3 ways to defeat writers block

From time to time we all have to deal with writers block. Overcoming it isn’t always easy, but there are ways to do so. I’ve presented three of the most tried and true methods. Keep in mind each person is different. Some people can try any one and that will work. Others will need to find the specific one that helps them. While still other will need a combination of all three methods.

Exercise

Exercise has several benefits including:

• Improves your mood by stimulating chemicals in your body. Rueters just ran a story about exercise being “on par” with drugs for releaving depression.
• Combats chronic disease such as osteoperosis, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressue, and high cholestrol
• Weight management. This doesn’t need more explanation I hope
• Strengthens your heart and lungs. Again this doesn’t need more explanation why this is good for you
• Better sleep. Burns up the extra energy

Beyond those benefits exercise helps you defeat writers block because it gets your mind off of the subject for 20-30 minutes and often that is exactly what is needed to tackle it from a fresh perspective.

Read

Reading can help in a few ways.:

• Give you new ideas to write about. When you feel like you’re saying the same thing again and again try reading and finding new ideas
• Give you a break from writing. Just like exercising can give you a break reading can do the same thing and often times that’s what is needed to overcome writers block
• Introduce more vocabulary. Sometimes writing that next article is as simple as having some new words by which to express it

Write

Writing will help stimulate the brain and often times stokes up new ideas you had never thought of before.

• Spend 10-15 minutes just writing. Write about the floor, or the hole in the wall. Write about your first dog. Write about the book you read last night, or the birds you saw on your morning walk. Just write. The idea is to get your brain moving, not to turn out master pieces
• Don’t waste time editing or revising. In fact for the most part plan on tossing the writing in the next 3-5 days, but hold it that long to allow yourself time to revisit. Chances are you’ll just toss it then, but there’s always the chance you’ll have produced something usefull for future writing projects
• Do not write for yourself. In other words don’t be overly critical of what you write at this stage