creative writing about writer's block

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99 Creative Writing Prompts For Overcoming Writer’s Block

I want to start writing fiction this year. It’s a goal I’ve had on my mind for a while now, but as an essayist and nonfiction writer, I’ve been getting in my head about it. I have no idea how to create stories or characters. But it’s something I want to learn.

In preparing to make this pivot, I’ve discovered that writing prompts are invaluable. They can help us think about stories and subject matter in new ways and serve as a source of inspiration. Even for writers who aren’t looking to explore a new genre, prompts can be useful when we’re in a rut or need some creative magic. Instructions and parameters can help get the words flowing.

While these writing prompts are organized by month, they are designed to be used at your leisure. Feel free to follow it weekly or jump around. You may need to take breaks throughout the year or come back in the summer when you have more time to write—that’s okay, too! Use this list however it works for you and your creative flow!

For further inspiration and encouragement, here are some tips for starting a writing practice .

1. The human spirit is strong. Write about an experience in your life that has made you more resilient .

2. Releasing resolutions can be as important as reaching them. Write an essay in which you reflect on a resolution you didn’t keep.

3. Martin Luther King Jr. said , “I am not interested in power for power’s sake, but I’m interested in power that is moral, that is right and that is good.” Write a story in which your main character uses their power for good. End it with a time jump showing the long-term ripple effects. 

4. Craft a story where your main character gets caught outside in a winter storm. How do they find their way home?

5. The darker months can sometimes feel lonely, but moments alone often shape us in powerful ways. Write a lyrical essay about your own isolation experiences and what you’ve discovered about yourself through these seasons.

6. Write a story about a group of friends who travel somewhere warm for a winter holiday.

7. Imagine a group of strangers meeting while trapped in an airport for 24 hours due to flight delays. Who are they? What types of conversations do they have? How will these new relationships evolve and shape the rest of their lives?

8. Begin a short story in which your main character accepts an important award.

9. What does it mean to say, ‘I love you?’ Write an essay that includes an anecdote about the first time you remember feeling loved.

10. Write a comedic story from the perspective of a restaurant server on Valentine’s Day.

11. Who was your childhood best friend? Write an essay using the second-person (try crafting it as a letter ) about what that friendship meant to you. 

12. Think about a favorite story or fairytale from your childhood. Rewrite it with an alternative ending.

13. Begin a short story in which your main character is at a coffee shop with their love interest on a winter day.

14. Write about a time you did something that scared you.

15. Imagine a world in which the days are getting progressively shorter. How will your characters stop this countdown and save humanity before it’s too late?

16. Create a story in which two friends meet at a Lunar New Year celebration.

17. Write a scene based on a recent encounter with a stranger. 

18. For International Women’s Day (March 8), write a first-person story that takes place at a protest during the women’s liberation movement .

19. In an essay, reflect on the women who’ve helped you become who you are today.

20. Craft a poem from the sun’s perspective in honor of the spring equinox (March 20). 

21. In spring, there is a turning. Write an essay about how seasonal changes mirror a transformation in your own life.

22. Try your hand at an allegory using natural elements to convey a larger message about humanity.

23. Your main character just came home from a trip to find their house has disappeared and been replaced with a supermarket. It’s like it was never even there. What happens next?

24. Consider the meaning of beauty and how it has shifted and evolved with time. Write an essay about this.

25. Write a poem about the power of music. Use these playlists for inspiration. 

26. Create a short story that begins with you waking up on a train destined for somewhere tropical.

27. For Earth Day 🌎 (April 22), write an essay about sustainable living . What does it mean to you? If you need help getting started, try opening the piece with an anecdote about the first time you thought about climate change and sustainability. 

28. In the circle of life, beginnings are preceded by endings. Write about an ending that has led to a new beginning in your life. 

29. Begin a story in which your main character wakes up with a superpower.

30. What was the last great novel you read? Try your hand at a book review, writing as if you’re a famous critic for a publishing house or magazine.

31. Imagine a famous chef loses their sense of taste and serves an overly salted meal to eager patrons. What happens next?

32. Write an essay about your childhood home.

33. Write a third-person story about two friends playing in the rain. Rather than focusing on creating climax, aim to capture their feelings of pure love and friendship. 

34. What is something you’ve always been scared of? Write a future-tense essay about when and how you will overcome this fear. 

35. Toni Morrison once wrote , “Definitions belong to the definers, not the defined.” Write an essay defining yourself, starting with the sentence, “To others, I may seem…but that is not who I am.”

36. Write a poem about your first pet. If you’ve never had a pet, write about your plants or something else you’ve cared for.

37. Write an essay about the day you got your driver’s license.

38. Creativity can be a tool for processing our heartaches. Craft a personal essay about the last time you felt grief—and be gentle with yourself as you get the words on the page.

39. Your main character is on a rooftop in New York City, escaping the crowd of a party. What happens next?

40. Write a summer scene that begins with dialogue. 

41. In a personal essay, describe your last vacation, but write about the trip in present tense . 

42. Write a short story from an inanimate object’s perspective, either in nature or in your home.

43. The main characters in your story have gone on a camping trip. But when they return from the woods, their city is no longer there. In fact, they can’t find any sign of civilization. Write a suspenseful thriller about what happens next. 

44. Craft a poem using the word “citrus.” 

45. A couple is sharing a picnic lunch on a beach. By the end of the story, one of them is walking away in tears. What happens? Focus on building tension and the backstory that leads to this moment.

46. Write an essay about a time you worked tirelessly for something, and it didn’t turn out as you hoped or planned.

47. Create a story in which your main character is experiencing profound joy.

48. In a personal essay, revisit a moment when you learned to take your own advice .

49. Using this list of instrumental covers , rewrite the lyrics to a hit song. 

50. Write a story in which you’re a tourist and visiting your home city for the first time.

51. Two friends take out a boat on the lake and discover the water has magic powers. Write a fantasy scene about their adventure.

52. Learn about your Enneagram number , then write a personal essay with anecdotes that exemplify your basic desire and basic fear.

53. You and your best friend are on a sailboat off the coast of Italy when suddenly the captain disappears. What happens next?

54. Write a story about an encounter with a sea creature.

55. Create a lyrical essay in which the main character is “summer heat.”

56. Write an essay through the lens of your childhood self about your first year at school. Try to be as specific as possible, including the names of friends and teachers. You can use old photos or talk to your parents for reference if needed. 

57. Write a story that begins with your main character swimming in a lake.

58. Sometime this week, spend a few minutes sitting outside or staring out your window to observe another person. Write about what you notice that can help to sketch them as a character. 

59. Make a case for one of your favorite traditions —whether it be celebrating a recognized holiday or a personal ritual. 

60. Write a short story that begins with the ending. For example, perhaps your story is about a girl who gets lost at sea and then captured by pirates—only to become a pirate herself. Begin the story with the girl as a pirate, and then show the readers how she got there. 

61. What is the happiest you’ve ever been?

62. Create a short story that starts with your main character going off to college.

63. What is the most important lesson you’ve learned this year?

64. Lidia Yuknavitch says , “There is so much to learn from the edge of things, from the cracks and cuts and fissures of the earth, of our hearts.” Write a lyrical essay about the cuts and fissures in your own heart and how they’ve led you to this very moment.

65. Write a sensory essay about nature without naming the objects you’re writing about. For example, “The towering giants boast cherry-ripe foliage at this time of year.” 

66. Craft a short story about the final day of summer (September 22). 🍂

67. Try your hand at children’s lit by creating a story for a younger audience. Have your main character learn a valuable life lesson, and use these stories for inspiration if you need help!

68. When was the last time you felt most alive?

69. Write an essay about a change you knew was coming and how you prepared for it.

70. Create a story where the main character is a caregiver for a loved one.

71. Write a poem about shadows. 

72. On Indigenous People’s Day (October 10), write a historical nonfiction essay about the native land you’re living on . For guiding questions, use the Catalyst Project’s worksheet and Resource Generation’s Land Reparations Toolkit and Indigenous Solidarity Toolkit .

73. Write a story in which a “monster” turns out to be a “hero,” or vice versa. This can be either nonfiction or fiction. 

74. You and your significant other are at home watching a scary movie when the power goes out. Create a spooky story about what happens next!

75. Create a spooky children’s story that takes place in a magical forest.

76. Write a story that begins with a girl making her own Halloween costume.

77. Write a persuasive essay about an unconventional fear. Make a case for why more people should consider this fear.

78. A group of friends escapes to a private island for an end-of-year holiday. But when they arrive, the hotel is deserted, and the boat has already left the dock. What happens next?

79. Write about the last time you felt hopeful.

80. In preparation for losing an hour of daylight this month, write a poem about all your favorite cozy things. 

81. Write a story that begins with your main character dreaming.

82. In “ Braiding Sweetgrass ,” Robin Wall Kimmerer writes, “In some Native languages the term for ‘plants’ translates to ‘those who take care of us.’” In an essay, write about how the earth cares for humanity. Begin with a personal anecdote about a time you felt nurtured by nature.

83. Write a first-person essay that revolves around food or a family recipe.

84. Practice shifting between past and present tense by writing an essay about a childhood experience that impacts who you are today.

85. Write a letter to your younger self.

86. Create a story based on a time you went on a spontaneous adventure.

87. Your main characters are at a college football game when, suddenly, the sky goes black. What happens next?

88. How do you overcome self-doubt? Write a how-to essay.

89. What are you most grateful for this year?

December 

90. Write a poem about your favorite sound.

91. Reflect on winter pastimes. What do you love most about this season? Write a short essay about it.

92. Make up your own holiday poem reminiscent of “Night Before Christmas” (or the equivalent for your celebrated traditions).

93. Your main character is a ballerina performing in The Nutcracker, but secretly, they wish to be a teacher. Write a story about this.

94. Who is someone you admire in your life? Write a tribute essay to them.

95. To get in the spirit, create a Hallmarkesque script for a cheesy holiday film.

96. Write an essay that begins with your favorite holiday memory.

97. Your main character is a flight attendant working the holiday season. Write about a strange encounter they have on the plane.

98. What is the importance of rest, and why is it such a necessary practice for our lives?

99. In your final prompt of the year, write an essay about time and forward motion. Begin by reflecting on the past, write about the importance of mindfulness and living in the present moment, and then welcome whatever comes next.

If you write a story with one of these writing prompts and you’d like to share, feel free to link or paste it in the comments below! 💛

Kayti Christian (she/her) is the Managing Editor at The Good Trade. She has a Master’s in Nonfiction Writing from the University of London and is the creator of Feelings Not Aside , a newsletter for sensitive people.

RELATED READING

Writer’s block—having difficulty producing new writing—affects almost every writer at some point, and it can be debilitating for our creativity. If you’ve explored creative writing, I probably don’t have to tell you how painful and challenging writer’s block can be.

In this article, we’ll look at writer’s block more deeply, asking “What is writer’s block?”—beyond its most obvious symptom (trouble writing) and into its underlying nature and causes. We’ll share standard advice on how to overcome writer’s block, and then offer additional suggestions based on a deeper look at the issue.

Writer’s Block: Contents

What Causes Writer’s Block

What causes writer’s block: a personal example, what is writer’s block: a deeper look, overcoming writer’s block: the standard advice, overcoming writer’s block: when the standard advice isn’t working, overcoming writer’s block: directly accessing creativity, how to overcome writer’s block: working with root causes, working with writer’s block: embodiment and connection, working with writer’s block: meeting our parts, courses to help you overcome writer’s block, “why do i have writer’s block”: what causes writer’s block.

In general, writer’s block is not caused by simple problems with easy solutions, such as “being too busy” or “not having anything interesting to write about.”

In general, writer’s block is not caused by simple problems with easy solutions.

These superficial issues can seem to be causing our writer’s block, if they’re the only ready explanation at hand. But if those were the real and only causes, we could easily get rid of writer’s block with simple advice like, “Wake up earlier,” and “What interests you? Write about that.” That advice doesn’t work, because these aren’t the real causes of writer’s block.

In the 1970s, two researchers at Yale studied writer’s block , and concluded that it had four main causes:

• Feeling constrained and creatively blocked by the “rules” of writing.
• Seeking external validation and attention through one’s writing, and becoming disappointed and angry if not getting it.
• Feeling not good enough and paralyzed by self-criticism.
• Feeling afraid of having one’s writing compared with the work of others.

These sets of issues have been labeled “apathy,” “anger,” “anxiety,” and “social hostility,” but to me that has that overconfident 1970s Ron Burgundy feel to it, rather than being a useful description of these people’s inner worlds.

Whether or not these are the official four causes of writer’s block, you can see what they have in common: they reflect places where our psychology makes writing fearful or unpleasant.

Fundamentally, writer’s block occurs when an element of our psychology makes writing fearful or unpleasant.

I can share why  I sometimes have writer’s block, based on what I learned in a yoga-and-writing session earlier this year with our instructor Nadia Colburn :

That agonized handwriting (getting to emote in your handwriting is a big benefit of freehand writing) reads “DESPAIR. I HAVE NOTHING TO SAY.”

Later in the session:

This reads, “I WANT TO GIVE WHAT IS PERFECT LIKE HE DID”

So, of the four options above, my issues with writer’s block are largely reasons 3 (paralyzed by self-criticism) and 4 (afraid of having my writing compared with the work of others).

In my case, “I have nothing to say” means the following: my personal interest is in spiritual writing, and I don’t feel far along enough in my own spiritual journey to be able to contribute anything the world really needs. So “Feeling not good enough and paralyzed by self-criticism” does fit the bill. “Despair” is an additional bit of what that feels like in my case.

“Like he did” refers to a personal favorite spiritual writer, whose writings feel to me like a very high bar that I don’t know if I’ll ever approach—in which case, why am I adding yet more inferior words into this world? So, “Feeling afraid of having one’s writing compared with the work of others” does fit, although in this case it would be me doing the comparing.

Let’s look at writer’s block more deeply. As we can see in my example, writer’s block is not a simple issue of needing a jolt of excitement or discipline. Instead, as The New Yorker reports in an article on writer’s block : “Many symptoms of writer’s block are the kinds of problems psychiatrists think about.”

I would say this more straightforwardly: writer’s block is a topic within mental health.

Writer’s block is a topic within mental health.

Please don’t take that the wrong way. By mental health, I mean “our level of inner well-being,” and, for all of us, it varies , for reasons . For example, although I’m great one-on-one, I am personally terrified of crowds of new people. So, depending on the situation (it varies ), I struggle with people, and those struggles are for reasons which I only partly understand. This is the kind of thing I’m referring to, and it’s the shared experience of everyone who’s ever lived.

There is still sometimes stigma around acknowledging that our minds actually do struggle. So I want to emphasize that I don’t feel that my own or anyone’s experiences of writer’s block are in any way an occasion for self-blame, shame, or stigma.

Rather, I’m simply saying that, just as our psychology can help us or hinder us in our other life pursuits—meeting friends in a new place, recovering from a career setback, and so on—it can help us or hinder us in our writing. In other words, writer’s block is about how we feel about ourselves and our world.

Writer’s block is about how we feel about ourselves and our world.

In my own case, I have no trouble writing , as far as that goes. What has tended to block me is my sense of inferiority, unreadiness, as a writer of spirituality, which I never even fully noticed until the workshop with Nadia. It’s an emotional block.

As the Yale researchers found, most experiences of writer’s block follow this theme. Writer’s block is not about writing per se , but about our feelings around writing: feeling judged by others, feeling rejected, feeling inferior, feeling stupid, feeling hunted by self-criticism, feeling stifled and oppressed, feeling alone.

Writer’s block is not about writing per se , but about our feelings around writing: feeling judged, rejected, self-critical, and so on.

The role of writing itself is simply that it triggers those feelings in some people. We’re disciplining ourselves to find words that seem worthy to write down, and then sharing those words out for others to scrutinize (or ignore!). Many parts of that process can be very heavy emotionally. If the process activates painful feelings in us so strongly that we can’t proceed, we call that writer’s block.

If writing activates painful feelings in us so strongly that we can’t proceed, we call that writer’s block.

Based on this knowledge, let’s look at some advice for overcoming writer’s block. Simple behavioral fixes really can help with writer’s block in some cases, and not in others: it depends exactly what’s causing it for you. We’ll look at different approaches below.

How to Overcome Writer’s Block

The standard advice for writer’s block offers simple behavioral fixes.

The standard   advice for writer’s block focuses on simple behavioral fixes and optimizations, such as:

• Break your writing project into manageable chunks. For example, you can set a timer for a set number of minutes and “do nothing but write” during that time. Take refreshing breaks between sessions.
• Eliminate distractions. For example, you can disable your internet access as you write.
• Don’t get caught in perfectionism as you write a first draft; remind yourself that the draft doesn’t need to be perfect, or even good.
• Find a physical environment and time of day where you feel most inspired and creative, and make it a habit to write there and then.
• Establish a ritual around your writing. For example, you might have a particular song or drink when it’s time to write.
• Do something calming (meditate, stretch) before you start writing, to soothe any anxiety you feel.

If these types of straightforward advice solve your writer’s block, that’s great: whatever its cause may have been, you’ve found a way to work with your system to move past it.

If simple fixes don’t work for you, you’ll need to change your approach.

However, if the fixes above don’t work, you’ll need to change your approach. When these behavioral fixes do try to engage the deeper causes of writer’s block—the internal challenges we discussed above—the result is advice like this :

“Consciously stop any non-productive comments running through your head by replacing them with productive ones. Rather than labeling yourself a ‘bad writer,’ think about what parts of the writing process you excel at (idea generation, conclusions, sentence style , etc.) and plan to allot more time for the steps that take you longer.”

To my eye, this is not very curious about the writer’s inner world. It feels like ignoring calls from a collections agency one-by-one as they come in (call up one of your friends instead!), rather than figuring out what the agency wants and what to do about it.

If the standard advice for how to overcome writer’s block isn’t working for you—as it hasn’t for me—then read on.

The  New Yorker article acknowledges the deeper causes of writer’s block, but describes the Yale researchers finding a moderately successful fix for writer’s block that doesn’t address those causes. The fix has to do with producing dreamlike mental images:

“These writers would sit in a dim, quiet room and contemplate a series of ten prompts asking them to produce and then describe dream-like creations. They might, for example, ‘visualize’ a piece of music, or a specific setting in nature. Afterward, they would visualize something from their current projects, and then generate a ‘dreamlike experience’ based on that project. In multiple cases, the exercises led, over time, to the alleviation of writer’s block—even in the absence of therapy… Emotional blockages did exist. But he was wrong to assume that, in order to move past them creatively, writers needed to address their emotional lives. In fact, the process could go the other way.”

I think this is valuable advice, from the following standpoint: we don’t have to heal ourselves  first ; the writing itself can be healing.

We don’t have to heal ourselves first ; the writing itself can be healing.

But I find the broader implication—that, yes, you can just ignore the causes of your fear of writing by accessing your creativity directly—to still be rather ignorant.

The article expresses dismay that everyone’s mind is different: “Unhappy writers, it seemed, were unhappy in their own ways, and would require therapies tailored to address their specific emotional issues.”

The objection seems to be, “Who’s got time for that?”

“Therapy” here means “professional talk therapy”—you would need to pay for a person’s time, and there’s no guarantee it would work. Under those conditions, I suppose I agree with the objection. It still seems rather dismal.

If, after we’ve “tried everything,” our writer’s block continues to haunt and confuse us, it’s likely because we’ve been trying behavioral fixes for what is ultimately an inner, personal conflict in how we experience ourselves and our world.

If our writer’s block continues to haunt and confuse us, we’ve likely been trying behavioral fixes for a deeper inner conflict.

As an example, let’s return again to my own writer’s block. Is setting a kitchen timer and taking regular breaks really going to help me with the following dilemma: Why would I want to put more inferior words into the world?

Timed or untimed isn’t the issue, nor that I write without a set writing ritual, or with access to the internet. Again, I’ve been struggling with an emotional block, something so painful in how I feel about myself and the world that it shuts down my writing.

If we want to work with those directly, how do we do it? Read on.

Not coincidentally, I first even noticed my writer’s block directly—saw it for what it was, including its causes—in a workshop that combined the very energetic embodied practice of kundalini yoga with short episodes of freewriting.

I’ve written about the experience here , but overall I’d like to advance a few things that are extremely important to the positive result I had, both in Nadia’s description of her teaching and in my own experience:

Come Into the Body

To feel into the things we carry, we need to feel into our bodies. We as a culture are needing to come out of the rational-head-on-a-stick model we inherited, as useful as it can be.

So much of our emotional life is in the body. Our feelings are called “feelings” rather than “musings,” because we feel them, physically.

In particular, the body stores our trauma: the things that scare us for reasons we don’t understand (or, more precisely, don’t remember), which is a topic utterly relevant to writers’ block.

Our traumas, large and small, are deeply embodied. Just changing our thoughts or attitudes won’t address them, and this is why we can’t simply talk ourselves out of writer’s block.

That our traumas, large and small, are deeply embodied, and not addressable by trying just to change our thoughts or attitudes, is a finding so important that it is the title of the seminal book on trauma: The Body Keeps the Score . This is why we can’t simply talk ourselves out of writer’s block.

In Nadia’s workshop, we spent minutes just getting into full experience of our bodies, and the writing came from there. Nadia’s direct advice is as follows:

Here’s more detail on that same advice from a later workshop I attended with her: “When we’re writing we often disconnect from our body; see if you can stay connected to your body and your breath as you write, so you’re not just writing from your head, but from lower down.”

Feeling and Writing into Blocks

Nadia says, “Yoga gave me tools to unlock what my body was carrying.” This doesn’t have to be through yoga, but the idea is that writer’s block , or any other emotional-energetic block in the body, is not something to route around or ignore. Instead, it’s something to feel into, kindly.

Any energetic block in the body is not something to route around, but something to feel into, kindly.

This involves directly experiencing the energy block, in the body, as part of a gentle, embodied practice like Nadia led. Then, as you feel into the block, you can give it voice, through writing itself. The jagged handwriting I shared at the top of the article started as energy: as feelings in the body (tension in the upper stomach, constriction my throat), which then found words to express themselves. The reason the letters are so jagged is because I was allowing this energy to flow and shift, including through my hand as I wrote.

You can write into blocks to explore them, and this is an important method of letting the why of your writer’s block express itself, as happened in my case.

Blocks as an Energy Source

You’ll also find that the energy stored in emotional blocks—including writer’s block—can power your writing.

Again, writer’s block isn’t really a bland, “I can’t find cool things to write about”-type experience. Instead, it’s an “I feel like I’ll never be good enough”-type experience, or “I know I’m better than other people, and I don’t want to give them a chance to disagree by criticizing my writing”-type experience, or any of the other inner conflicts on or off the Yale researchers’ list.

All those cases have something in common: they’re very painful! There’s a lot of energy there.

When your writer’s block reveals its actual source and nature, you’ll likely have plenty to talk about.

When your writer’s block stops being a random weird thing you banish with an egg timer and a favorite cola, and reveals its actual source and nature, then it’s quite likely that you’ll have plenty to talk about. You may also have plenty of energy to do the talking, as with my jagged handwriting.

To explore any of these elements, you can look at Nadia’s teaching, or any other process that combines deep bodily awareness with writing into blocks.

I can’t do full justice to it here, but I’ve been reading a book called No Bad Parts , by Richard Schwartz, and applying its exercises in my own life. It’s changed both my perspective and my day-to-day life by an extreme amount—perhaps more than any other book I’ve ever read.

The book’s core thesis (and of the broader literature known as Internal Family Systems, IFS) is that our minds are not single but multiple: we have many “parts,” each in their own role. By the time we reach adulthood, many of these roles are stuck and confused.

Imagine a normally nice person who has “a mean streak” or “a bad side.” The idea is that that “streak” or “side” is real : it is one of many parts of that person, with its own goals, fears, and perspectives. It is not just an odd and inexplicable “habit” affecting a single, coherent individual.

How does this apply to writer’s block? Well, writer’s block is similarly “odd and inexplicable.” How could a person who loves and values creativity find their own creativity blocked? How come we keep telling ourselves to “just write it, it doesn’t matter what other people think”—and yet we never do? It just doesn’t make sense, if we’re the single, rational, straightforward unit we often assume we are.

Writer’s block happens when we can no longer silence parts of ourselves—that are bound up in shame, inferiority, craving the approval of others, fearing rejection, and so on—enough to keep writing.

After exploring the perspective in No Bad Parts (known as Internal Family Systems, IFS), it’s impossible not to see writer’s block in terms of parts of ourselves—parts that are deeply bound up in shame, inferiority, craving the approval of others, fearing rejection, and so on—feeling so much pain and conflict when we write that we cannot continue.

In general, we’ve never even noticed these parts for what they are (as I hadn’t with the energies I was voicing in Nadia’s course), let alone begun the healing process of reconnecting with them. When we can no longer silence these parts enough to keep writing, we call it “writer’s block.”

Parts Give More Detail

Working with writer’s block using this perspective is very similar to what I did in Nadia’s workshop. The only difference is looking at the conflict in my body not just as an energy, but as a part —a miniature personality. The emotional block I felt is not “my” overall sense of inferiority (which I don’t have!), but is within a system of feelings and beliefs held by a part of me.

This part feels inferior, and is in conflict with other parts of me—say, the parts that would love to write a book, or that feel that what I might have to say may not be perfect, but it is surely worth saying.

Crucially, this part, and all parts, are a friend, not an enemy. The book title says it beautifully: No Bad Parts . When a part is in pain, I don’t need to convince it otherwise, silence or distract it so I can do what must be done, or anything else aggressive, hostile, or bypass-y. I need to listen, and discover why it feels that way.

You can actually communicate with your emotional blocks—including whatever is giving you writer’s block.

The big discovery here is that you can actually communicate with your emotional blocks—including whatever is giving you writer’s block. They aren’t just energies unspooling in the body, but they have stories, fears, goals, and perspectives of their own, which you can actually learn!

