stretched by new experiences can never go back to its old dimensions.”

It’s by far one of my favorite sayings, and I self-prescribe breaking those old dimensions as often I can.

The farther the mind leaves the rut of the day-to-day, the harder it is to think small. [Tweet that.] Significant new experiences—whatever they may be to you—will jolt your brain with a sampling of new flavors. Your future writing will thank you for it.

2. Face Your Internal Issues

Sometimes the thing that is clouding your brain is your own mind. They are two very different things—the brain and the mind—and I believe if your mind is filtering life in any way that is less than ideal, it needs a new filtering system!

We all have junk. Life is too hard, sin is too heavy, and patterns of thought are too intricate for us to be able to muddle through without external perspective and wisdom, whether that means counseling, regular journaling, a support group, accountability, faith community, or all of the above.

Anxiety, stinking thinking, depression, pressure, perfectionism, and many other mental factors can hang us up from not only living fulfilling lives, but also from writing anything worth reading.

So, face anything that is hurting and/or haunting you from within, and you may be surprised by the words that will be able to spring from a freed mind. Easier said than done, I know. But staying in the same place is just as hard. Pick your hard.

3. Pick Off the External Leeches

A full inner well will reflect in one’s writing. An empty well will kill one’s writing. So, our job as responsible writers is to attend to the things that suck us dry.

I get it; not everything in your life is going to be soul-filling. In fact, some things will be draining. That’s just life.

But for heaven’s sake, we volunteer for some of those life-sucking things, not realizing they’re taking more than they ever promised to give.

For example: social media, relationships (and by this, I mean all varieties of relationships, but especially the optional ones), workplace drama, watching too much of the news or low-level entertainment, etc.

While we won’t be able to—and shouldn’t seek to—rid our lives of everything that drains us, we can, with God’s wisdom and direction, pick off those things that are like leeches, sucking our life’s blood.

And even if you can’t eliminate them completely, you can restrict the amount they take from you.

For example:

• You don’t need access to, say, the news every day of the week. Allowing yourself freedom days will be a reprieve for your mind.
• You can get back your social media feed and emotional peace by hiding “friends.”
• You can actually communicate where you stand and refuse to be dragged into drama.

Your life blood is a type of ink that is more valuable than you may give it credit for in regards to your writing. As such, limiting your accessibility is not a crime. Boundaries are for protection, not to be mean. (Preaching to myself here.)

4. Pray

And I mean pray your heart out. Strip aside every pretense you usually bring to God. Remember that God is the one who gave you the gift of words, and He knows

• what is blocking your heart
• what you were made to do
• why you can’t write right now
• and, well, everything else

I learned some things about myself and my relationship with God in the dark hours at the bottom of the emotional well. Most of it was not pleasant. But all of it was essential for my future growth.

As God and I began to re-sculpt the image I’d always had of Him and me, a new person emerged. A new conversation began. A weight was removed.

Now, don’t get me wrong; there’s still a lot God and I are working through. But I find that my writing is more in partnership now than it’s ever been. It’s not an effort of me proving to Him that I’m a good, diligent girl. And that’s worth every dark night in my past.

5. Plug In and Pour Out

We all have multiple tanks that get empty, that receive unmerited and merited deposits, that sometimes get cracked…

Imagine your reserves for the following: creativity, love, your soul, physical energy, sleep/rest, mental stimulation.

On a scale from 1 to 10, how is your creative tank?

If you are facing burnout or writers block, attend to your tanks.

Even if you’re not writing, get (or stay) involved with a writers group. You have something to share there, just as much as you something to learn. Putting yourself in a writing-filled environment certainly won’t make your writer’s block worse, whereas isolation will.

So, if your creative tank is well poured into through conferences, groups, mentors, books, etc., it’s likely your writer’s block is caused in-part by emptiness in other tanks.

At such times, if your tank is full enough to keep you healthy, it’s a good time to pour into someone whose tank isn’t as full. In so doing, you’ll help them and boost your own confidence. And just maybe, that creative outpouring will trigger your brain from a new angle and jumpstart a new idea. (Not promised, but it’s been known to happen!)

I remember giving a presentation at my local writers group only a month or two after recovering from the aforementioned plague. I prayed my brain fog would not get in the way and that my train of thought would be able to leave the station, at the very least. Before the meeting, I was so nervous and felt like an imposter. But by the time the meeting was over, I’d remembered how much had been poured in to me that I could now pass on to the group. Even though I didn’t have a work-in-progress, I was still a writer, and I could still help other writers in their journey.

“Writer’s Block: 5 Things You Can Do When the Words Won’t Come”
via @MeaganABriggs

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Your turn! What is something that has helped you overcome long-term writer’s block?