Tag: writer’s block tips

If you’re like me, you can’t start your day without a cup of strong, black coffee. And you usually can’t continue your day without – at least – one or two (or three) more cups.

When writing, I find there is a “caffeine balance” you can achieve, wherein you are alert and attentive, but not jittery or fidgety. Achieving this balance, however, will likely require that you drink less coffee as opposed to drinking more (which makes this tip/trick more of an inaction than an action).

According to Neel’s Corner, too much caffeine consumption causes you to feel stressed (and stressed writing is rarely ever your best writing). In addition, too much caffeine can potentially increase your blood pressure, putting you at risk for heart disease.

More writer’s block remedies:

• Part 1 of 4 (Stretch for Syllables)
• Part 2 of 4 (Walk for Words)
• Part 3 of 4 (Go-a-Rovin’)

Our early human ancestors were rovers. They walked for miles and miles, following game animals, picking berries and – more generally – scouring the Earth for sustenance. They did not sit at that same desk, looking at that same ugly desk lamp and that same pointless container full of ballpoint pens that can no longer write.

Instead, early homo sapiens were encountering new views and vistas all the time, with their brains constantly reacting to the colors and details of their surroundings.

Today, roving for writer’s block can be as simple as transporting yourself and your laptop to a park bench or even to a different corner of the office/room. The point is to stimulate your brain with new surroundings when you feel writer’s block setting in.

More writer’s block remedies:

• Part 1 of 4 (Stretch for Syllables)
• Part 2 of 4 (Walk for Words)
• Part 4 of 4 (Cap the Caffeine)

While stretching is a physical writer’s block remedy that you can complete at your desk (see Writer’s Block Remedies Part 1), going out for a walk will provide your brain with a bigger boost.

Walking increases breathing and heart rate, which forces more energy-enhancing, oxygenated blood up to thirsty brain cells. In addition, walking can help you pump up your brain muscles, or more accurately, encourage “cerebral blood vessels to grow,” as The Franklin Institute notes.

So the next time your brain is idling in front of a blank page, put your body into gear and go for a walk around the block.

More writer’s block remedies:

• Part 1 of 4 (Stretch for Syllables)
• Part 3 of 4 (Go-a-Rovin’)
• Part 4 of 4 (Cap the Caffeine)

Your brain is hardwired to your body. In addition to coming in contact with other neurons, the neurons in your brain come in contact with skeletal muscles at a structure known as the neuromuscular junction.As a result, activating your muscles, such as through some simple stretching exercises, will activate brain receptors and help improve the connections between brain synapses. (Translation: It will give your brain a boost.)

Purdue University’s Online Writing Lab recommends tensing and releasing different muscle groups in the body for between 5 and 10 seconds at a time, starting with your feet.

So there you are, sitting anxiously at your computer, staring into the abyss of its illuminated screen while trying to convince your brain that it’s time to write. For whatever reason, your trusty brain is on strike. All fours lobes of its cerebral cortex (frontal, temporal, occipital and parietal), its cerebellum, its stem and yes even its limbic system have unionized and decided that today, at this very moment, you shall not be doing any writing.

As a content writer, I’ve had my battles with writer’s block and have occasionally turned to online resources for help. The majority of these resources recommend psychological solutions: brainstorm your ideas, organize your thoughts, swap out your negative thoughts with positive ones. For me, however, writer’s block will typically set in after completing these mental remedies. I’ll have a fully-researched, organized page; my fingers will be lined up on the keys ready to strike; my mind in a state of complete positivity. And then, nothing. When the only thing left for a writer to do is write, but the writer can’t write, what does a writer do?

• Part 1 of 4 (Stretch for Syllables)
• Part 2 of 4 (Walk for Words)
• Part 3 of 4 (Go-a-Rovin’)
• Part 4 of 4 (Cap the Caffeine)