That process of reconnection and discovery—which unfolds through energy moving, as happened to me in Nadia’s course—is the healing process itself. It also makes a great energy source for writing, as I mentioned above.

If you want to get into this, I strongly recommend reading  No Bad Parts . Do the exercises in the first few chapters. (The book is front-loaded in the value it delivers, which is nice.) From personal experience, it has really addressed my own writer’s block.

If you do get into this, please proceed with caution: it is like opening pressurized containers, to an extent that has repeatedly surprised me. Make sure to have good supports around yourself.

Many students of ours take our classes to find community, accountability, inspiration, and other forms of support. If you’re looking for another way to tackle your writer’s block head on, take a look at these courses on embodiment and journaling:

Courses on Embodiment

• Sing the Body Electric: Poetry of the Body
• Telling the Stories Your Body Holds
• Writing the Body: A Nonfiction Craft Seminar
• Writing Chronic Illness

Journaling Courses

• These Fragments: From Journal Pages to Personal Essays
• Where the Diary Ends and the Essay Begins
• Creating the Visual Journal
• From the Source: Journaling for Self-Knowledge and Creativity

Courses for Inspiration

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Working with Writer’s Block: Final Thoughts

No one wants to suffer writer’s block. So we ask, quite understandably, “How to overcome writer’s block?” “How to get rid of writer’s block?”  and so on.

On the other hand, given its actual underlying causes, trying to “cure” or “banish” or “get rid of” a severe case of writer’s block, without addressing those causes, could be a bit like looking for a trick to silence the hungry kittens in your pantry so you can get back to composing your violin sonata. Even if you succeed, the whole thing is rather sad.

In this article, I’ve given you a detailed description of the causes of writer’s block, and a lot of options for addressing it—from the simple and straightforward to the profound and weird. In general, I’d say try simple first, just on the off chance you have a mild case. If that isn’t working, get weirder, and you may find yourself healing your actual issues too.

I hope this helps you, and happy writing!

Frederick Meyer

15 comments.

Thank you so much for this article, Fred. I’m glad I’m not alone in finding the standard advice unhelpful! Very keen to explore your suggestions.

Thank you so much, Kerry! 🙂

appreciate the article.

curious if i know the writer; Frederick, did you ever spend time at a retreat center in Vermont?

Yes, same person – hi Greg, wonderful to see you! 🙂

This is unbelievably relevant to where I am in my writing journey at the moment. For me, “Feeling constrained and creatively blocked by the “rules” of writing” and “Feeling afraid of having one’s writing compared with the work of others” are contributing factoring to my own writing block. There’s so much to unpack, and this is going to take several re-reads to fully digest this. Incredibly useful – thank you Frederick!

Thank you very much, George!

The only item on your list that I suffer from, in part, is being locked by the rules of writing. Mostly my writer’s block comes from indecision and an inability to craft a story with all the elements of character description, character arc, goals, a compelling conflict and antagonist. I steer away from themes involving police procedurals and legal stuff since I know very little about them and they seem overworked in the market. But thanks for your post.

Thank you, Robert! Yes, that sounds maybe like a “how-to”/overwhelm issue rather than necessarily a deeper internal block. Or, maybe: not knowing how to proceed is causing overwhelm (I’d get overwhelmed trying to repair a motorcycle even if I was excited to), so it’s technically an emotional block, but an easy one to address since the main need is additional knowledge.

We have a self-guided course on novel writing , as well as many online courses on fiction storytelling . Have a look! We’re happy to offer specific suggestions anytime (you can just contact us through our contact page).

Thank you, Frederick, for this informative and well-written article on writer’s block. I have no doubt that once you overcome any confounding emotions, you will be able to write well and deeply on a subect as infinite and vast as spirituality.

I look forward to reading more of your writing.

Thank you so much, Rebecca! I really appreciate your encouragement. 🙂

Thank you for this article, Frederick. It is exactly what I needed to read at exactly the right moment. I’m sure I will re-read it many times in the coming weeks as I contemplate all that it holds. I always find value in the articles you write, but this one hits such a chord, I had to comment and say thanks.

Thank you so much, Carol! 🙂

The most thorough investigation into writer’s block I’ve read. I’ll be reading it again, too. Thanks, Fred!

Hi, Donna—thank you so much! 🙂

Wonderful, it open the gates !

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50 Creative Writing Ideas to Combat Writer’s Block

A lack of creative writing ideas often leads to a writer’s worst fear: writer’s block.

It’s so easy to fall into its clutches, spending hours at your laptop (or notebook or typewriter) writing sentence after sentence only to cross every one out. Or even worse—to sit an an empty page and write nothing at all. Sometimes it takes time and hard thinking to get out of the rut once you become stuck. Sometimes, however, it takes a little more than that. Sometimes it just might take some outside help.

It can be exceedingly difficult to find solid, mature creative writing ideas on the internet. If you Google “creative writing ideas,” most of what comes up is directed at children or casual writers looking to practice a hobby. But what about creative writing ideas for adults? What about when you have the dedication, passion, and experience with writing, but you just don’t have the  ideas ?

And if these don’t work, check out my other two posts on Writer’s Block (and second Writer’s Block article ).

The next time you’re at a loss for what to write about, try using these creative writing ideas and prompts below. Maybe you’ll be inspired enough to propel you straight out of your writer’s block, or maybe it’ll just be enough to get the gears turning in your head again.

50 Creative Writing Ideas (with Prompts) to Boost Your Inspiration

1. Try Writing Magical Realism

Write a story from a universe similar to this one but possessing one specific magical quality.

1. Write about two people who grow up together, eventually part ways, move to different sides of the country, and somehow still end up unintentionally running into each other very frequently for the rest of their lives.

2. Write about someone who is reincarnated over and over again and remembers all of his/her past lives, but no one else on earth remembers theirs.

3. Write about two people who are physically unable to be awake at the same time.

4. Write about a contract killer literally haunted by his first hit.

5. Write about a prophet who knows the exact day, time, and occurrence of his death years in advance.

6. Write about a character who can taste people’s emotions through the food they prepare.

7. Write about two people who dream about each other before they actually meet.

8. Write a post-apocalyptic story and explain only your main character’s coping mechanism: creating a fantasy world in his/her head and living there.

9. Write about a person who goes to the theater with friends multiple times but always sees a different movie than his/her friends see on the same screen.

10. Write about a person who grows a new finger every time he/she acts cruelly to someone.

If you want help writing your novel, I’ve got the best novel-writing guide in the universe:

12 Steps to Write a Bestselling Novel.

That link will give you advice on characters, plotting, point of view, and more.

2. Write from a Different Perspective

Use a voice and background different from your own to write something unfamiliar and fresh.

1. Write from the perspective of an advanced AI.

2. Write from the perspective of a person in the year 2550.

3. Write from perspective of a mythological siren stuck on the rocky shore of an ocean, trying to lure sailors to their deaths.

4. Write from the perspective of an “inside guy” (jury member, lawyer, judge, etc) during an important court case.

5. Write from the perspective of a family pet whose fate is decided when its owners split up.

6. Write from the perspective of a different gender when subjected to explicit sexual objectification.

7. Write from the perspective of an inanimate object in nature, like a rock or the wind.

8. Write from the perspective of someone with a chronic but not fatal illness (diabetes, OCD, Lyme disease, etc).

9. Write from the perspective of a blind person who comes home to find all the furniture in his/her apartment rearranged.

10. Write from the perspective of a fed-up guardian angel whose designated human is prone to self-sacrificial acts.

3. Write About What’s Around You

Get inspired by ordinary objects in your home.

1. Find a small object in your junk drawer (stapler remover, chewed-up pen cap, paperweight, etc) and write about how it could be used as a weapon to kill.

2. Imagine you have to hide documents essential to national security somewhere in your office or bedroom and write a story about wherever you think is the best place.

3. If the room you’re in has windows, write a story in which the room is exactly the same but with no windows, and vice versa.

4. Imagine you’re cleaning out your desk and find a secret message carved or written on the bottom of one drawer.

5. Open a book in your office, turn to a random page, blindly point to a word, and use it as the very first word of your story.

6. Find a photo of yourself and write a narrative about the photographer in that moment.

7. Pick a room in your house and recount a story, real or fictional, about how a particular object in that room came to be there.

8. Mentally (or physically, if you want to) rearrange all the furniture in your office or bedroom and write about how that changes the overall mood of the room.

9. Search your coat pockets for old recipes, notes, or trinkets and write a story centered around something you find. (If you find nothing, write about why you empty your pockets so frequently.)

10. Pick a small item from your desk drawer and write about a character who carries it around as a talisman.

4. Let Your Reading Inspire Your Writing

Use your favorite books as a launching pad to create something original.

1. Write a scene borrowing the protagonist of a book you’ve read, but cast as a different gender.

2. Research an author you enjoy, then combine his/her life with the life of a character from one of his/her books to create a new character.

3. Take a familiar scene from a book and rewrite it, adding yourself in as a character (spectator, narrator, background figure, etc).

4. Reset a scene from a book in a drastically different time period.

5. Write a different story using the same title as a familiar book.

6. If the book you’re using has a first person narrator, rewrite a scene either from the perspective of another character or in the third person.

7. Write about a fictional person who has an intense reaction (either positive or negative) to a book you’ve read.

8. Write a story using only words found in the first and last sentences of each chapter of a book.

9. Take a book you know well and write an alternate ending that is the exact opposite of the real ending (whatever you think “opposite” means).

10. If the book you’re using has a third person narrator, rewrite a scene in the first person (as one of the author’s characters or a new character).

5. Take a Plot and Write It Multiple Ways

Take a well-defined prompt and write it multiple times, each with a different ending.

1. Write about a Japanese steakhouse chef who accidentally cuts him/herself while cooking in front of a family.

2. Write about a painter who is commissioned by a family member to paint a dead man/woman using no pictures, only descriptions from other people.

3. Write about a group of truckers who all frequent the same truck stops and form a book club for when they see each other again.

4. Write about a seasoned model who shows up to her agency one day with inexplicable cuts all over her legs.

5. Write about two strangers who each grab one end of extremely rare record at the same time in a secondhand vinyl shop.

6. Write about a manic-depressive linguist who conveys his/her emotions to friends using words from other languages that aren’t translatable into English.

7. Write about a group of whalers who accidentally discover mermaids the size of blue whales.

8. Write about someone who mistakenly picks the lock to the wrong apartment at two in the morning when trying to get into a friend’s apartment.

9. Write about a strictly Shakespearian actor who loses all of his/her money and has to take modern comedic roles to stay afloat.

10. And finally: Write about a writer struggling with long-term writer’s block who desperately searches the internet for ideas and prompts.

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78 comments

oh my gosh this was really helpful – thank you! :))

SAME WITH ME. EVEN THOUGH I AM JUST 13 YEARS OLD, I AM CONSTANTLY SEARCHING FOR NEW IDEAS TO WRITE. THANKS SO MUCH.

YES THIS IS ALSO VERY HELPFUL WHICH IS WHY I AM WRITING IN CAPITAL LETTERS

No it wasnt.

Really helpful and cool, thank you!!!

YESSSSS!!!!!!

Thiz is terrible!

so helpful I really needed this

Super helpful

These were soooooooooooooooo random prompts! They didn’t help me at all! 🙁

well maybe you shouldn’t become a writter then because if you look it was helpful to the other writters boom .

i dont think this means they shouldnt be a writer, writers block can be really difficult to get over and maybe these ideas didnt help them get over it, i know they didnt help me yet ive been writing for nearly 5 years constantly. each author is different, so its great if it helped others but that doesnt guarantee itll help everyone

That’s really rude becoming a writer means working towards your goal. Some ideas don’t inspire some people. Progress takes work and the ability to write doesn’t come easy to some people. Who knows he/she could become a great writer. We just don’t know it. We choose are destiny.

what a geek

wow look at that. you are telling people off but you can’t spell the word writer! look into a dictionary.

Maybe you guys should be nice. It’s hard to be a writer, and putting other people down because they didn’t find anything helpful isn’t right. Please remember we all want to change the world.

I think random prompts are good prompts.

I agree. If they’re random that means that there’ more variety

keep looking, I’m sure there’s something there.

I think that it was the point tp be random ideas. I personally think that these were amazing ideas and I think you might need to try to be a bit more creative.

the point is to just getting you to write something versus nothing. So if you start getting your creativity flowing it will help you with your personal work.

Same I agree

I hope you come up with even better ones!

Same . It was like you have to find something and it takes ages

Honestly, I’ve been to 3 different sites before this one looking for some decent writing prompts. Don’t be fazed if they don’t help you 🙂

That’s fine, they might not help everyone! It also might not be what you’re used to, try writing with one of the prompts, if you don’t end up liking it, it’s still an exercise for your mind. Good luck!

Good fodder for insight, topics . Curious what other readers used these to for ??

Good ideas and it helped me!

Thank you so much for these! I usually see such generic prompts on other sites, but these were very original and inspiring! I would love more if possible 😉

love these ideas I would like more if possible!

This helped me with school a lot!!

I feel personally attacked by that last one.

“and finally…” LOL. Agreed

Ha- me too!

Thank You! Your ideas are really quite wonderful. 🙂

If these don’t help you, then try procrastination. You subconscious is working on your story, so when you sit down, it is so much easier to continue writing. (Works for me!)

Someone that has used one of these prompts should be super nice and let me read what they came up with. I’m super curious as to how some of you are using them.

I’ve only managed to use one so far, there are some very great prompts here.

I am 12 years old and I am confused on where my life is going… either a vet actor, or a book writer. I need advice from some adults.

dear ADVICE PLEASE [or anyone really] you should get to be whatever your heart desires. I think that you could be a vet or actor as well as an author. The world needs writers, so get out there and spread some joy! Oh btw, I’m sure we’re all on this site for the same reasons, but don’t give up on your writing dreams

I am using it for a random report I wanted to write about something. It was just kind of boring until I realized… there IS a positive side to COVID 19! I mean c’mon guys there is a positive side to everything so search for the positive sides not the negative ones. So the positive side was… WE COULD IMPROVE OURSELVES!!! Literally just by working on something we like during COVID 19 will make it seem better and BE better!! Some people had no time to improve because they were too busy with some other job but NOW.. We could spend our whole day on something we like and trust me it will benefit each and every one of you!!! ( And your day won’t be AS boring and sad because there WILL be something to do. There is always something to do!!! )

These are some helpful ideas but I don’t agree with a few but that doesn’t matter because some of them helped me. Anyway thank you for them!

Thanks this really helped as I had something set to write to so randomness helped!

These were helpful! ( And by the way…One of your probmpts scared me, I often dream about people sometimes and then meet them later. It’s very complicated about how and why. )

I want to read what other people wrote now

That last one had me cracking up.

i second that eva

Really good ones! the last one got me smiling!

Spider girl – why not all of them? You have a long life ahead of you and to only focus one career your entire life is dreary for some people such as myself. I have been a firefighter, preschool teacher, sales person, and am currently a writer and a music teacher.

they’re really good ideas, none of them really appealed to me specifically, but it seems like someone could still make a good story out of them! 🙂

THANKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This was exactly what I needed thanks so much

These have really have been a good use for me. I have been in a writer’s block for at least two weeks now and just by looking at some of these creative writing ideas, it has helped a lot. I know some of them may not appeal to all of you specifically, but it does give more confidence in your writing and your stories just by looking at some. For instance, if you were to look at one of the Magical Realism writing ideas, it could open a whole door to new writing possibilities. You can take one of the ideas and turn it into your own. You may not all agree that these ideas can help you, but it can definitely give you the confidence that you may lack when writing stories or maybe just inspire you. These ideas are helpful. Thank you!

Okay Hi, I was looking for a random prompt to write about, and I didn’t find one can anyone give me some ideas for one? I would be so grateful. Just for a little info, I am 13 and in 8th grade and just felt the need to start writing. Anyway, whoever sees this I hope you have a wonderful afternoon (or morning) Be safe throughout this week okay.

You could write about your dream for when you grow up. Like Martin Luther King Jr.

Thanks so much this helped

The 2nd one in the very first idea is one I think I’m going to use. Thanks so much!

omg this is fantastic…Thank you so much. I can relate to so many of these prompts but never really thought of them…

these were so good it inspired me to write:)

Thank you for this. I’ve been working on the same project for ages and this was a wonderful break from it.

Lot of love. Thank you. This is great help.

Wow! I could never have thought of these ideas even if I was given a million years. Thanks.

This took YEARS of me

This was so much help the thing is can you add some easy and fun ones?

This is very helpful thank you 🙂

These have been very helpful. Thank you so much for sharing these. The last one was hilarious and made me realize in many cases I was blocking myself, lol. It was great!

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most of these really did help me. I put them on to a word doc and kept going back on them and then went to different webs. now if I have writer’s block I have 64 pages of things to try.

I needed this

Some were a bit sus but ok

SOOOOOOOOOO HELPFUL!!!!!

Every writer NEEDS this book.

It’s a guide to writing the pivotal moments of your novel.

Whether writing your book or revising it, this will be the most helpful book you’ll ever buy.

How to Overcome Writer’s Block: 14 Tricks That Work

Writing about a writer's block is better than not writing at all. –Charles Bukowski

It happens to every writer. It's inevitable. Your prose has turned to mush, you don't have a creative bone left in your body, and you want to throw in the towel.

Writer's block. Every writer struggles with it. But what you do with it is what really matters. Before we talk about solutions, though, let's talk about the problem.

Common causes of writer's block

The reasons for your block may vary, but some common ones include:

• Timing: It's simply not the right time to write. Your ideas may need to stew a little longer before writing them down.
• Fear: Many writers struggle with being afraid, with putting their ideas (and themselves) out there for everyone to see and critique. Fear is a major reason some writers never become writers.
• Perfectionism: You want everything to be just right before you ever put pen to paper or touch a keyboard. You try to get it perfect in your head and never do, so you never begin.  To help you through this, we created Don't Hit Publish. It's a free tool that tells you if your blog post is good enough to publish and also give you tips on how to improve it.

So how do we vanquish this enemy?

It's a tough question to answer, and I'm afraid I don't have a great solution. I've wrestled with writer's block on many occasions, and each victory looked different.

That's the thing about writing: it's an art, not a science. And you'll have to approach it as such. There is no formulaic fix, no “7 Steps to Becoming a Better Writer Now.”

Except one. But you already know what it is: Start hacking away. Begin trying stuff. Sometimes, the quirkier, the better . The trick is find something that works for you.

Creative solutions to writer's block

Here are a few ideas to help you work through your creative constipation:

• Go for a walk.
• Eliminate distractions (I use Ommwriter to focus on just writing).
• Do something to get your blood flowing. (I like running.)
• Play. (My personal preference is LEGOS.)
• Change your environment.
• Read a book.
• Freewrite .
• Listen to music (try classical or jazz to mix it up).
• Brew some coffee (my personal favorite).
• Create a routine. Many famous writers have daily routines to summon the Muse.
• Spend time with someone who makes you feel good.
• Call an old friend.
• Brainstorm ideas in bullet points.
• Read some inspiring quotes to get you started.

The possibilities are endless, but movement is critical. You need to generate momentum to get out of your funk.

Once you start heading in a direction, it's easier to pick up speed. And before you know it, your block will be a distant memory and you'll be doing what you once thought impossible. You'll be writing .

How to not overcome writer's block

And just for fun, here are some anti-solutions to this problem:

• You do not overcome writer's block by refusing to write until you feel “ inspired .”
• You do not overcome writer's block by wallowing in self-pity.
• You do not overcome writer's block by procrastinating or making excuses .
• You do not overcome writer's block by watching TV.
• You do not overcome writer's block by reading articles on how to overcome writer's block. (Kinda shot myself in the foot there, huh?)

The fail-proof solution

If you're still not satisfied, you have one last resort, an ace up your sleeve. The silver bullet solution. The fail-proof way to overcome writer's block is one you already know. In fact, you've been avoiding it this whole time, because it's precisely what you don't want to hear.

[specialbox] You overcome writer's block by writing . ( Tweet )[/specialbox]

Start somewhere, anywhere. Write a few lines. Say anything. And see what happens. Don't think about it too much or make any fancy announcements. Just write . It doesn't need to be eloquent or presentable; it just needs to be written..

Write for the joy of writing. Because you can't not do it. Don't try to say or produce anything; just get some words on paper, now. No excuses or justifications.

You can write. Don't make it harder than it has to be. Just type a few words. They don't have to be good ( all first drafts suck). It just has to be written. Then you have something to work it. You can tweak from there.

If you do this, you'll get past the hump. I promise. The difference between professional writers and amateurs is this: Both encounter blocks, but one pushes through while the other gets paralyzed.

You can do this. Just write.

(One caveat: This technique only works if you're truly blocked and not “empty,” which is an entirely different matter altogether.)

How do you overcome writer's block? Share in the comments .

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How to Cure Writer’s Block: 23 Proven Ideas that Actually Work

T he fact is that almost every writer faces writer’s block at some point in their career. Deadlines, storylines or even airlines can be the cause of this intellectual affliction. Writer’s block is real and can greatly affect your output.

But, every writer of note has willed themselves out of this mental stupor. Writer’s block doesn’t have to stop a budding Homer in their tracks.

There are many ways to overcome this form of procrastination that works wonders.

Today, let’s look at 23 ways that prove effective to help you get rid of writer’s block.

But first…

writer's block DEFINITION

What is writer's block.

Writer’s block is when a writer experiences creative slowdown or can't create new work; essentially an artistic full-stop. It’s the inability of an author to compose new, original material that moves a narrative forward. The term writer’s block is used in reference to any writing or composition process where creativity is stunted. The production of new work grinds to a halt. It’s often referred to as creative constipation. Frustration, fear, anger, dread, and other strong emotions sometimes accompany it.

What causes writer's block?

• Distractions
• Physical illness
• Bills piling up
• Procrastination
• Intimidation

1. How to cure writer's block

Read for inspiration .

One of the best ways to overcome writer’s block is to read. Whether your favorite author or someone new, reading is a reliable cure.

When you take in another writer’s words on the page — a writer who has in all likelihood overcome the block as well, at some point — it challenges and motivates you to get the words out.

The inspiration for many writers is their own writing heroes. Shakespeare to Faulkner, Byron to Plath, all have their own styles and voices that have nourished generations of creatives. Writer’s block gloms onto the idle, not the well-read.

You could open the best screenwriting books for writer’s block help. So pick up a Kindle or an actual bound book, and kickstart the motivation.

​ ​ “The journey of a thousand words begins with the first.”

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2. how to get rid of writer's block

Write away your writer's block.

Even if you copy words from another source, getting something down on your screen or pad is a useful tool to get rid of blockage.

What is writer’s block, after all, but a stoppage of writing?

So do the opposite: just write.

Try transcribing a poem or song lyrics and see what happens.

Whip up a to-do list, an outline for another project or story, a free-association paragraph or two. You’ll discover it goes a long way.

Just as the adage “fake it 'til you make it” fits the bill in business, it also works with writing. Get the writing muscles moving and your brain will catch up before you know it.

There is nothing bad about writing something that, on the surface, appears unusable. It’s practice. You’re training your mind and fingertips for what matters.

If Chris Brown gets stuck in writer's block, he'll just "write it out."

Chris Brown's cure for writer's block is to "just write it out!"

3. how to get rid of writer's block, use a writing prompt.

Writing prompts are an effective way to overcome writer’s block. Having another brain issue a challenge can get a lot of writers going, even you.  

Writer’s D ​ ​ igest and Reddit both offer a roundup of prompts to get you started. You may even consider single words, colors, or phrases as prompts and take it from there.  

Prompts from writer-specific sites can be more in-tune with the level at which professional writers work. But the whimsy of other random sites and ideas can also do much to alleviate writer’s block.

This is basically looking without, instead of looking within, for what to do when you have writer’s block. Taking the pressure off yourself can free your mind and get the ball (- point pen) rolling.

“The wonderful thing about writing is that there is always a blank page waiting. The terrifying thing about writing is that there is always a blank page waiting.”

― J.K. Rowling

4. How to get over writer's block

Develop a character.

Since you want to know how to get over your block, create a character who already has the answers.

The character you describe in writing doesn’t even need to have meaning, only features. A woman with red hair, green eyes, and a pout. A pimple-faced man in a trucker hat. Throw in a verb and a location and you have the beginning of a story.

“A woman with red hair, green eyes, and a pout stands in front of her bedroom mirror …”

“A pimple-faced man in a trucker hat sprints down the sidewalk …”

The character doesn’t necessarily have to know all the right answers.

You can even create a version of yourself. Some of the best characters came about this way. If the character turns into a cure, then you’ve created the right character.

You can even use a character development worksheet to get this process going even faster.

Free downloadable bonus

Download free character development sheet.

If you're going to develop a new character, it's critical to lay out the ins and outs for a fully-formed character.  Download our FREE, worksheet to get you started.

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• Free Character Development Worksheet →

5. how to cure writer's block

Try a different genre.

If you want to figure out how to get past writer’s block, we recommend switching up your writing genre. If you are a screenwriter, write a short story or essay. If you’re a novelist, write a poem.

It’s almost as like taking a vacation from your usual writing style and vocation to explore a new voice.  It is a new way to interpret the world. Also, you might consider writing your same format, but with a different style or approach.        

Expository writing can be tiresome. Try a few lines of descriptive text. Next, maybe a persuasive argument within your story.  

Writer’s block shuts the door. These style exercises open windows.

6. how to overcome writer's block

Put together a puzzle.

Working with other parts of the brain can be a big help.

Whether it’s a jigsaw puzzle, tangram, sudoku, or crossword, puzzling your brain stimulates dopamine and gives you a creativity boost.

