I’ve been thinking of writer’s block for the past few days after my friend Mike at http://www.10centsworth.com mentioned that he was suffering from it. I know I’ve been in the writer’s limbo before and I figured I’d share my best advice for breaking the chains and moving forward.
If there’s one thing that has helped me most it’s keeping it fun. A lot of people look at writing as such a chore and therefore can’t let their creativity do the work it’s meant to. In the end, your creative self stems from having the feeling of fun. Let’s say, for instance, that you’re writing a paper for your English class. Everyone knows what an awful experience this can be because, typically, the subject material is dry and overused. That said, why not try and make it more likable? Maybe the topic is a book report. Pretend like you’re writing a book. In fact, pretend like you’re writing this book as one of the characters in the story. It’s a fresh perspective and something that can get you honestly thinking. This may not be how the essay turns out in the end bu the idea is to make the writing easier and more fun. Another example: maybe the paper has to be on “Why Grammar is Important.” This is a terrible thing to think of but if you put it in the right mindset then you’re bound to produce something interesting. Think that you’re someone important, a leading professor maybe, and you’re teaching the world about why this is is pivotal to existence.
Yes, these examples may be terrible, but they express a point — writing doesn’t have to be such a chore.
There are millions of exercises on the internet about getting your creativity sparked but in the end, you won’t get started without trying to have some fun with it. How do you make writing fun? Do you find it horrible? Let me hear some stories!