Overcoming Writer's Block

Staring at a blank screen can be tough and overly difficult especially if you don’t know what to write.

I bet writers who came before us had an even more difficult time composing with pen to ink & idea to typewriter as opposed to now from brain to computer.

And a lot of people ask me, where do you get all of those ideas that you write, create and compose? I do it by the oldest art form in America and that is of course research. Or perhaps I come across a subject that I love, like, disdain or otherwise hob-knob with.

Sometimes my resources come from work, where I spend 40 hours a week, speaking to “the pulse of America.” Most of my ideas come from own rich life, where for some unknown reason I’ve experienced something extremely pleasurable or something terribly painful.

And then I get questions from folks who ask me why I stick my neck out and record my life in public and why don’t I leave it in private like they do? It’s a good thought, but mostly I write what I write, so others won’t have to deal with what I’ve gone through, especially if it’s something horrendous.

Writing is very therapeutic and also cathartic and a lot of people write, for whatever reason they choose to, whether it’s in a personal diary, an online journals, a review, a response, a resignation or similar.

With the advent of the Internet and personal computers becoming more affordable or virtually free if you belong to a Freecycle group, everyone becomes an instant writer. And as a result, we have a lot of writers in the world.

But are they real writers? Do they talk like they write? And how good are they anyway? Can they sell ad-space for a business directory just as well as they stroke the keys on their computer or are they lousy, nit-pickers who make bad attempts to write by fusing words together to look as good as electronic spam?

As a result of the Internet, we’ve been blessed by a glut of really terrible writers, leaving those of us who can write, out in the cold, making those terrible writers seem as if they know what they are doing.

Blogging has made the most ordinary people come alive with great story-telling ability and skills. I’m not saying it’s wrong or bad, it’s just kind of hard on those of us who went to school and learned how to write properly, and who cannot compete in the real world for the real writing jobs just because someone’s writing is a bit savvier than the next person’s.

Nearly one year ago, I had writer’s block and I had major trouble jumpstarting my writing; nothing came. It was as if I had a major drought within my brain. I tried every method possible like listening to music, finding obscure CDs and fusing song titles together; I looked to my old poems to see if I could pull out good phrases and use them in a brand new poem. I even looked through my old news articles to see if I could find some road that I hadn't travelled down before.

The only things I was able to write were maybe song lyrics or bad poems and those was based on relationships that fizzled as quick as an Alka-Seltzer thrown into a glass of water. And that’s how my writing became; fizzled and next to nothing.

Then I remembered a book my second vocals teacher recommended to me called The Writer’s Block by Jason Rekulak. Inside, it has close to 786 ideas to get the ball rolling. And what a steal; it’s only $9.95 and it fits almost anywhere.

I never did enjoy books that told me how to write. I prefer real humans. Yet this book is different. It doesn’t tell you how you should write, rather it makes suggestions or evokes questions for an individual to think about or to cross-examine and apply it to their own situations.

So I began using it their methods and within time, I fixed the problem and my writing has suffered little since. But this writer's block disease still haunts me, so when I get writer’s block, which is early and often, I reach for that book which is stuffed inside my mini Igloo cooler, where I keep all of my computer disks, supplies and snacks.

Blogging has helped me stave off writer’s block, as I attempt to write almost daily. Sometimes I can and sometimes I can’t, but when I can’t there’s always filler and I have plenty of that.

Now that my life has changed for the better, I can write a little bit easier without the big struggle. That makes me very happy!

One other little tip about writing that I remembered learning and use when need be to separate myself from the pack; anyone can write a paragraph. Try and re-write it though.

That my dear readers, is when the adventure really begins!