Furthermore, the analytical nature of a puzzle bleeds into the writer’s craft. Putting yourself in a headspace to analyze or assess can lead to overcoming writer’s block.

RELATED POSTS

• Read More: How To Become a Writer →
• Read More: 30 Ways to brainstorm short film ideas →
• Download: A FREE Story Outline Template →

7. how to get rid of writer's block

Change your music.

Playing music can be a good method for how to get over writer’s block. If it’s not working, change the music.

Now, change it again. Deejay your way out of a corner.

Music has been a cure to spur creativity ever since authors put quill to paper. Music not only calms the savage beast, but it also inspires the blocked writer.

We’re partial to Bach for curing writer’s block but AC/DC may do for you

Youtube and Spotify playlists exist that focus on writer’s block help. Ultimately, only you can determine what music works best.

A lot of writers swear by Elgar or Handel when crafting period-specific tales, for example.

8. HOW TO GET over OF WRITER'S BLOCK

Practice another art form.

This trick is one of the most fun ways to get the creative juices flowing. Singing, painting, sculpting, or dancing will get your creative juices flowing. Bust out the watercolors. Take out crayons and doodle away.

Download the Pulp Fiction script and act out the scene between Vincent and Jules as they clean up the car.

Practicing another art also gives you a built-in writing prompt: “A writer dances in the living room, loud music shaking the floor …”

You get the idea.

“Writing about a writer’s block is better than not writing at all.”

— Charles Bukowski

9. HOW TO GET RID OF WRITER'S BLOCK

Find a new hobby.

A craft or hobby can be the best answer for beating the creative blues.

Whittling, cobbling, and cooking all count as hobbies! So do gardening, knitting, and collecting snow globes.

A hobby or craft gives the mind a sense of workflow and completion. They require attention. They force your brain to focus.

Focus is an enemy of writer’s block and a friend to the writer.

So if you don’t have a hobby, maybe it’s time to find one. Your world and your writing will broaden. Try your local community college, which undoubtedly has an array of classes.

Some people knit, others whittle to get rid of writer’s block

10. getting over writer's block, watch a short film.

Watching a short film, a concise and contained story, is a surefire solution to moving forward with whatever you’re writing.

Just like features, short films provide different perspectives, new ways of thinking, emotion, and closure ― but in less time.

Voila! You’ve just written your way out of the doldrums.

Take a look at a genre-specific short film. Make a quick outline of it. Then expand on the story in a few sentences. What happens next?

What is writer’s block? Bryan Cranston knows all too well.

• The Best Short Films of All Time →
• How to Brainstorm Short Film Ideas →
• Rules for Writing Award-Worthy Short Films →

11. GETTING OVER WRITER'S BLOCK

Try cleaning your house.

Artists tend to work in spaces consumed by things. If this sounds like you, try a quick tidy-up. You might find that un-cluttering your workspace also de-clutters your mind. Cleaning gives you a “fresh start” and might lead to overcoming writer’s block.  

This is a question of taste. If you discover that clutter works for you, by all means, keep it messy.

But shift your clutter around. Seeing your area, even your mountains of clutter, in a new light is what you’re after.

When afternoon sun reflects off the south face of your newly rearranged laundry pile, you might get inspired.

Since you need to know how to get over unproductively, we’ll emphasize right here that cleaning or rearranging your stuff is a go-to cure.

“Breaking through writer’s block is like thinking out of the box: Both require an ability to imagine a world outside your four walls or rearranging them to get a better view.”

— Susan J. McIntire

12. HOW TO CURE WRITER'S BLOCK

Create a story circle.

The story circle is a storytelling tool and it helps you improve the structure of a story and was originally based on Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey. 

As a writing exercise, this can be effective to write out your story and think of all the elements holistically as a way to kick your writer's block. 

Dan Harmon's story circle

• Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey in 17 Steps →
• Internal and External Conflict Can Energize Your Story →
• FREE Download: Script Breakdown Sheet Template →

13. GETTING OVER WRITER'S BLOCK

Complete a simple task.

Completing a simple task is another way to move forward and get past writer’s block.

Taking out the trash, scrambling eggs, and watering plants all have the potential to impact creativity. You’ll also be able to scratch a chore off your list.

Making coffee is a simple and quick task. It also leads beautifully to the next item on our list of how to get over writer’s block.

Whatever your simple task is, make sure it isn’t stress-inducing in any way. Stressful tasks can be counterproductive. Multitasking, too, is not the best answer to cure your block. Stick to one thing.

14. GETTING OVER WRITER'S BLOCK

Make a writing schedule.

Does a routine sound boring?

As a writer, a routine can be your best friend.

Sitting down to write at the same time every day, and for the same length of time, forces the creative mind to produce the goods. If you go into it treating writing as your job, then you are simply more likely to get your job done.

That doesn’t mean it has to be a chore or a hassle. The fun and inspiration will come. Routine is the process you use to get to that place of fun and inspiration.

Your schedule can be your best cure when the muse won’t visit.

Your schedule doesn’t have to be ironclad, but routine and consistency are what you’re going for here.

Every film needs a  shooting schedule .

Every writer needs a writing schedule. Routine is not a dirty word.

“Writer’s block? I’ve heard of this. This is when a writer cannot write, yes? Then that person isn’t a writer anymore. I’m sorry, but the job is getting up in the f***ing morning and writing for a living.”  

—  Warren Ellis

15. Writer's block cure

Practice a new language.

This is one of our favorites hacks for keeping pen to paper. The beauty of French, the structure of Japanese, the melody of Italian, the vowels of Arabic — learning another language, or involving a language you already have mastered, can give you a big creative push.  

Maybe one of the characters you’ve created speaks another language. This backstory alone can get a writer over a hurdle. Mashable has tips on where to look to learn a new language.

Another hack is to take a poem or phrase in another language and use it as the focus of your story.

For instance,  je ne sais quois …  What does the French term mean? How can it be applied to your work?

Research the history of the phrase, and your writing will take on a whole new life.

How do you say writer’s block in Swedish?

16. writer's block cure, drink some coffee.

We aren’t the first to suggest coffee to boost output. Caffeine does wonders stimulating the mind. It spurs writers in every medium to get moving. Literally, it’s a diuretic.

If caffeine isn’t for you, other natural stimulants exist. Ginseng, ginkgo biloba, and ― oh yes, wait for it ― dark chocolate all act as natural stimulants

“I don’t sit around waiting for passion to strike me. I keep working steadily because I believe it is our privilege as humans to keep making things. Most of all, I keep working because I trust that creativity is always trying to find me, even when I have lost sight of it.”

― Elizabeth Gilbert

17. GETTING OVER WRITER'S BLOCK

Change your scenery.

This seems like a no-brainer in our quest for a writer’s block cure. Still, most people get stuck in a rut that has less to do with what they’re doing than where they’re doing it.

Even something as simple as changing the direction you usually face when you’re writing can do wonders for your creative energy.

It can also do wonders for your characters. Travel is an eye-opening experience.

This is true with the people you come across. Meeting and observing new people in new places will get you past writer’s block.

What is writer’s block? It’s quicksand.

What is travel? It’s movement and a lifeline.

“There's a lot of optimism in changing scenery, in seeing what's down the road."

― Conor Oberst

18. WRITER'S BLOCK cure

Get some exercise.

Exercise does wonders for the body and mind. Endorphins give you a runner’s high, which can translate to productivity and energy in all other areas of life and work.

You don’t have to run a marathon or do hot yoga to get the blood pumping. Try alternating between 10 push-ups and 10 sit-ups every 10 minutes over the course of an hour.

It’ll do wonders.

Pick something easy. Even stretching helps. Remember, objects in motion tend to stay in motion. Remaining sedentary will make sure your writer’s block doesn’t go anywhere, either.

How to overcome writer’s block? Get fit!

19. writer's block cure, go outside and play.

Let’s face it, if you’re stuck at a computer with a bad case of the blank page, it might mean that you aren’t living enough to write about living. What can you do?

Get outside and live a little. Or, go outside and live a lot!

Laughter and joy in the real world can be the perfect antidote to the crime series you’re creating. Even a writer’s group counts as play. You’re engaging, communicating ― living.

Join a group of writers to get rid of writer's block.

20. WRITER'S BLOCK CURE

Dictate and record.

Maybe the most fun way to overcome your impediment is to tell yourself a story out loud and record it, giving you a solid place to start.

Even kicking off with “once upon a time” requires creative expansion. Pretend you have an audience. Children, old folks, tourists, a judge: your imagined audience can guide your tone.

You might find that, for now, it’s easier to tell a story than to write it. Use what you’ve got!

If you want to get over your block? Tell yourself a story.

21. WRITER'S BLOCK CURE

Have a cocktail to cure writer’s block.

I don’t advocate resorting to alcohol all the time, but sipping a cocktail has certainly helped many a writer.

There is a fine line between having a drink to loosen up and being unable to type from blurry-eyed tequila-vision . You don’t want to spend every waking hour seeing the world at a dutch angle .

So you’ve taken a sip. Now use your drink as a writing prompt. What does it look like, taste like, and feel like as you swallow?

Hey doc, I’ve got the writer’s block.

Take two sips and call me in the morning.

“When you work hard all day with your head and know you must work again the next day what else can change your ideas and make them run on a different plane like whiskey? When you are cold and wet what else can warm you?”

—  Ernest Hemingway

22. WRITER'S BLOCK CURE

Go through a guided visualization.

If you feel a creative block approaching, it could also be due to overthinking. Another way to clear your mind is through guided visualization — which is easier than mediating and a great way to activate the imagination.

This could take about 10-minutes, but it can be a surefire way of shaking you out of things.

Follow along right here:

Guided visualization to cure writer's block

23. writer's block cure, clear your mind to cure writer's block.

The truth is, prayer, meditation, yoga, or whatever you want to do to center your creative mind, can be clutch as a cure for writer’s block. Meditative activities such as prayer help to center the creative mind.

The clean slate in your head can inspire you when you face the clean slate of the page.

How to overcome writer’s block? Meditate

Tips for writing short films.

We’ve given you ideas for overcoming writer’s block. Try one, try a few, or try them all.  But most importantly keep writing. Make note of what works for you — we promise something will.

But make sure you realize that when you can’t create, it’s usually a mental block more than creative one. Now that you’ve kicked the muse to the curb, it’s time to focus your writing even more. Learn the best tips for writing a short film that gets noticed.

Up Next: Write a Short Film that Gets Noticed →

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500 Writing Prompts to Help Beat Writer’s Block

Looking to get your story started with a writing prompt? You’ve come to the right place. In this post we detail everything you need to know about writing prompts and give you 500 writing prompts broken down by genre. Enjoy!

I want to be a writer… but what if I have nothing to write about?

Ever feel like you’d love to write but you’re fresh out of ideas? Like there’s nothing else that you could possibly write about, or you have no idea where to even get started? We get it. One of the hardest steps in writing a book is often knowing where to get started. Coming up with content, getting your pen (or pencil) to paper, and letting your creativity flow is a challenge that many writers struggle with. As we know, facing writer’s block and fighting personal writing doubt is common. An overwhelming number of professional authors admit to getting stuck well before they get to the point of selling books on Amazon . Thankfully, there’s an answer to the question of where to turn when you feel like you’ve hit that proverbial wall: the writing prompt.

What is a writing prompt?

How often do writers use writing prompts?

There’s no right answer to this question because using writing prompts can often be a personal choice. Some authors find it greatly benefits their ability to turn out creative results. Some authors know that they already have the right ideas for a book in their heads. With using writing prompts, you need to decide on what’s best for you . Whatever method helps you generate ideas is what’s best for your writing!

Is there a writing prompt that’s best for me?

You might be wondering if there’s one type of writing prompt that’s best for you. It’s easy to find selections of prompts that are filtered by specific genres (romance, mystery, and so on). However, we recommend sticking to genre-specific prompts if you want your writing to be more focused. With that being said, you never know when inspiration will strike. If your writing needs are less genre-restricted, reading as many writing prompts ideas as possible may be the best option for you! Whenever I write for fun, I love to read as many prompts as I can across all genres. Hey, you can get some pretty fun ideas for a thriller story from sci-fi writing prompts.

Where can I find writing prompts?

Easy – the Internet! And books, too. We recommend checking out our collection of prompts first, but there are numerous great sources throughout the web with writing prompts ideas (blogs, social media, and even AI tools like ChatGPT ). Through combing the Internet for great websites and blogs like Reedsy , Screencraft , The Write Practice , Bryn Donovan’s resources , and the @writing.prompt.s Instagram page, we’ve written and gathered 500 writing prompts to help you kickstart your brain into writing mode. Categorized into ten popular genres, we encourage you to grab your mug of coffee or tea, read through our prompts, and get ready to catch the writing bug.

Have any particular writing prompts that help you get focused? Want to tell us about a great website for writing prompts? Feel free to share those in the comments below. Happy writing!

• Mystery / Thriller
• Science Fiction
• Fantasy / Paranormal
• General Fiction
• Religion / Spirituality
• Travel / Adventure
• Young Adult

What are some mystery and thriller writing prompts?

• You find strange, muddy footprints leading up to your front door.
• A stranger sits down next to you on a train and gets up, leaving a package behind. Do you investigate the package?
• You hear news of your next-door neighbor vanishing without a trace.
• One day the national news channel shuts off. And the next day after that, too.
• One day at work, you look across the street to see a hooded figure in a black coat pointing directly at you. What do they want?
• You stumble upon a strange house you’ve never seen before on your morning run.
• You get a text message from an unknown number saying, “Meet me outside. Now.”
• Your parents tell you that they actually don’t know whose child you are.
• Someone puts a large black box on your doorstep. A note on the front reads, “Caution: may bite.”
• You wake up to discover a completely different, unknown face staring back at you from the mirror.
• The protagonist of your story discovers that there is a person who looks exactly like him.
• An international spy group recruits you to be their latest member.
• You begin to realize that your reflection is no longer appearing in mirrors.
• You aunt passes away, leaving you $500,000 in her will under the condition that you resume care for your hundred-year-old home.
• Your best friend tells you that she feels like someone’s been watching her. The next day she goes missing.
• Three words: Long lost brother.
• The day of your wedding, you wake up to find every person in your wedding party has been brutally murdered.
• The FBI begs you to come back to work on a special case. Your former partner has turned and is now wanted for the murders of three co-workers.
• Local gravestones begin disappearing.
• You can solve murders simply by stepping foot at the crime scene. Problem is, no one believes you.
• Write a short story where the protagonist has a doppelganger. (Reedsy)
• Your fingers tensed around the object in your pocket, ready to pull it out at a moment’s notice. (Reedsy)
• You’re sitting by a window watching the flakes slowly and silently fall. Suddenly, you see something outside that snaps you out of your reverie. (Reedsy)
• You’re at a huge store scouting out Black Friday deals. You start to notice that all the security cameras in the store seem to be following your each and every move. (Reedsy)
• You work for the CIA who send you undercover in the FBI, who send you undercover in M16, who send you undercover in the CIA, who are very confused that you are back after only two weeks. (Reedsy)
• A terrorist group has been infiltrated by so many agencies that it is now run by spies, unbeknownst to the spies themselves. This fact becomes apparent to an actual extremist who joins their ranks. (Reedsy)
• Ever since childhood, a dark figure no one else can see has been following you around, whispering in your ear. Today you see it lying a few feet away, screaming and asking you to run. (Reedsy)
• You’ve lived an average life up until today, your 20th birthday. You just found out that your dad is the runaway son of a doting criminal warlord, and your mom is the daughter of an equally doting secret agent. Both family businesses are looking to make you the next heir. (Reedsy)
• She has been walking for hours. Her feet are starting to bleed. But she can’t stop moving… she can’t let him find her again. (Reedsy)
• The morning after a blizzard you make your way outside and slowly start to realize everyone has disappeared. (Reedsy)
• You find a hand-written note on your windshield that says, “Drive west for 100 miles.” (Reedsy)
• You wake up in a jail cell, crusted blood covering your hands. You have no idea how you got there. The cell door clangs open, and an officer walks you to interrogation room where two detectives wait to question you. (Reedsy)
• You walk into your job and find a secret, coded note pinned to your desk. What do you do next? (Reedsy)
• Guard this with your life. (Reedsy)
• A loved one confides in you, but the secret could damage someone else you care about. What do you do? (Reedsy)
• As you’re browsing through a rack of sweaters, someone approaches you and says, “I need you to listen to me very carefully.” (Reedsy)
• Write a short dark comedy in which a long-unsolved mystery is finally cracked. (Reedsy)
• They say a picture is worth a thousand words but you knew the one you’d just taken was worth a million. (Reedsy)
• You were the oldest person still living in the town and you remembered things no one else did. (Reedsy)
• Looking through old family photos, multiple generations back, you notice there is a cat in almost every group photo. The same cat – color, pattern, one docked ear – that is currently purring on your lap. (Reedsy)
• “… and that’s why dividing by three is illegal.” (Reedsy)
• You’re a serial killer who murders anyone you see hitchhiking up your mountain. One day, you pick up a hitchhiker who kills anyone who picks them up.
• You are legally allowed to commit murder once, but you must fill out the proper paperwork and your proposed victim will be notified of your intentions. (Reedsy)
• You hire two private investigators to investigate each other. One month later both come to you to present their findings. (Reedsy)
• 20 years after your daughter was abducted, a detective finds you to reopen the case. The detective turns out to be your daughter. (Reedsy)
• You’re shaking hands with a stranger at a networking event when you ask for their name. “I have no name,” they reply. (Reedsy)
• As you’re paying for your groceries, you mention to the clerk, “There’s a mess in aisle 16.” They give you a puzzled look and reply, “There is no aisle 16.” (Reedsy)
• The detective didn’t realize they were being foiled by a competing detective. (Reedsy)
• The first day you opened your own office as a private investigator, you didn’t expect it to be busy. You were wrong. (Reedsy)
• You are the world’s greatest detective. With your near superhuman intellect, you have never failed to solve a case before. One day, you finally meet your match: a criminal so unbelievably stupid that you cannot possibly comprehend and predict what he’s going to do next. (Reedsy)

What are some romance writing prompts?

• Left at the altar, you decide to seek revenge on your ex.
• You got ditched at the last minute before prom – who will your date be?
• A stranger texts the wrong number, and accidentally sends you a declaration of love. The message is so sweet and heartfelt that you know you can’t let it go.
• A divorced former couple find each other on the same flight to Paris… Sitting next to each other.
• After joining an adult swim league, you realize that your coach is irresistibly cute.
• Your husband accidentally sends you a text meant for his mistress.
• You and a hot stranger get trapped in an elevator.
• Write a love story set at the zoo.
• A college professor and their teaching assistant hit it off a little too well.
• You get to make one wish to create your dream romantic partner. What is it?
• Two strangers on an online chat room hit it off. Turns out they’re childhood sweethearts.
• A parole officer falls in love with his parolee.
• After their catamaran crashes, a husband and wife on their anniversary trip are left marooned on an island in the tropics.
• She’s a burgeoning lingerie model who needs her cute neighbor to take portfolio shots of her.
• An alien falls in love with a forbidden human.
• Desperate for cash, a med student signs up to be a nude model for a retired women’s art club.
• A cutthroat business woman swore she’d never find love until her best friend sets her up on a blind date.
• Two widowed people meet at a community garden.
• A chef decides to embark on an international culinary tour for inspiration and falls in love with their tour guide.
• A daughter tries to set her widowed father up on an online dating app – without him knowing.
• A Republican presidential candidate and Democratic presidential candidate fall in love.
• You are a popular book heroine’s love interest. You now have 60 seconds to convince them that saving the city is more important than saving you. (@writing.prompt.s)
• The love of your life is your brother’s nemesis.
• You fall in love with every person you make eye contact with.
• You’re a mail order bride arriving at her new home for the first time.
• After you move to a new city, you fall in love with your realtor while buying a new house.
• You realize that you’ve fallen out of love with your new wife while you’re on your honeymoon.
• You and your best friends decide to try a new dating app for the first time.
• At your friend’s urging, you begrudgingly attend a Valentine’s Day speed dating event. (Reedsy)
• Every day, you return to your apartment and say, “Honey, I’m home. Oh wait, that’s right… I live alone.” But then one day, a voice replies, “I picked up some pizza.” (Reedsy)
• Cupid offers to shoot an arrow into the person you love. He warns you that if the person already has a pre-existing affection towards you, it will disappear when the arrow strikes. (Reedsy)
• You meet your doppelganger of the opposite sex and find you are strangely attracted to each other. (Reedsy)
• Write a romantic comedy. Difficulty: both lovers are emotionally mature and have excellent communication skills. (Reedsy)
• In the future, romantic attraction is literal: each person is fitted with an electromagnetic bracelet which, they claim, will pull you to your soulmate. It’s the day they turn the magnets on, and you’re waiting. (Reedsy)
• A fortune teller falls in love with their client who has their palm read every month. (Reedsy)
• It wasn’t love at first sight. But now you were starting to see them in a new light… (Reedsy)
• Someone with anxiety falls in love with someone extremely adventurous. (Reedsy)
• The lives of two people are changed forever when they coincidentally meet and engage in a weekend-long affair. (Reedsy)
• They lived in a world where PDA is forbidden. One day, they slipped up and held hands on the street. (Reedsy)
• Two characters who are perfect for one another are foiled by bad timing. (Reedsy)
• Two mortal enemies fall in love when they’re trapped in an elevator together and begin to see the other person’s perspective. (Reedsy)
• Valentine’s Day at a retirement home. (Reedsy)
• Well, that was a New Year’s Eve kiss you won’t forget any time soon. (Reedsy)
• You have the ability to make anyone fall in love with you. You’ve just fallen in love for the first time. Do you use your power? (Reedsy)
• You and your partner finally have the most romantic vacation planned. Problem is, your in-laws decided to tag along at the last minute.
• You never would have guessed that in 48 hours you’d be married. (Reedsy)
• A dog lover and cat lover fall in love… and must find a way to get their animals to fall in love, too.
• You’ve been bumping into the same stranger for months. Finally, you decide to say hello. (Reedsy)
• They might have aged 50 years, but when they held you, those hands felt exactly like they did the first time. (Reedsy)
• An avalanche strands two mortal enemies together… and they start to fall in love.

What are some science fiction writing prompts?

• You wake up one morning to find out that you get to move to any planet of your choosing.
• Your wife is a droid.
• Every day, you get one hour to revisit any moment from your life. What do you pick?
• Gravity no longer exists.
• You are chosen to go on the first ever recreational space journey.
• After people die, their spirits can be brought back from death but at the cost of one random human life. Is it worth it?
• Everyone in the world has the ability to read thoughts. Except for one person.
• You have to power to build one separate planet. How do you build it? Who gets to live there?
• What team do you gather to fight the largest alien and terrorist threat on Earth?
• The world is dying. In order to save it, you’ve been commanded to sacrifice yourself to an invading alien group.
• You are the first person able to breathe in outer space.
• A rare form of cancer is the newest superbug. With a team of scientists, you all must find a cure before the population is wiped out.
• Human beings begin to find themselves growing extra limbs as global warming amps up.
• It turns out humans have been the aliens all along.
• You are in charge of a secretive government agency that aligns people’s fates. Their livelihood is entirely up to you and what you want to do with it.
• Technology becomes illegal.
• All plant life on the planet is wiped out, except for in Florida.
• You are one of the mechanics on the first ever self-flying airplane.
• Walking through the woods one day, you come across a small animal that has the ability to instantaneously clone itself.
• Your whole family has fought in the space military, but you’ve decided to no longer take part in it.
• In an alternate universe where global warming has ruined the planet, you’ve spent your entire life living in an airplane on autopilot.
• You’re a 15-year-old in the middle of a zombie apocalypse. However, a cure has been found that not only rids the infected person of the virus before they turn but prevents it altogether. Only one problem… Your parents are anti-vaxxers. (@writing.prompt.s)
• Nasa engineers monitor the curiosity rover’s actions. All seems normal until the robot suddenly changes its course. The scientists attempt to correct it over and over until they suddenly receive a transmission from the rover: “Will Save Oppy” (@writing.prompt.s)
• What if a nuclear submarine was ordered to launch their nuclear arsenal onto the world? (Screencraft)
• What if the world we live in is actually a computer simulation? (Screencraft)
• What if the past and present timelines began to merge? (Screencraft)
• What if your stepfather or stepmother is actually your future self? (Screencraft)
• What if the sun began to die? (Screencraft)
• What if the universe as we know it is actually someone’s imagination? (Screencraft)
• Everyone on earth begins to experience universal amnesia.
• The year is 2200. What does the world look like to you?
• In the future, we no longer require water, air, or food. We are a super efficient team of robots.
• What do you think happens when the grid goes down?
• Describe your perfect utopian world.
• Your penpal lives on the opposite side of the universe.
• Aliens who only communicate with sign language invade. To avoid war, our governments must engage a vastly marginalized portion of the human population: the hearing-impaired. (The Write Practice)
• A rogue planet with strange properties collides with our sun, and after it’s all over, worldwide temperature falls forty degrees. Write from the perspective of a someone trying to keep his tropical fruit trees alive. (The Write Practice)
• Ever read about the world’s loneliest whale? Write a story in which he’s actually the survivor of an aquatic alien species which crashed here eons ago, and he’s trying very hard to learn the “local” whale language so he can fit in. Write from his perspective the first time he makes contact. (The Write Practice)
• An alien planet starts receiving bizarre audio transmissions from another world (spoiler: they’re from Earth). What does it mean? Are they under attack? Some think so…until classic rock ‘n’ roll hits the airwaves, and these aliens discover dancing. Write from the perspective of the teenaged alien who first figures it out. (The Write Practice)
• Take anything we find normal today (shopping malls, infomercials, products to remove facial hair, etc.) and write a story from the perspective of an archeologist five thousand years in the future who just unearthed this stuff, has NO idea what any of it was for, and has to give a speech in an hour explaining the historical/religious/sociological significance. (The Write Practice)
• House cats are aliens who have succeeded in their plan to rule the world. Discuss.
• A high schooler from fifteen hundred years in our future is assigned a one-page writing project on a twenty-first century person’s life based entirely on TV commercials. Write the beginning of the essay. (The Write Practice)
• Time travel works, but only once in a person’s life. Write from the perspective of someone who chooses to go back in time, knowing they can never return. Where do they go and why? (The Write Practice)
• So yeah, ancient Egypt really was “all that” after all, and the pyramids turn out to be fully functional spaceships (the limestone was to preserve the electronics hidden inside). Write from the perspective of the tourist who accidentally turns one on. (The Write Practice)
• Ten years from now, scientists figure out how to stop human aging and extend life indefinitely—but every time someone qualifies for that boost, someone else has to die to keep the surplus population in check. Oh, it’s all very humane; one’s descendants get a huge paycheck. Write from the perspective of someone who just got a letter in the mail saying they’re the one who has to die. (The Write Practice)
• In the future, neural implants translate music into physical pleasure, and earphones (“jacking in”) are now the drug of choice. Write either from the perspective of a music addict, OR the Sonforce agent (sonance + enforcer) who has the job of cracking down. (The Write Practice)
• It’s the year 5000. Our planet was wrecked in the great Crisis of 3500, and remaining human civilization survives only in a half dozen giant domed cities. There are two unbreakable rules: strict adherence to Life Quality (recycling doesn’t even begin to cover these laws), and a complete ban on reproduction (only the “worthy” are permitted to create new humans). Write from the perspective of a young woman who just discovered she’s been chosen to reproduce—but she has no interest in being a mother. (The Write Practice)
• In the nineteenth century, there’s a thriving trade in stolen archeological artifacts. Write a story from the perspective of an annoyed, minimum-wage employee whose job is traveling back in time to obtain otherwise unobtainable artifacts, then has to bring them back to the present (the 1800s, that is) and artificially age them before they will sell. (The Write Practice)
• Steampunk! Write a story from the perspective of a hot air balloon operator who caters to folks who like a little thrill… which means she spends half her time in the air shooting down pterodactyls before the paying customers get TOO scared. (The Write Practice)
• Creation myth! Write from the perspective of a crazy scientist in the year 28,000 who, determined to discover how the universe began, rigs up a malfunctioning time machine, goes to the “beginning” of the universe, and ends up being the reason for the Big Bang. (Logic? Causal effect? Pfft. Hush, it’s time-travel, and that was never logical.) (The Write Practice)

What are some fantasy and paranormal writing prompts?

