Writer’s block and how to overcome it

Writer’s block is not a rare phenomenon. Many writers suffer from this, lose the desire to write, take refuge in excuses or suddenly become very interested in the speck of dust on the shelf. Procrastination — or a tendency to find everything more interesting than the actual task — is often a byproduct of writer’s block. The causes of reluctance to use the written word are as diverse as their manifestations, but fortunately there are some methods that can help those affected to overcome it. We give you an overview of the topic and hope that you will find the joy of writing again – or not lose it in the first place.

What do we mean by writer’s block?

Writer’s block can affect not only authors or journalists, but also business partners in email correspondence, bloggers and students. It is defined as a psychological phenomenon that manifests itself in the inability to start or continue a text. Despite existing writing skills, the flow of writing is lacking due to a lack of ideas and inspiration, which triggers discomfort or even anxiety in those affected. The measured value for the severity of the blockage is the duration of unproductively spent time in which neither writing nor planning is done.

How does writer’s block manifest itself?

Dissatisfaction, frustration, anger at one’s own inadequacy, anxiety, powerlessness and despair, and even depression or physical symptoms such as nausea and headaches: all these symptoms can be triggered by writer’s block. We have compiled their most common manifestations for you here.

The wrong self-assessment

Writer’s block can become noticeable even before the actual writing process. In the case of the “fear of the blank page”, the writer has difficulty finding a beginning. This can either be because he or she can’t think of an idea, or because he or she has too many ideas and can’t organize them properly, or because the right wording is missing. Those affected often sit in front of a blank screen for hours without writing a word. Others can plan the text mentally, but then can’t write it down. The cause of this writer’s block is often that authors put too much pressure on themselves and doubt themselves and their performance. This often results from a lack of self-confidence and exaggerated self-criticism.

The lack of a plan

People who do not plan and structure the writing project properly in advance often have a hard time with the actual writing process. This can manifest itself in various manifestations: the early starters , for example, just start writing, but then quickly realize that they are missing the content, or that large gaps have formed in the plot, which can lead to dissatisfaction and eventually to long interruptions. They often tell themselves that the best ideas only come to them while they are writing, but are frustrated when they fail to materialize.

However, writers with a lack of concept often tend to delay writing in general because they don’t know what they want to get at with their text (in terms of content and theme). They look at excerpts that have already been written overcritically or even delete them.

Focus on the audience

Authors with particularly specific and small target groups are sometimes faced with the problem that they put too much pressure on themselves and already have difficulties narrowing down the topic. The opinion of the readers is omnipresent and leads to the fear of not meeting the demands of the target group. This can result in frequent pauses due to word-finding disorders or constant revision , which lead to writing being perceived as torture. The feeling that the target group is not interested in the book has a similar effect: the writer then tends to be sluggish and procrastinated.

The wrong framework conditions

The actual workplace also plays a role: if the study is also a bedroom, living room and dining room or the desk is simply untidy, this can have an inhibiting effect on the flow of writing. Sufferers are constantly distracted and find everything more interesting than the writing itself, which in turn leads to them not finding a beginning and blocking themselves.

Insufficient order can have just as negative an effect as a lack of writing practice and technique or grammatical special cases.

Perfectionism

Perfectionism is a variant of writer’s block, in which a text is created in the first step, but it is perceived as insufficient and deleted again. This is often due to the fact that writers orient themselves to the style of the texts and books they like, but do not achieve this quality on the first attempt. The demands of these perfectionists on themselves are usually too high and lead to enormous pressure.

Those affected also often have the impression that they have to put as much information as possible on one page. As a result, they spend too much time on detailed descriptions and superfluous information and pay less attention to the actual content of their text.

The writing time

Another form of writer’s block is the self-perceived inability to write the text with appropriate speed and quality. This phenomenon occurs especially in experienced writers: as soon as they take significantly longer than usual to write a text, they develop writer’s block, which in turn leads to stress and interruptions in writing.