Oscar Wilde once said of writer’s block, “I don’t believe in it… Plumbers don’t get plumber’s block, and doctors don’t get doctor’s block; why should writers be the only profession that gives a special name to the difficulty of working, and then expects sympathy for it?”
But he also said this, in the space where you see the three dots: “All writing is difficult. The most you can hope for is a day when it goes reasonably easily.”
Whether he was right about plumbers or not, I imagine doctors do sometimes find themselves stumped as to how to help a patient. I suspect the reason we don’t hear about it much is that they don’t really want us to know that.
Whether you choose to sympathize with writers or not, it goes (almost) without saying that writing is a creative endeavor, and many a writer experiences lapses in creativity. (By the way, my artist friends tell me it’s the same with artists.)
And when you come to one of those dead spots in your creative path, it can be helpful to have some good creative writing tips on hand.
Quentin was having this difficulty. He wanted to include conceptual art, anime and graffiti-style art in his book on fine art investment strategies, but they weren’t his personal cup of tea and he was feeling uninspired as to how to proceed with the discussion.
After a couple of hours of writing and rewriting, he pushed his chair back from the desk with a sigh. The words just weren’t coming.
A trip to the kitchen for a sandwich and a lemonade left him feeling a little better. Maybe he could hammer something out before the afternoon was over?
An hour and a half later, he threw up his hands in despair. He had three pages of gobbledygook he hadn’t been able to turn into anything he would want to put out to the public.
He read them over again. Not awful, but dull. He’d have to do better than this.
If this has ever happened to you, I’m sure you can relate. And if it hasn’t, well … you probably haven’t been writing long.
Here are some creative writing tips to help you over these bumps in the road:
1. Recognize that you are not alone; every writer experiences lapses of creative genius.
2. Let it go for a while, and write about something that does inspire you. Chances are your muse will whisper in your ear when you least expect it, and you’ll find that difficult piece writing itself. (Well, almost. You’ll still have to touch your fingers to the keys.)
3. Ask an expert what interests him or her about the topic that’s stumping you. Experts love to be asked for their opinions! Pick up the phone and call one; many routinely answer their own phones.
4. If you can’t find an expert, play with writing a dialogue between you and yourself. Ask yourself the difficult questions, and let yourself write the answers back to you. You may be surprised what you come up with.
5. Another great thing that works well for finding inspiration is committing to perform some service you believe in. If you make your life partly about serving others in some way that has nothing to do with writing, things will happen that will tickle your creative juices out of you.
What we call “writer’s block” can actually serve a good purpose. Sometimes you need to give your ideas time to percolate up to the surface. And sometimes, you discover that what you were trying to write about might be better left out of your book.
The more you write, the easier it gets. Publishing a community magazine helped me a lot in learning to be creative on demand; I was also the primary writer, and failure to meet a printing deadline cost me a lot of money. Ouch! I only let that happen once over the course of four years.
If you’ve been writing for a while, you have found your own ways to combat writer’s block. Please leave a helpful comment for others at the end of this blog post!
Life itself is a daily opportunity to marvel. Consider how amazing it is that you exist at all! That there is a world to live in, and other living souls to communicate with! If life itself isn’t inspiring, what is?
Remember, YOU are a gift to the world. You have a unique perspective to offer on anything you choose to write about, and insights that no one else has.
If you doubt this, I invite you to take part in The 21-Day “I AM a Gift to the World” Challenge with Robert and Terri TallTree. Your perception will be altered forever, I guarantee it … and in a good way. And it’s FREE. (But that’s not the best part.)
NOTE: In over 25 years of helping people with their books, my clients have voiced the same issues time and again. Many of my blog posts are composites of their stories to assist you in the realization of YOUR dream of writing and publishing your own book(s).
Read Original Article:
What 5 Creative Writing Tips Can Save You When You’re Stuck?