• A mysterious creature speaks to you in your dreams and tells you that when you awake, you will have the ability to see into another realm.
• Your pet dragon transforms into a person.
• You are gifted with the strongest, most elusive sword in the kingdom, but if you use it you will never be able to speak again.
• A magical world exists underground. To get there, you’ll need to start digging.
• You wake up and find out that you’re the only living person left on the planet.
• On her deathbed, your grandmother tells you that there’s a hidden treasure buried in her backyard. The family has been trying to locate it for decades. It’s up to you to finally find it.
• The ocean becomes the sky.
• You must save your kingdom from ruin by learning how to breathe fire.
• You have the power to read the lost language, making you the only person to decipher the scroll.
• Fairies are tired of being used for free labor.
• Your favorite fairy tale is now set in 2019.
• You are kidnapped by a knight who demands your assistance in sleighing the city’s most dangerous dragon.
• A man and his wife own the largest potion store in town. Little do the townspeople know, but they’re all being slowly poisoned by the potions.
• A magical toad begins talking to you, but you’re the only person who can hear him.
• You come into possession of a ring that can change the weather to whatever you decide.
• You’re selected to take part in a secretive, underground magic university… but you have to kill someone to go.
• You wake up to find yourself a member of King Arthur’s Round Table.
• An underwater society decides to overtake the world.
• Regular person by day, a shape shifter by night.
• Satan puts you in charge of Hell.
• You are the king. After your daughter was kidnapped by a dragon, you offered the standard reward to whoever rescued her. You weren’t expecting a different dragon to rescue her. (@writing.prompt.s)
• A woman has been dating guy after guy, but it never seems to work out. She’s unaware that she’s actually been dating the same guy over and over; a shapeshifter who’s fallen for her and is certain he’s going to get it right this time.  (@writing.prompt.s)
• The cocky main character of a popular book is sent to the real world. He is shocked to find that the fans of his book not only like the villain more but favor his side kick over him. (@writing.prompt.s)
• You’re an immortal who lives at a beach resort. You have many summer flings with mortals on getaways. One day you see someone you had a hot romantic night with 50 years ago. They look exactly the same. (@writing.prompt.s)
• The stars have been watching you your whole life, as you laughed and cried, loved and suffered. Today, you’re finally going to do something that none of them can bear to watch. They blink out, the whole night sky turning dark, just as you’re about to do it. (@writing.prompt.s)
• A lord takes a fancy to a peasant girl and kidnaps her for his own. Little does he know that she’s a trained assassin who has been preparing to take his life for years. (@writing.prompt.s)
• You are the last person on Earth, and you are able to make one wish. What do you wish for?
• You and your family are on a hike when you stumble upon a group of witches in the forest, in the midst of casting spells.
• You have the power to transform into whatever mystical creature you choose.
• You and your ghost best friend are an infamous crime-solving team.
• No, there’s absolutely no way that ghosts are real. Sure, you just saw a mysterious fuzzy figure you appear before you in your house, but that had to be your imagination… right?
• You’re the one human who is capable of seeing ghosts. It’s up to you to save them from being removed from the human world for good.
• You were born to be a villain, but you find yourself leaning more and more towards the good as you get older.
• Spend some time working on world building. How can you create a believable fantasy world that readers can picture clearly? What types of characters does your world include?
• Dream up your own, one-of-a-kind mythical race.
• You and your adventurous crew on a quest for the old King’s hidden gold. Just one problem – so is the rest of your village.
• 10 cm of snow had fallen overnight, just as the weatherman predicted. The only thing is… the snow isn’t white. (Reedsy)
• You start realizing that at least one aspect of every dream you have comes true the next day. (Reedsy)
• You can buy a pill that lets you decide exactly what you will dream about while you sleep. (Reedsy)
• You find a polaroid camera that seems to predict the future: its pictures show what will happen exactly 5 minutes from the moment you take them. (Reedsy)
• You were on your way to see a doctor who promised to know the secret to making yourself fall out of love with someone. (Reedsy)
• Write a story that includes a character hearing their fate by a fortune teller. (Reedsy)
• As a joke, you put on a tinfoil hat. Suddenly your mind goes completely silent. (Reedsy)
• Silence is now literally golden. For every day of total silence a person completes, they receive a piece of gold. (Reedsy)
• A new candy had been invented that allowed the person who ate it to relive any memory they wanted. There was a lineup outside the shop. (Reedsy)
• It’s 1AM at night. But the sun is out. (Reedsy)
• You wake up 10 years younger. What do you do? (Reedsy)
• I wish I could skip next week, you think as you get into bed that night. In the morning, you wake up 100 years in the future. (Reesy)
• They found out about us. They’re coming. They were the words the kingdom had feared hearing for thousands of years. (Reedsy)
• A group of scientists on a submarine are alarmed when they spot what looks like a functioning lighthouse at the bottom of the ocean. (Reedsy)

What are some general fiction writing prompts?

• You’re chasing your dream of being the first person to fly.
• Coffee is illegal and you have to single handedly smuggle it into the country.
• You have to get to the bottom of your family’s deepest secret.
• What was the strangest thing you’ve ever seen in public?
• Detail the life of the person who inspires you the most.
• Imagine what would happen if you woke up one morning unable to see, speak, or hear.
• Think about what you are most proud of. Follow the story of how you got to that point.
• By way of a lottery system, the king chooses you to be his queen.
• Use five points of view to describe one situation.
• Describe the life of a struggling author attempting to make it “big.”
• Tell the story of one woman on the mission to find her lost biological daughter.
• Your dream is to open a restaurant and be a top chef, but how can you do that when you were born without taste buds?
• You’ve just returned home from war only to find your family missing without a trace.
• A famous shoe designer asks you to quit your job and be his latest model.
• You have the power to create, and star in, your own reality show. What does it look like?
• The dark family secret that’s always been hidden comes to light.
• As an 80-year-old, you decide to finally learn how to swim so you can participate in a triathlon.
• Write a scene detailing your greatest fear. Now imagine that has come true for your character.
• What’s the greatest advice you’ve ever been given? What if you lived solely according to it?
• You live in a world with no stress and fear.
• Death has been flirting with you for a long time, but they’ve become a bit annoying. After another attempting to hang out with you again, you jokingly tell them, “If I was the last person on Earth, I’d maybe give you a chance.” Death believes you and will double their efforts.
• When people are born, they are assigned a soulmate. They have a song in their head that only them and their soulmate know. How do you find your soulmate? (@writing.prompt.s)
• Write a story about a character waking up to something absurd. (Reedsy)
• Write a story about a character waking up to the best news of their life. (Reedsy)
• Write a short story with an unreliable narrator that readers can never quite trust. (Reedsy)
• Write a short story in which the main “character” is the setting: for example, a house. (Reedsy)
• Write a story about someone who would be described, above all else, as honest. Or kind. Or intelligent. (Reedsy)
• Using only dialogue, write a short story about a first date, a reunion between old friends, an argument that gets heated, an adult explaining something to a child, or the reveal of a long-hidden secret. (Reedsy)
• Imagine telling the story of a professional hypnotizer. (Reedsy)
• Tell a story through text messages.
• Tell the story of what you would do if you won the lottery.
• Write your own obituary.
• Tell a story from your favorite era.
• Imagine how you would help solve the greatest challenges that the world faces. What would your plan be?
• What would a world be like with no poverty? What would change? What would stay the same?
• Tell the story of the first time that you learned to do something really well.
• Imagine what it would be like to be a pop star.
• Tell a story through song.
• Write from the perspective of your worst enemy.
• Tell a story using only one sense – seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, or touching.
• After years on the job search, you’ve finally gotten your dream job – but it changes you for the worst.
• You own a tiny mom and pops-type store that you run with your family.
• The worst thing that you could imagine happening happens.
• You’re the judge of the annual pie contest in your hometown but, unbeknownst to you, one of the pies is poisoned.
• You go on a road trip to visit your late father’s grave.
• Tell the story of seeing the ocean for the first time. Or the last.
• You’re allergic to oxygen.
• Imagine what would happen if every person in the world woke up in a good mood every day.
• You’re put in charge of taking care of your elderly grandmother towards the end of her life.
• You get one chance to talk to any person in the world. Who do you choose?

What are some religion and spirituality writing prompts?

• What makes you believe in God?
• God speaks directly to you – what does He say?
• What do you find to be most beautiful in the world?
• You get to build a religion of your own. What do you make it into?
• You must live every single day according to a holy text of your choice. What happens?
• Explore what it means to be religious versus spiritual.
• What helps you meditate?
• What is the greatest wisdom that you would like to impart on the world?
• Who is one religious figure you would like to have dinner with? What do you talk to them about?
• Describe your idea of heaven.
• Detail your favorite story in the holy text of your choosing.
• You live in a world where no Gods exist.
• What does karma mean to you?
• What would your ideal world look like?
• You have the power to make every single person in the world ether religious or nonreligious. What do you do? What changes about the world?
• What makes you a religious or spiritual person?
• Describe what a church means to you. Have you had positive or negative experiences in a church?
• Write a poem about your religious path in life.
• Write a religious comedy.
• What happens when a priest decides he doesn’t want to be a priest anymore?
• Think about what morality means to you.
• What is the difference in good versus evil? How do you know?
• How does one know what is innately good?
• What makes you religious?
• What makes you non religious?
• Put yourself in the shoes of someone who has completely opposite spiritual or religious views from you. Why do they think a certain way?
• Describe what your childhood views in spirituality or religion were.
• What do you hope your religious or spirituality path to look like as you age?
• How would you advise someone to strengthen their faith?
• If you could talk to God, what would you want to say?
• The Southern Baptist Convention elects its first woman president, though she is subsequently removed from the position due to an obscure rule. In protest, every woman leaves the Southern Baptist denomination to form an independent, women-only sect of Baptists.
• God needs a vacation from heaven, so he comes to earth to experience life as a dog. He is captured by animal control and is impounded, and you adopt god-the-dog after a tragedy that makes you question your faith.
• An opiate addict going through severe withdrawal symptoms has a conversation with the Buddha – what did they talk about, and was it the result of a fever dream, or a spiritual awakening?
• You record a video that seemingly shows a woman walking on water at a small rural pond. The video goes viral as proof that Jesus has returned, and Christians begin to wonder if Christ was the Daughter, not the Son, of God.
• A secular Jew and a devout Muslim debate food and faith on a train from Quebec to Montreal.
• What are your personal ten commandments?
• When was a specific moment where you felt a “divine presence” in your life?
• Have you ever felt like you’ve experienced a glimpse into the afterlife?
• What form do you think the afterlife will take, if you believe that it exists?
• Have you ever had an out of body experience?
• William Blake, famous British poet, thought that to love was to be in tune with the divine. Do you think this is true? How have you experienced divine love?
• How have you experienced the divine through love?
• Emanuel Swedenborg believed that there was a soulmate for every person, and that you couldn’t get into heaven until your soul mate had also passed away. Do you believe in the concept of soul mates?
• Do you believe in reincarnation?
• What would reincarnation look like to you?
• Some religions believe that animals and plants have souls. Do you agree with this? Why or why not?
• Describe a particularly spiritual moment in your life. What were you doing? Were you by yourself or with someone else?
• What is your most taboo religious belief?
• Some religions believe that human beings could never truly represent a higher power in art. Do you agree with this? What is an example of art or words that you feel represent the higher power?
• What are your thoughts on love languages?

What are some travel and adventure writing prompts?

• Write about your favorite vacation.
• What culture interests you the most?
• You get lost in a foreign city with no cell phone and no money. What do you do?
• Your favorite chef asks you to join them on a culinary tour of the world.
• What country have you always dreamt of traveling to?
• What’s your dream vacation?
• Tell the story of the worst traveling experience of your life.
• A country of your choosing fuses with North America.
• You and your best friends go on a road trip across America, with no budget and for however long you want.
• You are asked to review a luxury hotel on the beach.
• You are forced to leave your home and move to a remote foreign country. What do you pack with you?
• What about traveling excites you?
• Go back in time to the era of your choosing and describe how you live.
• Rate your top five favorite places in the world. What do you like about each place? What do you dislike?
• If you could have any travel-related job in the world, what would it be?
• You and your partner are kidnapped on your honeymoon.
• Describe a 100-day walking journey around your state.
• Imagine if you had never left your home in your entire life and then were forced to go outside and never come back to your house.
• What do you say to your family in a postcard from a new location?
• Describe what it’s like to sit in rush hour traffic in one of the busiest cities in the world.
• A journey to a new location is disrupted by natural disaster.
• Describe what it’s like to travel with a crippling fear of airplanes.
• What is it that you love about traveling? Explore that feeling.
• What is frightening about traveling? Explore that feeling.
• What stories would you most like to share about the town that you’re from?
• You have the opportunity to move anywhere in the world. Where do you choose?
• Explore what your travels in Asia have been like.
• Explore what your travels in Europe have been like.
• Explore what your travels in South America have been like.
• Explore what your travels in North America have been like.
• Explore what your travels in Africa have been like.
• What is the most unusual place you’d like to travel?
• What do you think is most misunderstood about the culture of your home country?
• What cultural norms are you most interested in exploring from foreign countries?
• Describe the foreign foods that you most want to try.
• Imagine that you are a successful chef in a foreign city.
• Describe a time when you have been excited to explore a new place.
• What is the most beautiful image that you have ever seen while traveling?
• You get to go to any museum in the world. Which one do you choose?
• What is your greatest horror story from traveling?
• What is your happiest story from traveling?
• Picture yourself on a foreign vacation with a person of your choosing. What do you do?
• If you had to move to a foreign country tomorrow, what five items would you pack with you?
• Set the scene for a beautiful beach that you have never traveled to.
• Set the scene for a gorgeous castle that you have never traveled to.
• A three day visit to Budapest becomes a maritime adventure down the Danube River to the Black Sea.
• You are a sales representative for a roulette table manufacturer. While visiting the Harrah’s Cherokee Casino for work, you decide to discard all your possessions, cash out your minimal savings, and hike the Mountains-to-Sea trail from Clingmans Dome to the Ocracoke Lighthouse.
• While en route to visit your college roommate in Kyoto, Japan you meet a stranger at Tan Son Nhat International Airport who needs your help finding a prophetic monk hiding from persecution in Saigon.
• You have to make it from Cairo to Alexandria (Egypt). You have no money. Your only mode of transport is a temperamental camel.
• In a high-stakes game of poker in the French Quarter, you wagered your soul to a voodoo doctor on a pretty bad hand. The only way to null the bet is to find a woman in Port-au-Prince, Haiti who has an item – the only  item – the man is willing to trade for.

What are some horror writing prompts?

• You wake up to a world in which all prisons are shut down, releasing dangerous prisoners into your neighborhood.
• A masked stranger appears at your front door with a knife.
• A random number texts you saying, “Don’t forget, you’re next.”
• Someone knocks at your door. You open it to find your deceased grandfather who has come back from the dead to pay you a visit. What does he want?
• Animals take over the world.
• Strange murmuring sounds being to come from the door that leads to your basement.
• While watching the evening news, the anchor looks directly at the camera and begins screaming before the camera cuts to black.
• A polar vortex freezes the entire planet.
• Whatever building you enter, you can see all of the people who died there.
• You wake up in a strange room, tied to a chair, with a single knife on the floor pointed at you.
• A chilling voice appears in your head. It won’t go away. One day, it tells you that you have to run.
• The old cuckoo clock at your grandmother’s home is haunted.
• You’re driving at night when you can’t help but shake the feeling that there’s a person in your back seat.
• One day, while you’re in the shower, you hear your front door open and close. “Hey, roomie, I’m home!” Someone shouts. You don’t have a roommate.
• A strange man living down the street begins leaving presents at your doorstep.
• The cruise ship is haunted.
• While working at a clothing store, you’re closing up the shop for the night when you see five men walk in through the front door and lock it behind them.
• You’re in the middle of a bank robbery – hiding in the bathroom.
• Your dog won’t stop barking at a sunken spot in your living room floor.
• For the last few days, you’ve been getting ominous messages written in blood on your bathroom mirror. Turns out, they’re from an awkward ghost with a serious crush on you. (@writing.prompt.s)
• The reason no one has ever seen the real Santa Claus is because everyone who sees him dies. You just saw him and now you need to survive. (@writing.prompt.s)
• You wake up bound to an electric chair, moments before your imminent death.
• A woman afraid of clowns is forced to work in a travelling circus. (Screencraft)
• A treasure hunter finds a tomb buried beneath the dirt. (Screencraft)
• A bartender serves last call to the only remaining patron who is the Devil himself. (Screencraft)
• A boy’s stepfather is actually a murderous werewolf. (Screencraft)
• A man wakes up with no mouth. (Screencraft)
• Deceased soldiers return to their Civil War-era homes. (Screencraft)
• Suburbia is actually purgatory. (Screencraft)
• A man suffers from sleep paralysis at the worst possible time. (Screencraft)
• A man murders his wife while sleepwalking.
• What appears to be a ghost approaches your car while you’re waiting at a stoplight.
• It’s late at night, and you hear footsteps in the cellar—but you’re definitely home alone… or so you thought. (The Write Practice)
• You’ve put that doll in the cabinet, in the closet, in the attic, but no matter where you tuck it, it always shows back up on the sofa. On Halloween night, you come out to find it watching you… (The Write Practice)
• A bad-tempered businessman is driving home after a long day of work. He thinks he sees his kids trick-or-treating and stops to pick them up—but those aren’t costumes. (The Write Practice)
• A young woman goes to her grandmother’s house for tea on Halloween night. They have a wonderful time together, sharing stories, joy, and the best times of family. The next day, the woman learns her grandmother has been dead for a week and no one could get ahold of her to tell her. (The Write Practice)
• Aliens have just landed on Earth—and boy, did they pick a weird day to come. How do they respond to Halloween, supernatural or otherwise? Do they decide this place is just too bizarre and get the heck out . . . or do they stick around and join in the fun? (The Write Practice)
• On Halloween night, lovers get to come back and spend the evening together one more time. One couple from the Roaring Twenties decides to come back from the grave to help their extreme nerd great-grandchild or the kid will never get married. (The Practice)
• A little boy’s lost in the woods, but at least his faithful dog is with him. As they look for the way out, the dog defends his master against terrifying monsters and animals. Finally, the boy arrives safely on the other side, beautiful green field, no more fog or night. Then the dog goes home . . . where his owner, the little boy, has died. The good doggy guarded him all the way to his final rest. (The Write Practice)
• You wake up in the middle of the night to see a dark figure crawling across your floor.
• Moments after taking off for a flight, the entire plane begins to shake dramatically. The pilot comes on the speaker and says, “This is very bad.”
• You awake in a dark, small box and can hear strange noises outside.
• Several weeks after buying your dream house, you start getting strange letters delivered in the mail warning you to move out.
• Your dog has been acting very strangely recently. Some would say… almost human.
• You stumble across a website that contains clues to some very disturbing crimes.
• As you’re settling in to bed for the night, you hear an unusual scratching sound at your bedroom window.
• You’re on vacation in a new city for the first time. As you walk down a busy boulevard, you suddenly look up to realize you have no idea where you are or how you got there. Come to think of it, you don’t even know who you are.
• On your way to work, you notice that no one is driving on roads. The busy rush hour traffic is nonexistent, and there are no people walking around, either. It’s just you. What’s going on?
• You discover, much too late, that your downstairs neighbor is a cannibal.
• During a renovation of your home, you and your spouse find human remains underneath your back porch – a crime that you are now being charged with.

What are some children’s writing prompts?

• Your dog begins speaking in a human voice one morning.
• The sky turns purple.
• Your best friend’s head turns into a mushroom.
• Dinosaurs come back to earth.
• You and your family rescue a turtle who was hit by a car and nurse him back to health.
• You turn into a goldfish.
• What would happen if you could turn any food into cotton candy?
• Rain turns into soda.
• Your family adopts a pet monkey.
• The new kid at school wants to be your friend, but you’re very shy.
• You and your boy scout troop get lost in the middle of the forest.
• Your parents tell you they’ll give you $20 if you eat your vegetables with every dinner. Do you do it?
• Write about a special memory from your childhood.
• What parent were you closest do? What are some of your favorite memories of spending time with them?
• Write about yourself at age five.
• Write about yourself at age ten.
• What was your greatest dream when you were a child?
• Write about your favorite childhood pet.
• Get inspiration for your writing by thinking about a vacation you took as a child.
• What would happen if you woke up one day and kids ruled the world?
• Tell the story of a child who has just transferred to a new school.
• Tell the story of a platypus.
• Imagine running away with a group of your childhood best friends – where would you go?
• Dream up your own imaginary world.
• Children’s books are known for their fun and creativity. What’s the craziest, kookiest new breed of animal you can imagine?
• Give advice to new parents.
• Give advice to your younger self.
• Imagine what it would be like to live in a world where instead of taking the school bus, you ride a dragon to classes!
• Write about your favorite childhood game.
• Tell the story of a family who decides to hire a new babysitter or nanny.
• Your parents tell you one day that you’re going to be a big sister – but you really like being the only child!
• If the world could be any color, what would you want it to be?
• If you could taste a specific flavor any time you ate something, what would you want it to be?
• Describe a trip to the zoo with your class.
• You and your best friends get to leave school to have lunch anywhere in town. Pizza, candy – anything! Tell the story of where you go.
• Tell the story of your first time at summer camp.
• Tell the story of your first time away from home.
• What if we lived in a world where kids were treated like adults? And adults were treated like kids?
• Take a spin at your very own Dr. Suess-esque book and use rhymes to tell a kooky, crazy story!
• You’re in charge of babysitting your little sibling for the first time.
• You decide to run away from home – what are some of the challenges that you face?
• Picture a world where everything is upside down! What’s life like for you?
• Write a book advising children on how to overcome adversity.
• Write a book advising children on how to be a good friend.
• Write a book advising children on how to be a kind sibling.
• Bobby the Bunny wants to make friends with a fox pup who recently lost its family.
• A giraffe and an ostrich live together in a zoo, where they bond over similar neck characteristics and learn how to play one another’s games.
• A dragon wants to be loved and befriended, but every time he farts, fire erupts from his rear end.
• Bruce the German Shepherd loves to run through the woods with his human. When he and his human get separated from one another, Bruce has to learn from his forest friends how to get back home.
• Tell the story of the tooth fairy… Imagine that she just started her job and has to be trained.

What are some young adult writing prompts?

• It’s your first day of middle school. But when you’re half human, half dragon, that makes things a little tough.
• What happens when you begin working at the same yogurt shop as your crush?
• Both of your parents die in a car accident, leaving you an orphan who gets shipped off to your mysterious aunt’s house in Europe.
• One day you find out that you never have to return to high school. What do you decide to do instead?
• You’re chosen to go on a school trip to Africa where you’ll be helping to build wells. You’ve never been out of the country, though, and are worried.
• Your mom disappears one day, and you never see her again.
• Tell the story of the best high school summer of your life.
• Your boyfriend gets in a horrible car accident and ends up in the ICU. Another girl is found in the car with him, too – but she died. Who is she?
• You find out that your brother is adopted.
• During her freshman year of college, she found out that people in her dorm started to disappear. Almost from thin air.
• A group of high school freshmen learn that the teachers and administrators at their boarding school are actually human like AI working towards the Singularity and human enslavement. If they don’t act fast, the robots win.
• A group of at-risk teenagers are on an overnight camping trip with a wilderness counseling group in Badlands National Park when an arctic blast forces them out of a blizzard and into a cave. On day three, their counselors go out in search for help – and never return.
• Your high school sweetheart dumps you suddenly because of something you posted on social media. But you didn’t post it, and you have to figure out just how different – and difficult – your life is now that you’ve been hacked.
• Imagine that the world is run amok with vampires. Or zombies. Or authoritarian dictatorships in a dystopian future.
• In the near future, climate change has led to the extinction of butterfly and bee pollinators. A small group of teen geniuses band together to develop autonomous, robotic insects to replicate the functions of insect pollination before the global food shortage turns from disastrous to extinction-level.
• You find out that your best friend’s dad is responsible for the growing number of missing people in your hometown. How do you get everyone to believe you?
• You did it – after years of hard work and try outs, you finally won the coveted spot on the football team. But here’s the thing – you’re the first girl to ever play.
• One night you wake up to find yourself levitating over your bed. The next morning, strange wings start to grow from your shoulders. Are you turning into some sort of mystical bird?
• It was pretty freaky to wake up for school one morning, only to see that my parents were literally frozen into blocks of ice in the kitchen. Even freakier? Every adult in town is frozen solid, too.
• A boy pursues his list of wildly ambitious New Year’s resolutions, with hilarious and touching results. (Bryn Donovan)
• A girl on the swim team transforms into a part-time mermaid. (Bryn Donovan)
• A group of “outsiders” become a clique that eventually excludes others. (Bryn Donovan)
• A girl’s favorite author plagiarizes her fanfiction. (Bryn Donovan)
• A boy learns who believed his sister died finds out she’s very much alive. (Bryn Donovan)
• A teenager’s best friend goes missing—and is widely believed to be the murderer of a family member. (Bryn Donovan)
• Two teens begin to write a fantasy novel together and then cross over into the world they’ve created. (Bryn Donovan)
• In a dystopian future, college admissions boards have access to video footage of students’ entire lives. (Bryn Donovan)
• A girl always hangs out at a particular little nook at the library. Then the same boy starts taking the space every day. (Bryn Donovan)
• A boy learns something terrible about his parents.(Bryn Donovan)
• In a modern-day Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, three girls ditch class for a day filled with adventures. (Bryn Donovan)
• 35. A girl who wants to be a virgin until she gets married faces social pressure about her decision. (Bryn Donovan)
• A teen gains the ability to take the form of any other person she chooses. (Bryn Donovan)
• A girl’s science fair project yields results that attract the government’s attention. (Bryn Donovan)
• A teen’s suspicions about a teacher lead him to conduct a private investigation. (Bryn Donovan)
• A girl struggles with the decision to tell authorities about what the star quarterback did. (Bryn Donovan)
• Soon after a boy was born, his father went missing. Now, a skeleton has been discovered in the basement of their former home. (Bryn Donovan)
• You check out a book from the library and discover that it’s telling the story of your life. Do you decide to read ahead and find out what happens, or let it be a surprise?
• Your beloved dog goes missing, resulting in a cross-country chase to reunite her with your family.
• Put yourself in your favorite anime or manga series. What type of character would you play?
• You and your best friends have been playing in a band in your mom’s garage for years. Now you’ve gotten discovered by a major Hollywood scout, but they only want you to go on to fame.
• Some friends go to an escape room only to discover it’s being run by one of the most elusive serial killers in history.
• After going to see the circus with your parents, you decide to run away to join the troupe. What act do you take on?
• What would you tell your younger self as a teenager? What do you wish you had done differently, or not done at all?
• What would your younger self tell you now? What would they think about your life?
• Tell the story of someone who switches places with themself as a 14-year-old.
• Think Princess Diaries – you’ve just found out you’re part royal with a massive inheritance to look forward to. What changes about your life?
• A small spaceship crash lands in your backyard with nothing inside but an instruction manual on how to rebuild the aircraft. Do you take it back into space?
• You have the power to shift into whatever creature you want – bear, wolf, etc. When do you choose to utilize your powers?
• What would happen if you changed places with a rockstar?
• Your big brother has always been the more successful, studious one of the family. You’ve finally got a chance to prove yourself and one up him – how do you do it?

How to use AI for writing prompts?

While that list was extensive, we understand that authors might need more specific prompts. For example, maybe your prompt needs to include exact examples and a more tailored answer specifically for your characters and story. That’s where Artificial Intelligence tools like ChatGPT can be useful.

By engaging with ChatGPT in a conversation, users can specify their preferences and receive prompts that align with their interests. Whether you’re seeking prompts for fiction, non-fiction, or even poetry, ChatGPT can inspire and spark ideas that you may not have considered otherwise.

With its ability to understand context and generate coherent text, ChatGPT writing prompts can be a valuable tool for writers of all levels.

Some example questions authors can use in ChatGPT to create specific writing prompts include: “I’m looking for a fantasy prompt set in a magical forest with a protagonist on a quest for a lost artifact.” or “I need a mystery prompt set in a small town where a series of strange occurrences unravel a dark secret. Can you provide a compelling scenario?” You could even use some of the 500 prompts above and add them to ChatGPT and ask it to create some similar variations. The possibilities are endless!

There you have it, we hope these 500 writing prompts help you on your way to publishing your next book . For more resources on self-publishing, book marketing, and general indie author trends, make sure you check out these resources . You can also sign up for our free author newsletter to stay up to date on the latest news.

Note: This blog post was updated on 4/25/2024

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49 comments on “ 500 writing prompts to help beat writer’s block ”.

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Thanks for sharing the prompt ideas! I am thinking to start writing a book since a long time. But I wasn’t getting any good heads. Your article has helped to understand my area of interest, especially in which I can write a book successfully.

very nice story I like it

Writer’s doubts never end here is a way to solve this issue with 500 writing prompts. It is such a research based and praiseworthy blog, it is a must read. Thank you for this article! This is really very informative for us.

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With all 500 of these, I should have no trouble finding something to write about. Thanks so much for these prompts.

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My friends and I are doing a competition to see who is the best FANTASY writer. Here’s the catch, you need to include twins, homeless people and abused animals in your story. Plz help???

Hi Ebony! Maybe try a slightly post-apocalyptic slant? I know that subgenre can veer on Science Fiction (instead of Fantasy) but you could definitely apply those required themes to a post-apoc story.

Urban fantasy set in a modern day. The protagonist is a homeless person who has a pet dove-griffin (also called winged rats). One day, he is assaulted and they take his companion, leaving him for dead. He survives, and uses his background as a hunter to track down the people who wronged him, stumbling in the process upon a ring of fantasy animal traffickers called the Chain of Cerberus, which is ruled by three brothers, triplets. He has to fight against all odds using his skills and save his only friend and companion.

The secret motivation for the protagonist is atonement for his past as a hunter, since he helped rich people (like the Triplets) to capture the fantastic animals they were after.

I call it ‘Fantasy John Wick’

Thank you for sharing such a wealth of prompts! These are fantastic. What a tough job to choose 500! If you’re interested in more open-ended prompts (just to switch it up), check out my instagram for (almost) daily writing prompts as well: @sharp.writer .

This is the complete list of writing prompts over the internet. Thanks for sharing.

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SoI made like a short script bit of a prompt like the one bout you looking in a mirror to see something that does not look like you.

Its 5 o’clock in the morning. As I came out of my cream sheets with speckles of generally grey all around, I fixed my bed. From patting down pillows to rearranging my duvet for the most part placing my silk pretty black blanket to definitely finish it off. I basically was heading for the fridge to get the creamer for coffee when I stared into the actually metal fridge looking for my reflection but instead kind of found that something looking back at me and it was not my reflection, which really is quite weird. Its kind of looked nothing like me, or so I thought. I really tried to really come up with excuses; I am in a daze, I am still half-asleep, I for the most part am asleep. IT CAN’T BE. I said, until I saw that it can. But that thing in the mirror particularly was scaring me because it stared back at me and it was waving now in a kind of like I AM WATCHING YOU kind of way. but before I could do anything it….

I found your blog very helpful in my writing project someday. Thank you for sharing your wonderful article.

I’m so glad this was helpful to you, Monique. You’re very welcome!

I have been reading posts regarding this topic and this post is one of the most interesting and informative one I have read. Thank you for this!

You’re very welcome, Patricia!

i need to do a story in which the main character is a demigod (as in percy jackson yknow) and i don’t know what to write.

Here’s one you might enjoy , Anika! Found on the #demigod prompts Tumblr page.

This is an excellent list of prompts! For me, though, I don’t lack story ideas or character scenarios. After plotting out my story, I tend to get stalled after a few chapters or in a particular scene, even when I have a good conflict for the characters to work through. ****** I found this great little book on Amazon called “What Would Your Character Do?” It really helped me because the prompts are designed to get you brainstorming about your character’s next actions when you’re stuck in a scene. I can always find a prompt in the book to get me unstuck! I’ll definitely share this particular list with my writer friends though!

Great recommendation, Jackie! Thanks for sharing

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thank you for these prompts. they really helped with my writer’s block

these are so helpful! I’ve been trying to figure out how to continue my dystopian story for weeks then I found this website! I can’t wait to continue working!

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Thank you so much for compiling such an array of prompts. Reading through these and of course changing them up in my head has me scrambling to write again. Have a Blessed Day!

Was looking for some takes regarding this topic and I found your article quite informative. It has given me a fresh perspective on the topic tackled. Thanks!

What a great list of writing prompts. I have saved this page to share with my writing partner. I am sure we will use some of these.

Hello! I wanted to ask you, if I am allowed to use some of you prompts. (of course I will give credits to you and add a link to this site). I am leader for a community on an app called Amino, it’s quite similar to Instagram, where the member can post some stuff. I wanted to post some writing prompts, since everyone there likes to write. So I wantet do aks, if i can use some of your prompts. (And sorry for my bad english, I have a german community there, since I speak german…)

Absolutely, please feel free to share and we would appreciate linking back!

Of course I do, thank you!

This was so helpful! Every prompt in this article was amazing You’ve really outdone yourself Kelsey!!!!!<3

This is extremely helpful. I am in 2nd year of high school and struggle with writers-block. I decided to do number three in the ‘horror’ section, and the options written in this article are extremely ‘flexible’ — there is a prompt for everyone. Thank you.

These writing prompts are fun! Thanks for putting it all together.

I’ve started several books. None completed, Although a few stories were published in a small town newspaper. A couple of years ago I began a book when the work came to an abrupt end. My husband fell off the roof. Now, after 2 years, I find myself wanting to write, but stymied as how to pick up where I left off. I’ve read your prompts. Some of the fiction, thriller, mystery and prompts in other areas have been true life experiences for me. Now, as I stand in the aftermath of the train that hit me, in need of a battery jump to restart, I have hopefully found a way forward.

I absolutely loved these! Thanks so much! Writing prompts really help me keep the wheels turning.

Thanks so much for these amazing prompts! I had nailed down a genre and topic but needed some help getting down to the nitty gritty specifics. You saved the day (and my essay). Thank you!

I am impressed with your sharing. Helpful for new writers. Thanks for your share.

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Unbeatable listing. A lot of quality and tremendous compilation.

I love these prompts! They help me get started when I’m feeling stuck.

I have all the actual writing material I need, but I am using writing prompts to get myself in the zone for writing. This list is outstanding. It’s a bit of a struggle to stop perusing because there are so many that entice me. I’m pretty sure that many of these will little warm-ups will end up in my Ideas file. Thanks so much for this.

To the prompt about scientists figuring out how to extend life but someone has to die:

The mail held a few worthless ads, nothing to be worried about. But then my heart stopped at the sight of a letter. My hands trembled as I took it out of the box. I wracked my brain for ways to escape. If I never read it, could I claim ignorance? No, it would never work. Shakily I tore open the envelope and unfolded the paper inside. When it began with “We sorrowfully regret to inform you,” I recognized the words from my sister’s letter and the grief came flooding back. Half for her and half for myself. I wasn’t ready to let go of the wonderful life I had. I wasn’t ready to say goodbye. But it didn’t matter. Getting this letter meant I was going to die, and it also meant that I had no choice.

Just a blurb. Thoughts?

These gave me some great ideas!

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Understanding Writer’s Block: Why Writer’s Block Happens

My name is Debbie, and I am passionate about developing a love for the written word and planting a seed that will grow into a powerful voice that can inspire many.

Have you ever found yourself staring blankly at ​a blank page, your⁢ mind‌ as empty ​as the untouched paper before you? If so, you have experienced the dreaded phenomenon ‌known as writer’s block. It’s that creative ⁤roadblock that can leave even the most talented writers feeling⁣ frustrated and inadequate. But fear not, for in this article, we will delve into the depths of this enigmatic condition and explore why writer’s block happens. By⁢ understanding the intricacies of this creative hurdle, you’ll be ​equipped with‌ the tools needed to overcome it and reignite your imagination. So,​ grab your pen ⁣and paper as we unravel the mysteries behind writer’s block!

What is Writer’s Block and Why Does It Happen?

Understanding the psychological factors behind writer’s block, exploring external factors that contribute to writer’s block, practical strategies to overcome writer’s block, effective ways to cultivate a productive writing routine and prevent writer’s block, the role of self-compassion and mindfulness in overcoming writer’s block, the power of self-compassion, mindfulness: navigating the block, seeking support: how collaborative writing and ⁣feedback can help​ beat⁤ writer’s block, frequently asked questions, in⁢ summary.

What ‌is Writer’s⁣ Block?

Writer’s block is a common phenomenon ⁣experienced by writers, professional or‌ amateur, where they find ⁣themselves‍ unable to produce new work or feel a sudden creative blockage. It ‌is like hitting⁤ a brick wall, hindering the flow of thoughts and ideas. Writers may struggle to come up with new concepts, feel unproductive, or find it challenging to express their thoughts fluently. The frustrating aspect of writer’s block is ​that it can strike anyone at any time, regardless⁢ of their level of experience or⁤ expertise. Whether you are a novelist, a ⁢poet, a journalist, ‌or‍ a content ⁢creator, writer’s block can be a formidable obstacle to‍ overcome.

Why Does Writer’s Block Happen?

Writer’s ⁣block can be triggered by various factors, depending on the individual. ‍Here ⁢are some common reasons why writer’s block⁣ occurs:

• Perfectionism: Striving for perfection can be counterproductive⁣ and lead to​ self-doubt. Writers may fear that their work will not ​meet their own high ⁣standards.
• Lack of inspiration: Sometimes, a writer ​may struggle to find inspiration or have difficulty generating new ideas. This lack of‌ fresh perspectives​ can impede the creative process.
• Stress or ⁢pressure: External factors, such as ⁢deadlines or personal stress, ⁢can inhibit creativity and make⁣ it challenging to focus on writing.
• Overwhelm: ⁢ Having too many ideas or projects at once can create confusion, making it difficult to start or ⁤finish a specific piece.

Writer’s block is​ a common and often frustrating occurrence ​for writers. It⁤ can be caused by various factors, such as perfectionism, lack of inspiration, ⁣stress, or overwhelm.​ Overcoming ⁢writer’s block requires patience and creative strategies, ⁢which we will explore in the⁤ next section.

Writer’s block, ⁣the frustrating phenomenon that plagues many writers, is often shrouded in mystery.⁤ However, by delving into the psychological factors that contribute to‍ this creative obstacle, we can gain a deeper understanding of its causes and ⁢strategies ‍to overcome ‌it. Here are some key insights:

• Self-doubt: One of the primary psychological⁣ factors behind writer’s ⁢block is self-doubt. The‌ fear of not being good enough‍ or producing ​subpar work can paralyze a writer’s mind, ⁣hindering their ability to put words on paper. ‍This self-imposed pressure can be overwhelming.
• Perfectionism: Striving for perfection can be a double-edged sword for writers. ‍While it ⁤fuels the desire for excellence, it can ‌also be a major contributor to writer’s block. The constant⁤ pursuit of flawlessness can result in an endless cycle of​ revisions and ⁢self-criticism,​ leaving writers‍ stuck and unable to move forward.
• Overwhelm: ‌ The sheer magnitude of a writing project can easily overwhelm writers, triggering writer’s block. Whether ‌it’s a​ looming deadline or a complex topic, the ‍pressure to deliver can lead to mental⁤ fatigue and a sense of being mentally paralyzed.

Understanding these psychological factors allows us to develop effective‌ strategies to combat writer’s‌ block. By acknowledging self-doubt and countering it with self-compassion⁤ and positive self-talk, writers can regain confidence in⁢ their abilities. ⁣Embracing imperfection and allowing⁢ room for mistakes can alleviate⁣ the ⁤burdensome weight ‌of perfectionism. Breaking down big writing ⁢tasks into smaller, achievable goals and managing time effectively can help writers conquer overwhelm. By ⁣addressing these underlying psychological factors head-on, writers can unlock their creativity‍ and overcome the notorious writer’s block.

Writer’s block is a frustrating phenomenon that all ⁤writers encounter at⁣ some point ⁢in their creative journey. While‌ the causes of ‍writer’s block can be complex and multifaceted, it is important to explore the external factors ​that can contribute‍ to this creative obstacle. Understanding these external factors can ⁤help overcome writer’s‍ block and reignite the creative sparks.

One external factor that can contribute to writer’s block is environmental distractions. When the writing environment is noisy, cluttered, or uncomfortable, ⁤it becomes challenging to focus and channel⁣ creative energy. Creating a serene and organized writing space can‍ help minimize distractions⁢ and promote a more conducive writing atmosphere . Additionally, surrounding oneself with inspiring ⁢elements, such as plants, artwork, or quotes from favorite ⁤authors, can stimulate imagination and combat writer’s block.

• Unsolicited​ feedback and criticism:

Another external factor that often contributes to writer’s block is unsolicited feedback⁢ and ⁢criticism.​ While constructive feedback⁤ can be valuable for growth, unsolicited opinions can ⁢cause self-doubt and hinder creative flow. It is important ‌to be selective about sharing work in ⁤progress with trusted individuals who understand and appreciate the⁤ creative⁢ process. Taking control of the feedback received ‌and using it ‍to ⁢improve and refine writing can help mitigate the negative effects of unsolicited criticism.

• Time constraints and deadlines:

Time constraints and deadlines can be significant external factors that contribute to writer’s block. The pressure to meet expectations and produce high-quality work within a⁢ specific timeframe can ⁢lead to anxiety and an inability to start or progress with writing projects. Prioritizing time management and breaking down larger tasks into ‍smaller, more manageable chunks can help alleviate the⁤ overwhelming feeling of being creatively blocked due to time constraints. Setting realistic deadlines and allowing‌ for breaks and rest is also crucial in maintaining ⁣a healthy creative⁣ flow and avoiding writer’s block.

Writer’s block can ⁢be a frustrating hurdle to overcome, but with the right strategies, it doesn’t have to stall your creativity for long. Here are some practical tips ​to help get those words flowing ⁢again:

• Change your environment: Sometimes a change of scenery can‍ do wonders for breaking through writer’s block.⁢ Try working in a different room, heading to a local café, or even taking your writing‌ outdoors. The fresh⁤ surroundings can provide ‍a new perspective and stimulate your creativity.
• Keep a journal: Journaling is not only a great⁣ way to express your thoughts and emotions, but it can also serve as a tool to combat writer’s block. Dedicate a few minutes each day to free writing in‌ your journal. By allowing yourself to write freely⁣ without ⁣judgment⁤ or expectations, you ⁢may uncover new‍ ideas and inspiration that can be translated into your ⁢work.
• Break it down: Writing an entire article or chapter ​at once can be overwhelming, leading to writer’s block. Instead, break your ⁣writing‌ into smaller, manageable ‌tasks. Start‌ with an outline ⁢or brainstorming‍ session to organize your thoughts.​ Then, focus on writing one paragraph or section at a time. This approach will help you tackle‍ the ⁤task in bite-sized portions and make progress with each ⁤step.

Remember, writer’s block​ is a common experience for many⁤ writers, and⁣ it doesn’t​ mean you lack creativity or talent. With patience and ‌these practical strategies,⁤ you can overcome⁣ the roadblock and continue to unleash your ideas onto the page.

When it comes to maintaining a consistent and productive writing routine, it’s important to find strategies ⁤that work best for you. Follow these effective ⁢tips‍ to overcome writer’s block and enhance your writing productivity:

• Create a designated writing space: Dedicate a specific area in your home or workspace solely for writing. This will help your mind associate that space with productivity, allowing​ you to focus ⁢and enter a writing flow more easily.
• Establish a writing schedule: Set aside a regular time each day or week for writing. Consistency is key! By ⁤making writing a‌ habit, your⁣ mind will become trained to be creative during those set periods,⁢ reducing the chances of ⁢encountering writer’s block.
• Break tasks into smaller steps: Large writing projects can feel overwhelming, leading ‍to procrastination and ultimately, writer’s block. ‍Divide your work⁢ into smaller, manageable tasks. Start by outlining‍ your ideas,‌ then tackle each section one by one. This⁢ approach will make the writing process less daunting and more achievable.

Furthermore, implementing good self-care practices can significantly enhance your writing routine:

• Take breaks and move: Sitting for long periods⁤ can drain your⁣ creativity and increase the likelihood of writer’s ⁣block. Incorporate short breaks ⁣into your writing sessions. Use this time for stretching, walking, or engaging in activities that ⁣refresh your mind.
• Find your inspiration: ⁤ Surround‌ yourself with things that inspire you.​ Whether it’s music, artwork, ‌or nature, these stimuli can fuel your ⁢creativity and help prevent writer’s block. Experiment and discover what sparks your imagination best.
• Practice freewriting: ‌Freewriting is a ‌fantastic technique for overcoming writer’s block. Set a timer, pick a topic, and write without stopping ‌or worrying about⁢ grammar. This exercise loosens ⁢up ​your mind ⁤and allows ideas to flow‍ more freely, ultimately enhancing your writing productivity.

Self-compassion is an often ​underestimated tool in overcoming writer’s ‌block. When faced with the⁣ frustration of feeling creatively stuck, it ⁣is important to remember to be kind⁤ and understanding toward ourselves. Instead of ‍succumbing to self-criticism or harsh judgments, practicing self-compassion allows us to approach our writing challenges with a sense of empathy ⁤and patience. By ​acknowledging that writer’s block is a‌ common experience and not a personal failing, we can create a space for growth and progress.

• Practicing self-acceptance: Recognizing that⁤ writer’s block is a natural part of the creative process helps ⁢us let ⁤go of perfectionism and unrealistic ⁢expectations. Embracing our imperfections and⁢ accepting ⁣that writing takes time and effort can reduce ⁣self-imposed pressure.
• Cultivating self-empathy: By putting ‍ourselves ⁤in the shoes of others and⁢ treating ourselves with kindness, we can counteract negative self-talk. Motivating ourselves through self-compassionate‌ language ​encourages perseverance and a positive mindset.

Developing ⁤self-compassion⁤ is not⁤ only beneficial for overcoming writer’s​ block but also for our ⁣overall well-being. By extending⁢ compassion to ourselves, we can ⁢build resilience, enhance self-esteem, and foster a healthier relationship‌ with our creativity. ‌

Alongside self-compassion, incorporating mindfulness into our writing practice can be incredibly valuable when dealing with writer’s ⁤block. ​Mindfulness⁢ involves being fully present​ and ⁣aware⁢ of our thoughts, feelings, and sensations‍ without judgment. By‍ bringing this awareness to our writing process, we can break free from ‍the grip of mental blocks and regain creative flow. ⁢

• Observing thoughts‍ and emotions: Mindfulness allows⁤ us to observe our thoughts and‌ emotions ‌without getting caught up in them. When confronted with ‍writer’s block, we can recognize​ the negative patterns or self-doubt that arise without letting them define our creative abilities.
• Focus and‌ concentration: By directing our attention to the present moment, ​mindfulness helps us ⁣concentrate on the task at hand. This heightened focus‌ enables us to engage with ⁤our writing in a more meaningful way, unlocking fresh ideas and overcoming blockages.

Combining self-compassion with mindfulness provides a powerful duo for ⁢conquering writer’s⁢ block. By cultivating both qualities, we can foster a supportive and open⁣ mindset,‍ allowing our creativity to flow ⁢freely once⁢ again.

Writer’s block can be a daunting hurdle to overcome, leaving you⁣ feeling frustrated‌ and ​stuck. ​However, by seeking support through collaborative writing and ⁤feedback, you can effectively break through this creative barrier. ​Collaborative writing brings together⁢ a community of writers‌ who can inspire and motivate one another, providing fresh perspectives and new ideas.

Engaging in collaborative writing allows you​ to bounce ideas off others and receive valuable input that can ignite your creativity. Through collaboration, you can explore different writing styles, techniques, and genres, broadening your horizons and pushing the boundaries of your own writing. Moreover, feedback ‍plays a key role in ⁤overcoming writer’s block by offering​ constructive criticism​ and encouragement. Constructive feedback not only helps you identify areas of improvement, but it also boosts your confidence and reaffirms‌ your​ strengths as a‍ writer. The guidance and insights from fellow writers can be immensely ⁣beneficial in⁣ rekindling your inspiration‍ and⁤ pushing your work forward.

• Join ⁤writing groups or workshops⁣ to‌ connect with like-minded individuals ‍who share your struggles and goals.
• Participate⁣ in online forums or platforms ‍specifically designed for​ collaborative⁤ writing, enabling you to engage with writers from all over the world.
• Consider ⁤forming a writing partnership or joining a critique group to exchange work and receive valuable feedback.
• Experiment with different collaborative writing methods, such​ as round-robin storytelling or co-authoring projects.

By seeking the support of others, you can break free from writer’s block ​and ‌embark ​on a productive writing journey filled⁣ with enthusiasm and fresh⁣ ideas. Collaborative writing and feedback create an environment‍ that nurtures⁣ creativity, empowering you ‌to overcome obstacles and unleash ⁤your full writing potential.

Q: ​What‌ is writer’s‍ block? A: Writer’s block⁤ refers to the inability to generate new ​ideas, struggles to put thoughts into words, or a general creative slowdown experienced by writers.

Q: Why does writer’s block⁣ happen? A: Writer’s block can ‌stem​ from numerous reasons, including fear of failure, self-doubt, ​perfectionism, lack of‌ inspiration, excessive self-criticism, burnout, or even external distractions.

Q: Is writer’s block ⁢a common problem⁢ among writers? A: Writer’s ‌block is fairly common ‌and affects almost every writer at some point in their career. It is considered‌ a natural part of the creative ‌process.

Q: How⁤ does fear of‍ failure contribute to writer’s‍ block? A: Fear of failure can paralyze writers, making them afraid to put their ideas on paper. The pressure to create something perfect often results in self-censorship and blocks the flow of creativity.

Q: Can self-doubt play a⁤ role ‌in writer’s block? A: Absolutely. Self-doubt can ⁢create‌ a negative mindset, leaving​ writers questioning their abilities⁢ and causing them to second-guess every word they write.

Q: What impact does perfectionism have on writer’s block? A: The desire for perfection can hinder writers from moving forward. They may get stuck editing and rewriting the same sentences, never completing any substantial‍ work.

Q: How does a ‍lack of inspiration contribute to‌ writer’s block? A: When writers lack inspiration, they may struggle ‍to find ideas⁢ or find it ‍challenging to get⁤ started. This lack of fresh and engaging material halts their progress.

Q: Can external distractions be a​ major factor in writer’s block? A: Absolutely. External distractions, such​ as noise, social‌ media, or personal problems, divert ⁢a ‍writer’s attention ⁢away from their work, making it difficult to focus and find ⁤creative‍ inspiration.

Q: Does writer’s block ‌affect all types of ⁣writers equally? A: Writer’s block can impact all types of writers, including novelists, journalists, poets, bloggers, and content writers. It doesn’t discriminate based on ⁣the type of writing ‌being done.

Q: ‍Are there any effective strategies⁣ to overcome writer’s block? A: Yes, several strategies can help overcome writer’s ‍block, including setting clear⁣ goals, establishing a routine, breaking tasks into smaller, manageable parts, practicing freewriting, seeking⁣ inspiration from various sources, taking breaks,​ and collaborating‍ with others.

Q: Is it possible to prevent ⁢writer’s⁣ block‍ from occurring? A:⁣ While writer’s block cannot be entirely prevented, there are proactive steps writers can take ⁤to minimize its occurrence.‌ This includes nurturing creativity through regular reading, ​seeking diverse experiences,​ managing stress levels, and maintaining a healthy work-life balance .

Q: Can seeking professional help be beneficial for writers struggling with writer’s block? A: Seeking support from writing groups, workshops, or even ⁢therapy ⁣can be incredibly helpful if writer’s block persists. Professional ‌guidance and⁤ feedback‌ can offer fresh perspectives and strategies to overcome this challenge.

Q: Is writer’s block something that⁤ writers should feel ashamed of? A: Absolutely ⁢not. Writer’s block is an entirely normal and common experience ⁤in ‍the ⁣creative process. Writers should remember that overcoming this obstacle is part of their journey and‌ not be⁢ ashamed or discouraged by it.

Q: Are there any‌ famous authors who have admitted to experiencing writer’s ‍block? A: Yes, even ⁣renowned⁣ authors⁣ like F. Scott Fitzgerald, J.K. Rowling, and Ernest Hemingway have openly discussed their struggles with writer’s block, emphasizing that it’s a shared experience among writers. ‍

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How To Overcome Writer’s Block (20 Tricks That Really Work)

When it comes to writer’s block, you don’t want to play around. You want to deliver a knock-out punch.

Here’s how to overcome writer’s block:

You overcome writer’s block with the Writer’s Block Destroyer System. In this system, you identify the specific type of writer’s block, apply the customized solution for your specific type of writer’s block, and test the effect. If needed, you apply 20 alternative strategies and retest.

In this article, you’ll learn my foolproof system for overcoming writer’s block.

If you follow the steps, I can virtually guarantee that you will never have to worry about writer’s block again.

What Is Writer’s Block?

Table of Contents

Anyone who has ever tried to be creative knows that it is not always easy.

For some, the blank page (or canvas, or whatever) can be so intimidating that it’s hard to even get started. This is often referred to as “creative block” or “resistance.”

To put it simply, writer’s block is the inability to write .

It can strike at any time, whether you’re a professional artist or just trying to doodle a bit in your spare time.

Writer’s Block Symptoms

The symptoms of writer’s block include:

• Not writing
• Frustration
• Extreme expectations
• Unreaslistic standards
• Severe self-criticism
• Lack of overall creativity
• Decreased motivation
• Second-guessing yourself
• Indecisiveness

What Causes Writer’s Block?

There are a number of different theories on the subject.

Common causes of writer’s block:

• Procrastination
• Unprocessed emotion

Some say that it’s simply a matter of fear: we’re afraid of not being good enough, or of not living up to our own standards.

Others believe that it’s a form of self-sabotage, an unconscious way of protecting ourselves from failure. Your resistance might stem from a habit of procrastination, lack of motivation, or lack of clarity.

Whatever the cause, creative block can be a very real and very frustrating experience.

The good news is that there are ways to overcome it.

How To Overcome Writer’s Block: The Complete System

Right here at the beginning, I want to go over the complete Writer’s Block Destroyer System.

Here is the system:

• Identify the Type of Writer’s Block (Hint: There are at least 6 different types)
• Apply the Correct Solution
• Test the Effect
• Apply 20 Alternate Strategies

Each step in the process is incredibly important.

If you skip a step, you might end up unintentionally lumping new resistance on top of your existing writer’s block.

Nobody’s want’s that.

Step 1: Identify The Type of Writer’s Block

When you want to know how to overcome writer’s block, the first thing you need to know is the type of writer’s block.

For a long time, I thought there was only ONE type of writer’s block.

After all, we don’t say “writer’s blocks” (plural)—mostly because it sounds really weird. But what if I told you that there were more than one type of writer’s block?

What if not everyone experienced the exact same type of block? What if not every block you experienced was the same?

There are 6 main types of writer’s block:

• Too many ideas

Character Confusion

• What Happens Next

Emotional Blockage

Let’s quickly deconstruct these 6 types of blocks.

Identifying the correct type of block is the first step in the system. If you don’t know what type of resistance you’re facing, then you might be trying to fix the wrong problem.

Usually, in vain.

As you read about each of the six types of writer’s block, see if you can remember times when you might have experienced them.

I know I have .

One of the two most common types of writer’s block is not having any ideas.

It can be paralyzing, but it need not be for long. This usually happens when a writer is trying to come up with a story or article to write. It’s when you struggle to grasp even the first thread of creativity.

The writer stares into space, groping for something, anything that might produce a strong, workable idea.

Too Many Ideas

The other most common type, this block is the opposite of the first block. In this form of resistence, a writer is overwhelmed with story ideas.

They have too many options and succumb to selection paralysis.

They ask themselves, “What idea should I choose? I like all 200 of them!”

Sometimes writers get blocked in the middle of a story.

This can happen for a variety of reasons, but one common reason is that the writer loses track of the essence of the character.

They don’t know how a character will react to specific story events. 

What Happens Next?

A related block is not knowing how the story itself will proceed. This is the “What happens next?” block.

A nonfiction or fiction writer can face this form of resistance.

Even a blogger might not know how to extend a 500-word article into a 1,500-word blog post.

All too often, there is an emotional reason behind the block.

The reason, while possibly related to the story, usually involves non-story events, experiences, and people. The writer is blocked due to unresolved emotions in their personal life.

I actually think this is the most common form of writer’s block.

 Pain Point

Sometimes the subject matter or plot point in the story is so personal that he writer cannot go on.

This could be related to a broken relationship, death, violence, loss, or something altogether different. The main focus of this type of block is that the writer connects on a deep level with the pain of the story.

The pain prevents the writer from moving forward with the story or piece of content.

Step 2: Apply the Correct Solution

Now that you have identified the type of writer’s block, it’s time to apply the solution.

“I don’t have writer’s block. I have writer’s hurdles and I jump them every time I sit down at the keyboard.”—Christopher Kokoski

There are specific, effective responses to each different type.

The truth is, you probably do have an idea. Lots of them. You just don’t know it.

Here are a few things you can try. Read the back cover blurbs of 20 published novels or nonfiction books. You can go to the library, a bookstore, or just browse Amazon.com.

Brainstorm how you could combine any two or three of those ideas, or take a different slant on them:

• Twilight and Bourne Identity
• The Longest Ride and Harry Potte r
• A biography of Leonardo DaVinci and The Rock

Next, write down five of your strongest beliefs about life (i.e., people are good, love always prevails, etc) and five things that you hate (i.e. violence against animals, abuse of children, diseases, etc).

Now, consider a character or perspective who believed the very opposite of you.

What kind of character would that be? How did they come to hold those polar opposite views? Ask, “What if?” What if a kid wanted to kidnap his parents and was right? What if your boyfriend was a serial killer? What if zombies were super-intelligent?

The problem here is with prioritizing your ideas.

Ask yourself the following questions:

• Which story or idea do I feel strongest about?
• Which story or idea has the most commercial appeal?
• Which story lends itself to the most conflict, drama, or character change?
• Which story or idea can be easily summed up in a sentence or two?

Also, poll friends and family or your social media followers on which idea sounds best. Get feedback and then go with your gut.

This type of writer’s block usually impacts fiction authors (novels, short stories, screenplays, or fanfiction).

The solution is to g o back to the basics of character creation.

What is the character’s biggest goal? Biggest fear? How have they reacted to previous story events? What is their internal conflict that relates to the external story conflict?

What can they do to resolve both conflicts?

What would any other person do? Look at their experiences, backstory, and personality. What is the next logical step or action? Or, conversely, what would make things worse?

Have the character do that. It’s probably more interesting.

Go back to the basics of story or idea creation.

For nonfiction, ask yourself:

• What is the question I’m wanting to answer?
• What’s another context? (Different price, different season, different speed, different use case?)
• What else does the reader want to know?
• What else does the reason need to know?
• When does XYZ happen?
• Where does XYZ happen?
• Why does XYZ happen?

For fiction, ask yourself:

• What is the main conflict?
• What is the main goal?
• What options haven’t the characters tried to resolve the conflict or solve the goal?
• What has the antagonist been up to?
• Have they been passive or actively working against the protagonist(s).
• What could they do next to stop, hinder, or destroy the protagonists?
• What bad thing could happen?
• What could go terribly wrong?
• W hat could be even worse?

Ask and answer these types of questions and you will likely be on your way to happy writing.

First, i dentify the emotion that is blocking you.

Do an emotional scan of your body, especially for anger, anxiety, and sadness (or depression). These three feelings often challenge people in general.

Once identified, embrace and express the feeling in healthy ways.

Talk to someone, meditate, pray. The key is awareness and compassionate expression. Once the emotion is naturally released, you will often be able to write.

Usually, this block begins to dissolves as soon as you acknowledge the pain. Then, it’s all about choosing to process and push through the discomfort so you write.

One note: most great stories and pieces of content feel uncomfortable to write.

The discomfort is a good sign that you are delving into the depths of the theme and character change. If you discover any unresolved pain from the past, try the emotional blockage solutions.

Step 3: Test the Effect

You know the solution worked when you can get back to writing.

You typically feel better, lighter, and more relaxed. Other times, you might feel excited to get back to the story, essay, or blog post. You might have intense motivation.

The litmus test is, Can you write?

If you find that you still feel blocked, it’s time to throw one of the next 20 strategies at your creative resistence.

Step 4: Try 20 Alternate Strategies To Overcome Writer’s Block

How to overcome writer’s block?

Here are a collection of other solutions you can use to dissolve writer’s block forever. Experiment with them. See which ones work best for you or for the particular block you are currently facing.

Check out these 20 alternate writer’s block cures:

• Move your body —Science is clear that changing our body changes our mood. Go for a walk, do yoga, lift weights, dand ance.
• Get creative —Try sketching the next scene for your story , article, or essay.
• Skip the scene —Write a later scene or section and come back to the current one later.
• Write about the block —Write anything. Just get your pen, pencil, or keyboard fingers moving.
• Roleplay —Act out the scene. Be all the characters. 
• Get silly —Be goofy. Get into a kid’s frame of mind. They are creative geniuses. 
• Get bored —Boredom is another scientifically-based method of triggering genius-level creativity.
• Get happy —Research shows that happiness is the breeding group of insight and innovation.
• Write in a blue room —The color blue is associated with a playful, creative mind.
• Make a mess —Studies have concluded that people who work in a messy environment come up with more creative ideas.
• Relax and don’t rush yourself —Trying to will yourself into creativity often backfires brilliantly.
• Surround yourself with inspiration —Put up pictures. Talk to fascinating people.
• Use the copy and paste method —Manually re-write your favorite poem, long quote, or page from a novel (just don’t publish it).
• Read about something random —Fill your mind with lots of possible connection points. Your creative brain can merge dissperate ideas into something fresh and exciting.
• Challenge your brain —Work on a puzzle. Write something hard. Give yourself a challenge that wakes up your muse.
• Buy a plant —Research shows that people who live and work in natural environments become more creative.
• Take a cat nap —Sometimes sleep revitalizes a sluggish brain.
• Do something new —Novel experiences are more likely to get you into the flow state of creativity.
• Turn on ambient noise —Soft background noise invites creative thinking.
• Use automatic creativity tools —Take advantage of technology to break free of writer’s block. You can consider these your writer’s block help generators.

Right now, my two favorite writer’s block help generators are:

• Jasper AI Writer
• Nuance Dragon Speech to Text Software

Step 5: Retest the Results 

Repeat the earlier step.

Odds are, if you have made it this far through the system, you are well on your way to writing your story , essay, report, or article.

That’s how you overcome writer’s block.

Remember: the only success that counts is, Are you writing ? If so, that’s winning.

If you’re looking for an instant cure to writer’s block, check out this video:

How Long Does Writer’s Block Last?

Writer’s block can last a few minutes or a few years.

The length of writer’s block is often determined by the depth and severity of the cause, whether or not you face the cause, and how you attempt to resolve the cause.

Writer’s block will last longer if you ignore the cause.

Your resistance will also go on and on if you do not correctly identity the right type of blockage and apply the correct solution.

On the flip side, your creative speedbump can be over in a matter of minutes or days if you go through the Destroyer System.

This Is How Not To Overcome Writer’s Block

Here are five things NOT to do when you’re struggling to write:

• Watch TV —It may seem like a good way to take a break, but watching TV will only make it harder to focus when you sit down to write again.
• Play video games —Like TV, video games can be a major distraction. If you’re trying to overcome writer’s block, it’s best to avoid them altogether.
• Scroll through social media —Social media can be a huge time suck. If you find yourself scrolling through Twitter or Instagram when you should be writing, close the app and focus on your work.
• Wait for inspiration —Inspiration is great, but it’s not always reliable. Sometimes, the best thing you can do is just sit down and write.
• Make excuses for yourself —When we give ourselves permission to remain blocked, we turn our creative energies against our own goals and dreams. It’s basically creative self-sabotage.

Final Thoughts: How To Overcome Writer’s Block

The bottom line is that you overcome writer’s block by facing and freeing the underlying cause of your creative resistance.

Once you let go of what’s holding you back, you’ll be unstoppable.

Related posts:

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• What Is Shadow Writing? (Ultimate Guide for Beginners)
• 20 Best YouTube Channels for Writers
• The Best Thesaurus for Writers
• How To Overcome Laziness in Writing (10 Helpful Tips)

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21 Writing Strategies To Help Aspiring Writers Plan, Create, and Finalize Their Work

Including smart ways to break through writer’s block!

Writing well takes practice and patience, but it’s a skill that offers real benefits both in the classroom and the real world. For many, writing is incredibly challenging, leaving people asking “Where do I even start?” Even experienced authors use a variety of writing strategies to keep themselves on track. We’ve rounded up some of the best writing strategies, with explanations and examples to help aspiring writers plan, organize, get started, and polish their final drafts.

Planning and Prep Writing Strategies

Organization writing strategies, writing strategies to overcome writer’s block, writing strategies to polish your work.

Before you ever put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard), writing takes a lot of preparation and planning. Use these strategies to get yourself ready to write.

Mentor Texts

The best writers are the ones who also read voraciously. Reading helps you develop your general language and composition skills by exposing you to correct grammar, syntax, and more. Even more importantly, reading gives you examples of great writing (and often, bad writing). It allows you to explore different writing styles so you can develop your own personal voice. Author and screenwriter Ray Bradbury recommended reading one short story before bed every single night.

Many writers, especially students, use mentor texts as examples of the type of writing they want to emulate. Reading a few of these in the style of the piece you’re working on can inspire and guide you along the way. These texts can be books, magazines, articles, poems, essays, and more. Here are some of our favorite mentor texts in various styles:

• Opinion Writing Mentor Texts
• Narrative Writing Mentor Texts
• Procedural Writing Mentor Texts

To write convincingly about a topic, you must know it well, whether you’re working in nonfiction or fiction. If you decide to set your short story in Greece in the 19th century, you’ll need to know what life was like then. Writing about a main character who loves skateboarding means knowing the terminology and language of the culture. Deep knowledge on a topic adds realism and authenticity to any form of writing.

Regardless of what you’re researching, it’s important to use reliable primary sources. The Internet makes researching easier than ever before, but it can be harder to know whether your sources are trustworthy. Dedicated writers take time to verify their sources, and it’s especially important to teach young writers how to do so .

Taking good notes is vital when you’re researching. For some people, this means bookmarks and annotated text. Others prefer outlines or mind maps. Learn about smart note-taking strategies and choose a few that work best for you.

Immerse Yourself

Take your research a step further by truly immersing yourself in the time and place you’re writing about. Visit places in person if you can, or try virtual online tours through sites like Google Earth. These virtual field trips are a good option if you can’t get there yourself.

Meet or talk with people who have personal experience with your topic. Eat the foods of a country or culture, and listen to its music. Explore lots of visual sources, like pictures and videos. You can even hang some of your favorite images around your workspace for inspiration. The more familiar you are with a topic, the more comfortable you’ll feel writing about it.

Know Your Audience

Imagine you’re writing about whales. You’ve done lots of research and have plenty of interesting information to share. But the way you share it will vary a lot depending on who you’re writing for. If your audience is your teacher, you’ll probably want to use technical terms and cite your sources. But if you’re writing a book for little kids, your writing will be more descriptive and the language much simpler.

Ask defining questions like these:

• Who will read what I’m writing?
• Why are they reading it?
• What kind of language will they understand?
• What might they already know about this topic?
• What will these readers really care about?
• How will their personal experiences affect them as they’re reading?
• What style and tone of writing are they likely to enjoy most?

Character Profiles

Fiction writers need to create believable characters, with fully developed personalities. Some writers envision entire backstories for their characters that never make it onto the page. But these backstories inform their writing, driving their characters’ actions and choices. Try some of these ideas to develop strong characters:

• Create a family tree or relationship map of your characters
• Draw the characters, or describe their physical looks in detail
• Write timelines of your characters’ lives
• List their personality or character traits
• Describe a character’s hopes, dreams, and ambitions
• Determine the character’s voice: how they talk (words and phrases, syntax, etc.) and any accents, dialects, or code-switching they use

Start at the End

It sounds a little strange, but consider writing the final sentence or paragraph of your work first. After all, when you plan a trip, you almost always have a final destination in mind. How you get there may vary, but you’re ultimately striving toward a particular goal.

If you’re working on a nonfiction essay or research paper, writing the end first allows you clarify exactly what ideas you want your reader to walk away with. Then, you can work backward to fill in the details that support those ideas. Write your first paragraph last, and you’ll find it much easier to sum up your ideas and prepare the reader for what’s to come.

Fiction writers can do this too. In fact, many mystery writers start at the end, determining the solution to their mystery first. This allows them to build up the story around that resolution, ensuring the narrative hangs together. Picture your characters at the end of the story, then decide how you’ll get them there.

One of the hardest parts of writing can be keeping everything in order, especially when you’re writing longer pieces. Writers also need to manage their time to ensure they hit any deadlines or due dates they might have. These writing techniques can help.

Establish a Routine

Every famous author has had their own particular writing routine or habits. Stephen King sat in the same place each day , with his papers arranged carefully around him. E.B. White never listened to music while he wrote (although other distractions didn’t bother him). Hemingway wrote first thing every morning , as early as possible. Simone de Beauvoir wrote a little in the morning and then again in the evening.

Each one is different, but one thing is the same: They almost always followed the same routine and habits. This kept them focused and ensured they could meet the goals they set. Set aside a specific time for writing each day, and figure out the setting and habits that suit you best. Think about when you’ve been most productive, and try to replicate that as much as possible.

Set Writing Goals

We often teach students to set S.M.A.R.T goals : specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound. These are ideal for writing, especially when you have a longer or more complex piece to finish. They also work if you just want to get a little better at your craft.

If you have a deadline or due date, start with that in mind and work backward. Be sure to allow time in your schedule for items like research, planning, a first draft, revision/editing, second draft, feedback, and a final draft. When you’re writing your first draft, consider breaking it into even smaller sections that will help you meet your goal and keep you on target. (Stephen King writes six pages a day; John Steinbeck was happy with just one.)

Outline or Story Map

For longer pieces, writers turn to outlines and story maps, creating the overall structure of their composition before they start writing in sentences and paragraphs. Some do this using the traditional outline structure , starting with the main points and filling in key details. Others like the sticky note method, where they write one fact or plot point on each note and move them around as needed.

When you map things out in advance, it makes the writing process itself much simpler. For nonfiction pieces, it ensures you don’t leave out any important information. In fiction, a story map helps you plan a narrative arc that hangs together and drives the story along. When you have an outline or story map in place, you can focus on finding the words to share these ideas with your audience.

Writing Template

A template can be a real benefit, especially for beginners or young students. It lays out the various sections and guides the writer through the process of completing each one. Think of a template kind of like training wheels; they help inexperienced writers feel a little more comfortable and keep them from missing important steps while they write. Check out our huge collection of free printable writing templates for elementary students.

If you’re a visual person, try a storyboard instead. This method uses a blank comic-book-style template to sketch out the action scene-by-scene. You don’t necessarily need to be a strong artist to use a storyboard, as long as you can get your ideas across in your drawings. Find a free storyboard template for younger students here.

Once you have your sketches, go back and add some text underneath. This might be dialogue, descriptive terms, or facts you want to include in that section. This text provides a terrific jumping-off point to begin writing in earnest.

It happens to everyone: the horror of the blank page—and a blank mind. The deadline clock is tick-tick-ticking, so you know you’ve got to do something, and do it pretty quick. Take a deep breath, then see if one of these writing strategies can help you break through.

Free-Write (Brainstorm)

This is all about just putting something down on the page. It doesn’t need to be good, it doesn’t need to follow grammar or spelling rules, it doesn’t even necessarily need to make sense! Just start letting words flow from your brain through the pen or keyboard and onto paper. In the same way that the physical act of smiling can actually make us feel happier, the physical act of writing or typing can sometimes get the creative juices flowing at last.

Write about anything, even the fact that you don’t have anything to write about, in a stream-of-consciousness style. When you feel up to it, transition into writing a bit about your topic or plot. Even if you only manage to write one good sentence or phrase you can use, it’s still progress.

Writing Sprints

Set a timer and just WRITE. Keep your pen (or fingers on the keyboard) moving the entire time, no matter what. If you’re really stuck, just write or type the same word over and over again until something shakes loose. Or combine a writing sprint with a writing prompt (see below) and let your words run free.

Short sprints of 5 to 10 minutes are great for warming up before a longer writing session. But you can also try longer sprints (up to an hour or so), where you purposely block out all other distractions. Turn off or mute your phone, set your device to distraction-free mode, shut the door or put on noise-cancelling headphones, whatever it takes. For the duration of your sprint, your only job is to write.

Writing Prompts

Use prompts to spark creativity and overcome writer’s block. Whether they inspire you to write a lot or a little, they get you into a creative mood and strengthen your writing muscles. We’ve got lots of writing prompts and topics to tackle:

• Short Story Starters and Writing Prompts
• Inspiring Picture Writing Prompts
• Kindergarten Writing Prompts
• First Grade Writing Prompts
• Second Grade Writing Prompts
• Third Grade Writing Prompts
• Fourth Grade Writing Prompts
• Fifth Grade Writing Prompts
• Creative Writing Prompts for Grades 4-8
• The Big List of Essay Topics for High School

A vignette is a short, descriptive piece that tries to bring the reader fully into one single moment. It doesn’t need a plot; rather, it tries to capture the mood and atmosphere with lots of evocative detail. Vignettes are a great way to jump-start your writing, establishing the setting of your piece or a particular scene you want to describe. Learn more about using vignettes here.

Having trouble figuring out your characters’ motivations, voices, or relationships? Try dialogue. You can approach this several different ways. One is to imagine and write a conversation between two or more characters in your story on any topic. You may or may not use this dialogue in your finished work; the point is to help you hear each character and their personality more clearly.

Another option is to have an imaginary conversation with a specific character out loud. Pretend you’re talking to them, and when they “respond,” speak aloud their voice as you imagine it in your head. Then, try to put those words into writing to see how they translate to the page.

Rough Draft

Initial drafts can actually be pretty freeing, because you’re not working toward perfection. Instead, you’re trying to get all your ideas onto paper for the first time, in sentences and paragraphs. Don’t worry too much about word choice, spelling, or even grammar at this point. Instead, just keep on writing. You’ll have plenty of opportunities to go back to revise and edit.

A rough draft might wind up being much shorter or longer than your final version. Some people like to write down anything and everything they’ve researched or planned for. Then, they condense and trim their text in later drafts. Others like to lay out the overall structure, then return to add more details and depth. Both of these methods are valid, so use whichever works best for you.

With your initial draft finally on the page, it’s time to edit, revise, and make it the best it can possibly be! These techniques and strategies will help you get there.

Captivating Opening Sentence

A strong opening sentence draws the reader in from the beginning. Try writing multiple versions to see which you like best. To ensure your opening is truly meaningful, share it with someone on its own, without the rest of the text for context. Ask what they think your writing will be about based on that single sentence, and if it interests them enough to want to read the rest.

Even nonfiction writing deserves amazing opening sentences. Darwin began On the Origin of Species by saying, “When on board H.M.S. ‘Beagle,’ as naturalist …” The book itself has a lot of dry technical writing, but that opening sentence evokes a sense of time and place, of adventure in far-off places, and it draws the reader in.

Avoid starting your writing with conventional phrases like “In this paper I will prove that …” or “I’m going to tell you about …” Thesis statements are important, but they’re rarely interesting enough to really intrigue the reader. Take a cue from Virginia Woolf, who opened A Room of One’s Own with: “But, you may say, we asked you to speak about women and fiction—what has that got to do with a room of one’s own? I will try to explain.”

Very few writers write a first draft that’s ready to be turned in or published. Instead, they revisit and refine their drafts multiple times, a process known as revision. When you revise, you focus on the overall structure and clarity of your work. Ask yourself questions like these:

Nonfiction Revision

• Is/Are my main point/s clear?
• Have I completely proven all the points in my thesis statement?
• Did I use facts to back up my assertions or opinions?
• Have I included citations or quotations that support my writing?
• Are there any areas where my writing is vague or needs to be clarified?
• Have I addressed any counterarguments and acknowledged alternative views?
• Does the overall structure make sense?
• Do my paragraphs transition well from one to the next?
• Should I add headings or subdivisions to make the paper easier to follow?
• Is my language and tone appropriate?
• Have I varied my word choice, refraining from repeating words or phrases over and over?
• Does my conclusion effectively and clearly sum up my paper?
• How will the reader feel when they finish reading this work, and does it match how I want them to feel?

Fiction Revision

• Does the story have a clear beginning, middle, and end?
• Is there a strong narrative arc?
• Have I left any plot holes or unresolved conflicts that may feel unsatisfying?
• How is the pacing? Does the story move along well, or does it get bogged down in places?
• Do my characters speak with clear, individual voices?
• Have my characters grown and changed as the story progressed?
• Do the characters’ voices feel authentic?
• Have I added realistic details without relying too heavily on description to carry the story? (“Show, don’t tell.”)
• Does the setting feel real? Can I picture myself living in that place and time?
• Is the conflict interesting enough to draw in the reader and hold their attention?
• How do I want the reader to feel when they finish the story? Have I accomplished that?

Once you’re happy with the overall structure and writing itself, it’s time to get down to the technical nitty-gritty. That means details like grammar, syntax, punctuation, and spelling. In other words, the time has come to proofread your work.

Word-processing programs or apps like Grammarly can help you catch a lot of these errors, making this job easier. But the final edit is ultimately down to you, so proofread and correct, then proofread again. Do your best to make your writing as technically perfect as you can, so the reader isn’t distracted by spelling mistakes or other minor problems.

One fantastic way to revise and edit is to read your text aloud, to yourself or others. Maya Angelou often read her writing out loud to her husband in the evening. “Hearing it aloud is good,” she explained. “Sometimes I hear the dissonance; then I try to straighten it out in the morning.”

Reading aloud is also ideal for catching errors like missing words or confusing sentences. You likely read much faster in your head than you do out loud, so this method forces you to slow down and focus. This is one of our favorite writing strategies for those who have trouble with attention to detail.

Peer Review

Experienced writers welcome feedback from others. Read the acknowledgements in any book, and you’re likely to find the author thanking their peer writing group or editors for substantially improving their text.

Some people find it hard to take feedback on writing, since it can feel very personal. Remember this: If you’re writing something only you will ever see, then you don’t need to worry about others. But if your writing is intended for an audience, you have to let that audience see your work to find out if you’ve truly managed to convey your ideas.

You don’t need to incorporate every suggestion or change your peers, teacher, or editor suggests. But feedback ultimately makes writing stronger and better. Seek it actively and use it wisely, and you’ll find it’s one of the most valuable writing strategies of all.

What are your favorite writing strategies to share with students? Come exchange ideas in the We Are Teachers HELPLINE group on Facebook .

Plus, must-have anchor charts for teaching writing of all kinds ..

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• Inspiration
• Exploring the Depths of Writer's Block through Poetry

1. "When Silence Whispers"

2. "ink stains", 3. "the muse's absence", embracing the block for growth, when words refuse to dance on the page.

Writer's block - the dreaded phrase that sends shivers down the spine of every wordsmith. It's that frustrating feeling when the spark of creativity flickers out, leaving us staring at a blank page, our minds devoid of inspiration. Yet, ironically, sometimes it is within the confines of our writer's block that the most profound and relatable poetry is born. In this article, we delve into the world of poems that capture the essence of this creative paralysis, offering solace and companionship to fellow writers who have found themselves stranded in the vast ocean of their own thoughts.

In this poignant poem, the author Jennifer Wordsworth encapsulates the struggle of a writer in the throes of writer's block . Here's an excerpt:

When silence whispers in my ears, The words I seek, they disappear. A barren mind, an empty well, I'm trapped within this lonesome cell.

The poem beautifully captures the frustration and isolation that often accompanies writer's block . Jennifer's evocative language paints a vivid picture of the struggle to find the right words, as if trapped within a prison of one's own making.

Oliver Penn , a renowned poet, offers a different perspective on writer's block in his poem "Ink Stains." Here's a glimpse:

Ink stains my fingers, but not a word, Thoughts scatter like birds, unseen, unheard. The page lies bare, a mocking void, And I, the writer, left unemployed.

With a touch of self-deprecating humor, Oliver Penn humorously portrays the plight of a writer struggling to fill the page. The poem demonstrates the frustration of having smudged fingers from ink, yet failing to produce a single meaningful phrase.

In "The Muse's Absence," Sophia Langley expresses the longing for inspiration that often accompanies writer's block . Here's a glimpse into her profound words:

The muse has fled, her whispers gone, Leaving me here to face the dawn. Her absence, a void, an aching space, I yearn for her return, her gentle embrace.

Sophia's poem encapsulates the deep sense of loss that writers experience during bouts of writer's block . Through her eloquent verses, she conveys the yearning for the muse's return, highlighting the profound connection between a writer and their source of inspiration.

While writer's block may frustrate, it also provides an opportunity for introspection and growth. These poems demonstrate that even within the confines of a creative drought, beauty can be found. They remind us that we are not alone in our struggles and that our words can still resonate, even when we feel disconnected.

So, the next time you find yourself wrestling with the chains of writer's block , take solace in the knowledge that countless poets have traveled this path before. Embrace the struggle and channel your frustrations into evocative verses, for it is within that struggle that the true essence of your voice may be discovered.

• Poems that Evoke Memories of Home: Celebrating Roots and Heritage
• Poems About Extreme Weather: Capturing the Storms in Verse

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Poems About Writing Poetry: Unleashing the Beauty of Words

Purdue Online Writing Lab Purdue OWL® College of Liberal Arts

Symptoms and Cures for Writer's Block

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Most writers experience writer’s block at some point in their life, at various stages of the writing process. Often a solution can be found by speaking with your instructor (if you are a student) or a writing tutor. But there are ways to combat writer’s block on your own, too! When you’re having trouble figuring out what to write next, consider these common types of writer’s block and try the strategies that sound most promising.

If you're having trouble finding a starting place for the assignment...

• Brainstorm topics that are interesting to you. Use the invention strategies suggested by a tutor or teacher to generate questions or thoughts that serve as useful starting places.
• Write down all the primary ideas you'd like to express and then fill in each with the smaller ideas that make up each primary idea. This can easily be converted into an outline .
• If your paper involves conducting research, you can look for places where you disagree with another thinker’s claim or feel more work needs to be done. Identifying gaps or conflicts in the existing conversation around a topic is often a great starting place.

Example: You’ve been asked to analyze a television commercial. You remember three commercials that you found interesting and re-watch them, taking notes on details that stand out to you. You freewrite for five minutes on each of the three commercials, and discover that you have much more to say about one than the others. You focus on that one, expanding your freewrite into the an outline for the entire essay.

If you have a topic and an outline, but can’t think of an interesting beginning…

• After the paper is completely drafted, you can get all the sections in the correct order and read it start-to-finish to ensure that transitions are smooth.

Example: You have to complete a lab report and hate writing the “Introduction” section. In order to complete the project on time, you overcome your anxiety about writing that section by first writing the “Materials,” “Method,” and “Results” sections. You write the “Introduction” last, reorder, and revise holistically.

If you’ve chosen or been assigned a topic that bores you…

• If you’ve chosen a common topic just because you thought it would be easy to write on, reconsider: it’s easiest to write about something in which you have a personal interest.
• If you can’t change the major scope or goal of the assignment, try to understand why you’re being asked to write it. What knowledge will you gain from completing the assignment? What skills will you be able to practice? Who would benefit from reading my finished product, and how would that positively change that community?

Example: You work for your campus newspaper and have been assigned to write an article on an upcoming career fair. Although at first your editor asks you to simply inform students of what companies will be represented at the event, you find that you’re much more interested in profiling a certain company that’s new to the fair. You talk to your editor and get permission to write the article that engages you more.

Example: The same scenario as above, but your editor tells you that you have to write the original, more general article. Although it’s boring to you, you reflect that you’ll gain practice presenting a mass of information in concise language, certainly a useful skill for a journalist. Additionally, there are thousands of students on campus who would benefit from the information your article will cover. This motivates you to write the article.

If you don’t understand the assignment…

• The better you can articulate the source of confusion, the more help others can give you.

Example: Your composition instructor has asked you to write a Digital Literacy Narrative. The assignment sheet provides a definition of “digital literacy,” and you have some class notes that further clarify the concept. But after reviewing these materials, you’re still not certain if your instructor would allow you to write about how you learned to use different coffee-making technologies, as they aren’t traditionally considered digital devices. You go to your instructor’s office hours to ask if this topic would be acceptable, taking your annotated assignment sheet and class notes with you.

If you’re worried that you’ll write the wrong thing…

• Remember that the first draft is not the final draft. If you’re not sure that an argument will pan out, just start writing it and see where it takes you. You can always delete paragraphs that don’t work out later, but the best insights often come from pushing yourself into uncertain territory—if you never feel unsure about your claims, you’re probably just reproducing existing findings!
• If you’re worried that a small detail is incorrect, that’s okay in the draft phase. Rather than spending a lot of time checking every small detail as you go, just leave a note to yourself to check your sources later. Or, leave the troublesome paragraph for later and work on a section that you’re more confident writing about.

Example: You’re writing a paper on King Henry VIII and can’t remember off the top of your head whether he beheaded two or three of his wives. The answer to this question wouldn’t change your major argument either way, so you decide it’s not important to look up right now. You write “two,” highlight it, and leave a note to yourself to check this minor supporting fact against your research notes later.

If you’re worried that your sentences aren’t polished enough…

• Remember, again, that the first draft is not the final draft. The sooner you get some words on the page, the more time you’ll have to edit your prose for clarity and style later. Complete an entire draft before you start editing on the sentence level.
• If you find yourself consistently obsessing over individual sentences as you go, try dimming or covering your laptop or computer monitor’s screen so that you can’t see what you’re typing. You can also try writing in a notebook and typing up your work later.
• Consciously stop any non-productive comments running through your head by replacing them with productive ones. Rather than labeling yourself a “bad writer,” think about what parts of the writing process you excel at (idea generation, conclusions, sentence style, etc.) and plan to allot more time for the steps that take you longer.

Example: You’re writing a paper on the effects of all-nighters on college student’s health. You can’t think of the word “deleterious.” After a few seconds of futilely scanning your brain for it, you write “super harmful,” knowing that you can find the more professional word later.

If you’re so stressed out that you can’t seem to put a word on the page…

• Take a short break! If you’re close to a deadline and worried about losing track of time, then set a timer for ten or fifteen minutes and use that short window to relax before getting back to work. Stretch, move away from your desk, and don’t neglect your sleeping and eating schedule. It’s much harder to write if you’re sleep-deprived or dehydrated.
• If you have several days left before your deadline, break the assignment into manageable parts. Set measurable writing goals for yourself, like writing without interruption for thirty minutes every day, or writing a certain number of words by a given deadline.
• Finally, ask for help! Writing is most stressful when you’re doing it by yourself for a long period of time. Asking a tutor or a friend to talk through your ideas can help you get some perspective on the assignment, and remind you that it’s nothing to be anxious about.

Example: You have a week before an important job application is due and you’re anxious that the search committee will dislike your cover letter before you’ve even written it. Since you still have plenty of time before the deadline, you plan to work on it for just thirty minutes every day. You talk to a friend who helps you make a list of reasons why you’re qualified for this job, and you stick to your writing schedule.

If you’re easily distracted when you open your computer to write…

• Try temporarily disabling your internet access. Take your laptop to a space that doesn’t have internet access. Draft by hand in a notebook and type up your work later. Or, simply turn your computer’s wifi detector off, or put your document into full-screen or “Focus” mode: these obstacles are easy to overcome, but the time it takes to make the few extra clicks to open an internet browser is sometimes enough to stop yourself.
• You can also try setting a timer forcing yourself to do nothing but write for a short period of time. Even a ten-minute focused writing session can help you break through initial writer’s block and build momentum on your project.

Example: You start to work on your paper, and after writing one sentence feel the impulse to watch just one YouTube video. However, as you have wisely decided to take your computer to the house of a friend who doesn’t have internet, your browser gives you a frowny face and an error message. You return to your paper and keep writing.

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6 Lessons Learned From 4 Years of Writer’s Block

The implication is that, for a writer, not writing is about as bad as it gets.

The truth, however, is nuanced.

I have been waiting to write this post for a very long time—four years, in fact. I have been waiting because I knew it was a post I could not properly write until I overcame my own lengthy writer’s block and could speak about the lessons it was teaching me. From my perspective on this side of the desert, I know it is a landscape I did not traverse alone. Many writers—I even dare to say most writers—experience significant writer’s block sooner or later. I am writing this post now for those writers who are currently struggling with significant creative blocks and also for those who may encounter this phenomenon later on. Perhaps you will remember this post and take heart, not just from the lessons I will share in a moment but simply from the fact that  my writer’s block came to an end —and so will yours.

For four years, starting in the fall of 2018, I lived with significant writer’s block. It was my first such experience, and I felt bewildered by it, frightened, and often ashamed. After all, I was an established, published writer, who made her living not just writing novels, but teaching others how to do so. How could I possibly have writer’s block? It felt so threatening on so many levels. Nothing I did seemed to make it any better. In fact, it only got worse. What started as simply “ writing being hard ” (coupled with a lot of denial) in 2018 and 2019 turned into a full-on word drought in 2020 and finally a conscious sabbatical in 2021 and most of 2022.

Conquering Writer’s Block and Summoning Inspiration

One of the basic lessons I learned was simply that writer’s block comes in two different types—which may happen individually or be complicated by each other. The first type of writer’s block is the simplest (although no less frustrating): plot block . This is when your story simply isn’t working. Whether momentarily or fatally, your story’s logic has run itself aground. The plot doesn’t make sense. The characters aren’t likable or realistic. Beta readers aren’t connecting with your narrative style.

Resolving plot block is relatively simple in that it requires only the application of craftsmanship . This doesn’t mean plot block can always be solved; sometimes throwing logic and good story sense at a block forces you to recognize that an idea is beyond saving and must be abandoned. But plot block is something that can be worked through with the application of enough time and patience.

The other type of writer’s block is what I call  life block . This occurs when the writer’s creative energy is blocked or diverted by deeper personal issues. At its simplest, this might be caused by a lack of time or focus, as when a day job requires all your energy. It can then be complicated by other challenges, such as changing your living circumstances or relationship status, or dealing with the health challenges of either yourself or your loved ones. Not only are these circumstances time- and energy-intensive in their own right, they can also bring up deeper psychological issues, including fear, grief, and anger—all of which can interfere with the flow of your creative juices.

Unlike plot block, life block isn’t always something you can resolve by applying mental and physical effort. Often, it will require work that goes much deeper than simply figuring out what’s wrong with your story.

6 Lessons Learned From Long-Term Writer’s Block

The American Theatre Reader: Essays and Conversations from American Theatre Magazine (affiliate link)

I love the following insight from the essay “36 Assumptions About Playwriting” by Jose Rivera (from The American Theatre Reader ), which was quoted in a recent blog comment by a reader named Patrick:

Embrace your writer’s block. It’s nature’s way of saving trees and your reputation. Listen to it and try to understand its source. Often, writer’s block happens to you because somewhere in your work you’ve lied to yourself and your subconscious won’t let you go any further until you’ve gone back, erased the lie, stated the truth and started over.

Sometimes this “lie” is as simple as a mistaken bit of logic in the plot. But sometimes, it is goes much deeper and requires the patience of much more excavation before you can return to your writing with the honesty and vulnerability necessary to access a strong creative flow.

Patrick went on to ask:

I wonder if you have any helpful thoughts on the kind of writer’s mental hygiene that Jose’s talking about here.

I like his term “mental hygiene,” because in many ways this sums up the lessons my writer’s block taught me in those four years. Looking back, I know my block resulted from a uniquely personal confluence of life challenges—a combination of plot block from a complicated story I was working on  and a constellation of life challenges that required me to deeply reconsider almost all of my own personal identities, including that of “writer.”

Most of the work I did to finally overcome my writer’s block was not directly related to the craft of writing, but rather to my relationship with myself and the world around me. In that work, I learned more about creativity than I ever did when writing all of the many stories I had put into the world up to that point. The six lessons I learned during those four years of  not writing were, in many ways, the most important lessons I have ever learned as a writer. Whether you currently find yourself in a season of writing or a season of  not writing , perhaps you will find resonance with them as well.

1. Creativity Is Your Partner, Not Your Servant

When I was a child, I danced with my creativity . We went on so many adventures together, but I was never the one who led or commanded. If anything, I simply followed wherever my imagination led. Later, when I started writing down my stories, I began taking on the identity of “writer.” In some ways, this was an important and wonderful transition into a greater consciousness of the art form and a responsibility for my own disciplined approach to the craft. In other ways, it was the moment when I stopped treating my precious creativity as a consensual partner and began placing demands upon it, treating it as a servant who had no choice but to show up on my timeline and perform according to my bidding.

I’m not saying that applying discipline, logic, and willpower to one’s creative work is wrong or even problematic. But it can become so when we put too much emphasis on “being a writer,” rather than “following our creativity.” The former is results oriented; the latter is process oriented. Both are important. But if the process becomes subordinate to the end goal, we can lose sight of the fact that creativity is not a limitless resource. It must be cultivated in a environment of respect.

When my creativity stopped obeying my every demand—that it show up when I told it to and produce as much as I wanted it to—I found myself bemused. I seemed to have lost the ability to communicate with my creativity in the old ways. I had forgotten how to dance. For a long while, I was terrified that not only had I forgotten how to dance, but my ignorant and arrogant treatment of my creativity had perhaps even killed my dance partner.

The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron (affiliate link)

I had to learn how to once again relate to my creativity, not as a “professional” or even an “artist,” but as a child. I read Julia Cameron’s wonderful classic  The Artist’s Way , and I began to remember how to play —how to interact with the world around me with attention and expectation. I had to remember how to stop assuming the answers and to instead just ask the questions.

2. You Are More Than Your Writing (or Your Writer’s Block)

One of the scariest parts of experiencing long-term writer’s block is that, suddenly, you feel you can no longer be “a writer.” It seems as if that part of you is broken. Once upon a time, you were creative, inspired, imaginative, intelligent. You were a storyteller. Now, you are none of these things. Now, you are empty of ideas and exhausted of thinking. Either you sit in front of your computer trying  to write and hating it, or you avoid the practice altogether. As a result, you feel lazy, unmotivated, and undisciplined. All of that can combine to also make you feel unworthy. Even if you experienced success as a writer previously, none of that matters now. Now , you aren’t a writer anymore.

For as long as I can remember, I have always been a storyteller. And yet, during my writer’s block, not only was I not writing , but I was no longer experiencing stories. Characters weren’t visiting me in flashes of inspiration or walking beside me in my daily life. When they did sometimes flicker into view, I usually didn’t have the energy or attention span to watch them for long. Even my enthusiasm for other people’s stories (books and movies) waned. And, yes, I panicked. Not only was I losing all these experiences that had always been of central importance to my life, I was also losing my primary identities. If I wasn’t a writer and a lover of stories, I didn’t know who I was anymore.

One of the single most powerful lessons I learned during this time was that I am so much more than these identities. I had to come to the realization that I was  not a Writer; I was simply someone who, sometimes, writes. Writing was not the beginning and ending of my creativity. Indeed, I began to realize the effort I was expending in simply working on myself and my own life (learning, processing, healing, building) were profound creative acts . Even when I wasn’t writing, even when I felt I was no longer creative, I was perhaps being more creative than I had ever been in my life.

3. The Reason for Your Block Might Not Be Because You’ve Regressed, but Rather Because You’ve Outgrown Old Habits and Viewpoints

Writer’s block is stigmatized because we fear it. One of the main reasons we fear it so much is because we often view it as a regression . On its surface, the experience of writer’s block seems like a step back—as if we have reverted to a previous stage in our lives when we did not write and, indeed, did not know  how to write.

My own experience has taught me this is rarely the case. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that this kind of regression is impossible. An inability to move forward does not mean we have moved back . It just means the way is barred. Indeed, in a story, this would likely mean the intrepid hero has progressed so far down the road that he has now earned the right to face an unprecedented obstacle.

We are more likely to encounter plot block when we are educated enough to realize certain mechanics are not working within a story (rather than obliviously and blithely carrying on). The same goes for life block. The specifics of everyone’s experience will differ here, but my creative block was influenced by a near-total shift in my personal perspectives of my life in general and my art in particular. For one thing, I had grown enough to realize some of my previous work habits were unsustainable and even counter-productive (see Lesson #1). For another, I was on a profound journey of personal growth, doing deep shadow work (i.e., recognizing and working through previously ignored fears, wounds, etc.) and learning to live with myself in a much more conscious and integrated way.

Even though my writing ground to a solid halt for nearly four years, the person who came out the other side was not a regressed version of myself, but rather one who had learned and gained so many new ideas, understandings, and experiences. Learning to “listen to” my writer’s block, as Jose Rivera says, made me realize it was not an antagonist to be overcome, but rather a tremendous teacher bearing gifts.

4. The Return to Creativity Must Happen on Its Own Schedule

One of the things my four years of writer’s block taught me was the value of presence and patience. Actually, it taught me this over and over again because I was (and am) a slow student. Even as time passed and I began more and more to accept my not-writing, I still chafed. When would it be over? When would I write again? The more I fidgeted and fussed, the more blocked I felt. It was like the watched pot that never boils. Indeed, if I had learned this lesson earlier, my block might very well have ended earlier as well.

What I had to learn was that there is a season to everything and everything to a season. There are seasons for writing and creating, and there are fallow seasons for waiting. I could not rush through the fallow season. No matter how much I longed to write again and no matter how much I feared the not-writing, I couldn’t will the stories to return to me. In December 2021, my self-imposed sabbatical was ending . This sabbatical had been a year in which I simply let myself have writer’s block, instead of trying to deny it or fight it. So there I was; my year was up. But what I (terrifyingly) found myself writing in my journal was, “ I don’t want to write .” Something inside of me still wasn’t ready.

So I gritted my teeth and made myself practice what I had been learning all those years. I listened to myself, and I waited. I ended up waiting eleven more months. It wasn’t until November 2022 that I felt a shift. After all the fussing and fidgeting—all the incessant internal questions about what story I might write or how I would fit a daily writing practice back into my schedule—suddenly, I was just ready . I didn’t choose the story; I just knew what I wanted to write. I didn’t choose the time; I just sat down and started. In some ways, it felt baffling. Certainly (and so very fittingly), I couldn’t take any credit for ending my writer’s block. It felt blissfully anticlimactic.

What I learned—or rather, what was shown to me—was that creativity, like life itself, is not something I control, however much I may fool myself into believing it is so. The best I can do is get out of my own way, learn to listen, and be prepared to move when (and only when) the moment is upon me. More than that, it is a lesson to me that the season of waiting is just as important and valuable as the season of doing. The right moment will never come if we cannot wait for it.

5. Learning to “Fill the Well” Is a Skill All Its Own

During those four years of writer’s block, I spoke often of needing to “fill the well” of depleted creativity. What did I even mean by that? It’s still a difficult concept to quantify. I knew I was burned out and drained and that I seemed to have no inspiration. More than that, I seemed to have no true  desire for inspiration. I didn’t  want  to write (even though I did—it’s complicated, as I’m sure others with writer’s block can corroborate).

I had to learn what it meant to fill my well. One lesson was that burnout isn’t caused so much by depletion as it is by overload. One of my first tasks was unloading myself—getting rid of all the rubble I had let clog up my creative well. I also had to take a break from producing . Instead of talk, talk, talking all the time (literally and metaphorically), I had to start listening. The talking (the writing, the storytelling, the doing ) represented an emptying of the well, in which I was literally giving away pieces of myself, however productively. Instead, I had to learn to shut my mouth and open my ears—to take in .

This meant reading and learning, but it also meant simply being . It meant listening to sounds, but it also meant listening to silence. It meant learning to be okay with the fact that I wasn’t always receiving incoming messages from my imagination—until slowly, out of the stillness, I began to catch flickers of the old magic.

In the modern society in which I grew up, we were taught to empty our wells. We were rarely taught how to fill them. Learning how to receive ideas and inspiration and to  keep them, to hold them in reserve and to let them root and grow, instead of immediately packaging them, speaking them, and turning them to our advantage—this is a skill all its own. It is an art I knew instinctively as a child. I lost it as I grew older, until finally it was a gift given back to me my writer’s block.

6. Your Writer’s Block Probably Won’t Disappear All on Its Own

Although learning to  wait and  be is often a crucial part of overcoming deep writer’s block, this is not to say writer’s block will necessarily disappear on its own. It is a block after all. Something has dammed the river of your creative flow, and it will probably need to be discovered and excavated. Sometimes, in the case of plot block, this inadvertent dam is simply an illogical or poorly conceived story trope that needs to be tweaked. But in the case of a more serious creative block, you may find yourself excavating deep into your own psyche and soul.

Something I learned when researching sciatica is that you need to “look upstream” for the problem. Even if you’re feeling the pain in your leg, the source is likely to be much higher up (in your butt or back in this example). Same goes for writer’s block. If you’re lucky, you may only have to paddle back upstream a short ways—perhaps just a few hours back to that ambiguous comment someone left that gave you a feeling of unease about your competence as a writer. But you may also have to paddle deep into the jungles, into the heart of your own darkness. Like me, you may even find yourself needing to spend years healing, learning, and growing.

If this is so, then I can promise you these will not be wasted years. Indeed, they may well turn out to be the most creative years of your life—and the stories you return with will be worth the wait.

Wordplayers, tell me your opinions! Do you have any personal experience with writer’s block? Tell us in the comments!

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K.M. Weiland is the award-winning and internationally-published author of the acclaimed writing guides Outlining Your Novel , Structuring Your Novel , and Creating Character Arcs . A native of western Nebraska, she writes historical and fantasy novels and mentors authors on her award-winning website Helping Writers Become Authors.

I find I am too much of a coward. I went to sign up to your buddy scheme and found all the entries from people with years of experience or who are self-starters. I find I need a rocket up my posterior just to write brief blog items once in a while. However I do enjoy following this blog – it is very inspirational – particularly when you document the struggles you have been through for your art.

That doesn’t mean you’re coward. It might just mean sharing your work with others isn’t a good fit right now. I’m not much for sharing my writing when it’s in process myself. I don’t like input during the actual writing of the story. I never share until the book is finished and polished. That said, when I *do* share, I have benefitted immensely, especially in the early years, from the feedback I’ve received. But you have to know what your goals are and when the timing is right. Otherwise, sharing your writing can be counter-productive. It’s good to realize that!

Thank you for sharing this and for dividing plot block from writer’s block. I get plot block with every book and have to reassess aspects of the story. It usually lasts a few days to a few weeks.

I faced a year of writer’s block after my son moved out. I fought depression a number of times during my years of writing but always worked through it. This was different. I sank into a deep trough and couldn’t write. I felt like I was no longer a parent and no longer a writer. For me, it took admitting I had a mental health problem that I had tried to bury for years and getting medical help.

Like you, my writing life didn’t return all at once, and I filled the time growing closer to my husband and various other things. When I started writing again, I knew more about myself and what I wanted to write.

There’s an African proverb that goes something like “the blessing lies close to the wound.”

Sionnach, I love that African proverb! Thank you. I’m going to put that one on my wall. It won’t be cross-stitched, but it will be up there.

It’s one of my favorites! I’m glad to pass it along.

Yes, for years, I didn’t even really consider plot block to be writer’s block–because I got it all the time and knew it was just part of the process. But life block is a whole ‘nother thing. Love that proverb as well!

Katie I’ve been following you since you were still fairly new and publishing. You’ve come a long ways. I have always loved your insights and lessons. I too have experienced writers and life block. I still struggle with creativity among life’s never ending time killing challenges. Thank you for this article. Glad your writing again. Cheers!

Thanks, Eric! Me too! 🙂

Glad you got back in it! Sounds like you’ve learned a lot over the past few years. I was a newspaper reporter for several years. I used to joke then that writer’s block was cured by two possible words: “You’re fired.” And that did help to a degree. Being forced to write for a job does help you find ways around certain types of writer’s block. (As an intern, I once spent 2-3 hours trying to figure out the lead graf of a feature story. From that, I learned that if they lead doesn’t come right away, write the rest of the story first.)

Anyway, I’ve since learned that the mind is highly complex and sometimes unpredictable. “You’re fired” is no guarantee for overcoming writer’s block. Sometimes, as you have done, you have to dig deeper.

Deadlines can be a writer’s best friend! But as you say, there are times when the problem isn’t just lack of motivation or discipline. Cracking the whip gets us nowhere in those times. That, in itself, can be a hard lesson to learn!

Patience plays well with writers block, like it’s teaching Creativity new steps to dazzle us once we start up again. I had a similar issue and did my best to stay calm and not let myself get worked up about not being able to create. I watched tv and celebrated whatever little bits came out during Creativity’s hiatus. It was about a year before something came flooding back. The second time, it’s been about 2. I’ve edited the stories I had, confirming that that IS part of being a writer, that lazy days daydreaming and putting nothing on paper IS part of it, encouraging other writers, being present in a situation and allowing myself to feel – for myself and not for writing purposes. It comes back. Slowly, sometimes, but it comes back. Maybe Creativity needs a break from US, and the best dance partner we can be, is sitting out for a few songs and watching the brilliance of others’ dance.

“Maybe Creativity needs a break from US, and the best dance partner we can be, is sitting out for a few songs and watching the brilliance of others’ dance.”

Ah, I love this so much!

Thank you for sharing this. This was a courageous article – I’m always impressed by your fearlessness in taking on serious questions about the writing life. Whenever this comes up, I find myself wondering why I have never experienced writer’s block, and I’ve been pecking away at it for around 20 years now. There have been days when I’ve run out of time, but I’ve never sat down to write a story and not been able to coax one out. I think its because “being a writer” is a small part of my identity. Writing is probably at best the fourth priority in my life. This is why I run out of time, but it also reduces the pressure on me to write. Truthfully, the bear I wrestle with is that writing is a little selfish for me. I put family, job and church/community all above writing. Frankly, I think that’s healthy. I also know that not everyone has all the gifts I’ve been given in my life. Gifts that keep writing in perspective, while demanding my time. By my own words I’ve stated that I’m unqualified to offer advise on getting away from writer’s block, but I have to wonder if community service isn’t a possible aid. We’re never going to run out of people to help, and that type of work warms your heart. You also meet people and have experiences that go into your writer’s treasure chest.

Yes, expanding one’s relationships can be an important part of filling the well.

I am currently blocked. I wrote 12 books that I self published. Got decent reviews from a few readers. I didn’t make back what I spent on editors and covers and let that, plus my unwillingness to advertise, put me on pause. Then Covid came and shook the world. The simple clean romances I wrote seemed trite, but I knew “how” to write them – with all the pacing and tropes. So I, like you said, stopped enjoying the 2 stories I had started and then lost interest in other people’s stories. After reading your post, I realized my avoidance is more about not wanting to learn a new genre than anything else. Thanks for your honesty. P.S. I love Julia Cameron’s work. Even taught a class on it once. But I still forget to fill my well at times. I let “life” get in my way.

Very sorry to hear about your current block. From what I have seen these last few years, I think you’re far from alone in having your creativity affected by the events of 2020. That year was what I call a “shatterpoint.” Everything changed; nothing will ever be quite the same. So I think we are all having to re-learn how to relate to our creativity in this new paradigm.

Wise and inspirational, Katie! I relate to the part about being results-oriented (I’m an INXJ the Myers Briggs system), and getting attached to “being a writer” rather than focusing on *writing*, i.e., the process. And noticing how much ego I bring to the process, which doesn’t help!

Hah, yes, over-fixating can definitely be an Ni thing. 😉

I’ve definitely had “life block.” With my son’s diagnosis of a rare neurodegenerative disease and death last April after a 6 1/2 battle and my husband’s car accident and subsequent medical issues a little over 3 years ago, things have been rough! I found it hard to sit down and write. I couldn’t concentrate and felt like I needed to breathe in a brown paper bag. I still feel that ways sometimes but I’m beginning to feel that yearning to write again.

Thank you so much for this timely article. I know my time has come!

I can only imagine how difficult that must all have been. It’s wonderful to hear you’re starting to feel a little bit of yearning to write again. I hope it returns for you in perfect timing and offers you much support and nurturing.

I finally finished a novel that I started almost fifty years ago. I like to say now that I was pregnant for fifty years and have finally delivered a whopping big baby (116K). Sadly, my “block” was both external and internal. I vividly remember sitting on the floor some fifty years ago sobbing as I tore page after page from all my collected spiral bound notebooks and tearing those pages to shreds. This radical pagectomy was the result of a running battle with my controlling husband who was determined to make me believe that by taking the time to write, I was neglecting both him and my new-born baby. Looking back on that experience, I think my husband was gas-lighting me and the only way I could protect myself was by destroying the physical evidence. I still “wrote” but it was all internal as I built and lived out stories in my mind. Unfortunately, the safest time for me to do that was at night, when I should have been sleeping. And that developed into a lifelong battle with insomnia. When I finally wised up and ditched the husband, I had to turn my attention to earning a living and supporting my two children. Now they’re grown, I’m retired, and finally I have time to write.

Sara Dillinger, I sure understand about husbands lack of support in our writing, especially when there are also children involved. Many of them don’t see it as being profitable or productive. I’m so glad that you finally are able to write to your heart’s content and the world will at long last be able to read what you’ve been saving for us.

Very sorry to hear you had to endure such challenging circumstances. But the light of your spirit shining out fifty years later, unbroken, is inspiring!

Thanks for the piece on writers’ block, Katie, which I have never experienced, but which I will read shortly. I sympathize and hope things will go well now. You probably know this idea (not a trick!). When you finish writing for the day, complete (or NOT!) the next sentence that can act as a prompt . The next day, return to the MS and you may be astonished at how easily the writing begins. I’m not saying it will be a great sentence but it will get you back swiftly to where you left off. (The website below is my nonfiction site. The fiction site is under reconstruction.)

Yes! I’ve done that many times. Sometimes it’s very helpful. Other times, I forget what I was going to say. 😉

Woo hoo !! Glad you got to WRITE this and also share such an incredible list of notes. While you “were” already amazing – coming out of this even more amazing – is simply amazing! Caring for the child inside of us – the natural creator, question asker, fearless explorer…that’s something hard to hold onto in almost every aspect of our various cultures as it is…glad to be here with you and the word players.

Thanks, S.J.! It’s been quite a journey–often difficult, but also ultimately full of so many treasures.

Thank you for such timely and wise words. Stuck with editing and learning the indie road, preparing for publishing two books, I’m suffering overload. I love what you write about connecting with myself, my relationship with me. Very happy for you to be out of your block. Wish you a deliciously creative 2023.

I didn’t talk about it too much in this post, but burnout played a significant role in what eventually became writer’s block. Once your books are published (congrats!), I hope you’re able to take enough time to rest and rejuvenate.

Dear KM, Don’t be so hard on yourself. Let the words flow out of your arm (or fingers). After all, both are an extension of your mind. And if nothing is flowing out maybe it’s because you’ve been writing for some time, and your well of ideas needs to replenish itself. From this post alone it looks like you have a tendency to analyze thing. Sometimes if you over-analyze things it makes matters worse. Relax, do something you’ve never done before, and try to enjoy it. Writing about not writing *is* writing. Looking at your entire body of work, even the stuff that didn’t get published. You’ve entertained and taught more people in your short life-span, than a lot of people do in an entire lifetime. And when the words don’t flow out as they should, consider it might this way on purpose, that something is trying to tell you “fix me”, and read this post. Because of all the things you’ve written, I consider this post the most important.

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Thanks for the kind words. And I’m happy to report, as I talk about in the post, that I am writing once again.

I think that “life block” is the ultimate source of the drying up of the well of creativity that makes fiction writers able to put compelling stories down on paper.

Yes, we can get stuck on the plot (and I have personally abandoned a few projects because of this–not because I was ‘blocked’ in terms of plot but because the original premise and hence the story’s arc was flawed from the word go. I should have been more diligent in thinking through (some might say ‘plotting’) the story before I started tapping on the keys. But, hey, enthusiasm for one’s latest creative brainwave just takes over…

The French have a great quotation about success. “Reculler pour mieux sauter.” which roughly translated means, pull back to achieve success (or to overcome obstacles).

As you rightly say, you need strategies for overcoming blocks. One is simply to keep on pushing, and one can get past these in some way.

Another is to switch to something else pro tem until the initial block dissolves or a solution appears.

Finding the source of the block is an interesting idea, but can be elusive. I think that accepting one’s lack of creativity / writing is critical to overcoming it.

My writing “speed” has dropped to a crawl of late. While I managed a first draft in 8-9 weeks, this currently seems an impossible task. So, a major block and one that is frustrating. I can therefore fully empathise with your own struggles here. Maybe I should take a sabbatical like you did; but creative writing is a part-time activity and I’m not under pressure to produce for economic reasons, so I have the luxury of taking the slow road. If writing is your crust, you don’t have such a luxury unless the dollars are rolling in. But then, maybe that is the problem?

May I say here that I admire your courage and honesty in writing (yes!) about your own struggles with creative writing block. It is a huge help to others–and I count myself foremost in that category.

I enjoy these weekly posts and the thoughts they provoke. So, thank you for this and all your other posts over the years.

For me, choosing to take a conscious sabbatical from my fiction was a huge decision. It took me a long time to be certain it was the right choice, but ultimately I just “knew.” And my knowing turned out to be right, even though the sabbatical ended up lasting longer than I thought it would. I hope you find your way back to your own writing in exactly the right timing.

Thanks for your thoughts on this. My take is that we are at times very fruitful yet at others, we need to rest and recuperate to re-energise our creativity. All artists do this in fact, have prolific periods and periods of drought.

For my part, I am reluctant to stop scribbling as I fear I may never go back. But the idea of taking an organised break is a very good one and I haven’t definitely ruled it out if my current malaise continues.

” I am reluctant to stop scribbling as I fear I may never go back.”

This was a great fear for me as well in deciding whether or not to *consciously* take a writing break. I already wasn’t writing, so nothing changed except my mindset. But making that jump was very scary and required a lot of trust and surrender.

Excellent article. As a former licensed mental health counselor I can tell you how difficult it is for each of us to dig deeper inside ourselves to find the answers we need. This requires courage, honesty and a willingness to grow and it has amazing results. Thanks for sharing.

It is. I have come to believe it is perhaps the most important work any of us can do–and all the more important for those of us who are aware of it and willing to do, because not everyone is.

Thanks for stopping by. 🙂

Glad to hear you’ve slain the dragon of doubt and fear. And having done it once you can write knowing you can do it again.

Exactly! Although I also know that just as every story is its own adventure, so too will be whatever writing challenge emerges next.

Thank you for the wonderful, thought provoking post. I especially like point #3. That gives us all a lot to think about and work on even when we’re not dealing with a full blown case of writer’s block. Fortunately the only time I’ve actually dealt with that issue was years ago when, strangely enough, things in my world were too easy and perfect and I was sadly unaware of the pain and conflict in the world around me.

That’s interesting. I do think sometimes angst can drive our creativity, since creativity can be an outlet for processing and integrating those feelings. When all is well, we don’t always feel the same need for that.

Currently in a season of writer’s block, although not completely. What’s most helpful is celebrating the small steps of progress: little quarterly work-for-hire assignments after 20 years in educational publishing (writing as a day job). Many books partially written sitting around, and the thought of which to tackle first can paralyze creativity into doing nothing. Plot block (how to make current WIP story compelling) and Life block (recent death in the family and ongoing things that will take time away from writing) both at work, but not insurmountable. I did spend the past two years blogging about listening, but am not sure I’ve fully learned this valuable practice yet. Thanks for reminder to balance “filling the well” with writing.

I hear you. When you’re hit with a hundred different things, even if some of them are comparatively small, that can be so energy-intensive. One thing I had to realize was that one of the reasons I wasn’t motivated to write like I had in years past was that so much of my emotional, mental, and creative energy was being taken up just in processing the events of my life. Not until things calmed down did I finally have the time and energy to bring something back to my creative work.

This post was so comforting to me. I’ve been in a block for the past 2 years and it’s been difficult to say the least. Like you I am questioning my identity. I found a lot of encouragement here, so thank you.

Very sorry to hear about your block. But very glad you resonated with the post and found it helpful!

What an eye-opening post. I’ve never seen anyone describe writer’s block this way.

Well, I wouldn’t have described it this way either a few years ago. 😉 Experience is the great teacher. Glad you enjoyed the post!

Hi Katie, Thank you for sharing with us your story from the last four years. I once read a book titled “On Writers Block” by Victoria Nelson. Each of the fourteen chapters presents a potential difficulty that my arise in a writer’s life and how it leads to writer’s block in the unconscious. I wanted to pass along the title to you and your readers. Steve

Thanks! I’ll check it out!

3 and 4 are ones I wish the writing world talked about more. It radically changes the whole idea of writer’s block. The way we talk about it, for the most part, doesn’t reflect reality for most writers. None of the discussions I’ve seen about it have in any way included my reality, or the reality of my writer/author friends. That doesn’t help anyone in the long run.

As for #5, it’s something I’ve always jealously guarded. I deal with multiple chronic illnesses and learned at an early age to guard my energy levels, my time, and most importantly my sleep. I see so many writers sacrificing these three things for the sake of a career and all it gets them is epic burnout in every aspect of life. I’m from a long line of seamstresses and crafters on both sides of my family and started learning needle arts when I was six. Complicated cross stitch is how I relax and let my brain just be in the moment. It’s an almost meditative process too, with soothing rhythmic movements. As I’ve been on my journey through my own block and reevaluating who I am as a writer, my stitching time has become as precious to me as writing time. It helps me function.

I see writers sacrificing hobbies and things they know refill their creativity in pursuit of money or fame. I know they’ll eventually crash so hard they may never rise again. The only way I can make my current published novels pay for themselves is to sacrifice all my hobby time and money on the altar of social media ads. I refuse to do it. Willingly cutting out such an important part of who I am will eventually show in my writing. I won’t be that author, even if it means I never make more than peanuts.

Wise words.

Early on in my burnout, someone gifted me an adult coloring book full of patterns and a marker kit. I appreciated the gift, but inwardly kind of shook my head and thought, “Never using that.” But I picked it up at some point and couldn’t believe how well it grounded my energy. I was having a hard time sitting still and concentrating long enough to even read, so I was listening to audio books instead. I would listen while I colored and found the same sort of meditative quality you describe here.

Good to know, about the coloring book! I may try that, although I also listen to audio while quilting. Great way to revitalize creative thinking.

When I get writer’s block or just feel uninterested in life in general, I just pretend the creative muse flew away with my project to work on it, and when she gets tired of it, she hands it back to me. Plus, I think brains just get bored and a block is a good time to explore something new, and that new stuff you learn will turn up in your writing. It’s actually kind of a plus, unless, of course, you depend on writing for your bread and butter!

Ooh, I like that!

I enjoy reading your blogs very much, Katie, and rarely miss one – even if sometimes reading takes place a few weeks after being published on your site. This one was excellent, as usual, but I found myself wondering if you see a qualitative difference between writing fiction, and having writer’s block when writing fiction, and writing other material, for example non-fiction blogs, and having or not having writer’s block on that? It might be an incorrect perception, simply because you haven’t had any significant stoppage in the blog production (except for a couple of weeks fairly recently) so I assume that the writer’s block didn’t affect your blog writing? Any thoughts on why, if the assumption is correct? (Fiction v non-fiction perhaps? We don’t need to make up the novel world and characters to write non-fiction, we simply (!) write from our own direct knowledge and experience; does that make the difference?)

Yes, the writer’s block I experienced was in relation to my fiction. For me, fiction and non-fiction come from different “places.” Although some non-fiction, such as this post, can be very personal, most of the non-fiction I write does not come from the same deep intuitive place as my fiction. It was that deep place that I had to re-learn how to relate to and create from.

Whew! I needed this. I’ve been blocked for a couple of years now too, and I finally decided to just lean into it this year. (I suspect this is a wide and deep problem for many writers as the last few years have been…eventful.) I haven’t called my break an official “sabbatical,” but I have given myself permission to “not be a writer” for now.

And likewise it’s not just a block on a story, it’s that deeper personal block. I think I’m completely overhauling what it means to be a human (much less a writer) and therefore what kind of stories I value and would like to produce someday. I’m finding that my ideas are vastly different than they were when I was younger, which of course makes sense. I’ve grown and evolved substantially as a person, why wouldn’t my story taste also change drastically? I had to leave the writing rut entirely to sort all of that out.

I really like how you reframed it. Not a Writer, but someone who sometimes writes. That’s where I am at.

The one difficult thing is when well-meaning family and friends ask how the writing is going. I still haven’t figured out how to navigate that conversation gracefully!

“And likewise it’s not just a block on a story, it’s that deeper personal block. I think I’m completely overhauling what it means to be a human (much less a writer) and therefore what kind of stories I value and would like to produce someday. I’m finding that my ideas are vastly different than they were when I was younger, which of course makes sense. I’ve grown and evolved substantially as a person, why wouldn’t my story taste also change drastically? I had to leave the writing rut entirely to sort all of that out.”

This. Just this. 🙂

Thank you, Katie, for this amazing post. Reading it made me cry as I recognised I had gone through something similar; I just couldn’t (or didn’t want to) name it. In mid-2020, I quit my job and moved countries, thinking it would be easy once I had time to do what I love, but it wasn’t the case. I found myself looking for excuses not to write – ok, there were a few thrust upon me. The pandemic was still wreaking havoc, and French admin is notoriously and famously bureaucratic! However, once all that was over and things settled down, I still struggled. I know now, too, that I also had plot block (thank you). I literally lost the plot. I felt so frustrated and started to question myself. Am I really a writer? Or am I just someone who sometimes writes and shouldn’t have given up the day job? I was offered a job here in France and was tempted. But I stuck to my guiding principles and waited, as I’m fortunate enough that I don’t need to earn money from writing (although I am aiming for the day someone likes it enough to want to publish it). I had to make a conscious effort to avoid distractions and get out of my own way. Then, something clicked. The plot started to fall into place. I was on a role and actually wanted to keep going. I think this must have been the point where (without realising it) I’d let Creativity take the lead instead of trying to force her out of bed every morning. By the end of 2022, I finally had a story that I liked and beta readers who liked it too. I still fear that once I’ve finished the edits and my MS is on submission I might have another ‘wobble’. That said, the joy of getting this far has given me confidence. As have your posts. Thank you. 🙂

That’s wonderful! And kudos to you for listening to your gut/heart and waiting until the time was ripe.

K. M. Thanks for writing all those articles about writing while you were bogged down in writer’s block. I found them interesting and helpful. While I seldom have writer’s block, I am sometimes guilty of pushing ahead with a plot that doesn’t make sense logically as my critique partners will say. I’m glad your well is filling up again. Happy writing.

Yes, well, every time I think I’ll run out of things to blog about, life teaches me something new. 😉

I love to hear this encouraging news… And from a purely selfish perspective, I look forward to reading your next story!

Thank you! I am having a delightful time with it so far. 🙂

Well look at that! I’ve read two blog posts in a row and mostly on time. 🙂

One way I’m working on freeing my creativity while away traveling is to be ruthless in pruning away some things that just add needless stress – like a multitude of email subscriptions that seemed intrguing at the time, but became so overwhelming that I spend my morning deleting them all and reading none of them. It’s a bit hard, but unearthing my favorites (like this blog!) is great motivation. 🙂

Now… the point about writer’s block sometimes occuring because we have outgrown something. I felt a primal resistance to that one. I’ve been giving myself time. But did I lose out on an earlier idea because of poor time management or life circumstances? Am I hiding from growth I could have? I *like* the village, the familiar. I like adventure also… yet I find I desperately want to have them all at the same time, and to not leave anyone behind.

Time to get back to clearing space… Space that I probably ought to fill with special times for self-discovery as well as learning to dance with creativity.

I hear you. One of the major themes of my thirties was dealing with regret and grief for all the things that “could have been” in my twenties. I still struggle with this sometimes, but I always come back to the conviction that a) there are no wrong choices and b) everything is meaningful in its own perfect timing. Had I done things differently earlier on, I would not have learned the lessons or been given the gifts that I was. I value all of those gifts tremendously and would not trade them for a different experience, however much my perfectionist brain insists that my life “should” have looked more like it does in the commercials.

This article was really wonderful and came at just the right time for me. Feeling the creative well running dry isn’t fun, and knowing that it’s not just that I’m a talentless hack is encouraging. I might even use this article as a reason to give myself a break. So thank you.

Yes, be as kind to yourself as you can. 🙂 This is a profound thing you’re living through right now.

I like the way you separated plot block from life block. While I’ve been simmering about why I haven’t produced more work by now, a larger (and wiser) part of me is taking the time to look at and understand deeper blocks. Your points are spot on. This article tells me I’m where I need to be. Thank you for sharing your journey!

Yay for being exactly where you are! 🙂

Thank you for this. As someone who also suffered a years-long writers block, the most hurtful thing to hear was people claiming that it didn’t exist. It’s good to have voices acknowledging that it does, along with offering support to get through it.

I will admit that prior to my own experience, I tended to dismiss it as something that could be cured with a little bit of discipline and willpower. But deep blocks are just that… deep. And they can require deep work and time to overcome.

Thank you for this episode it is exactly what I needed to hear right now. The past few years have been rough and while I had been working on revisions for contracted books. I can’t or more like don’t want to write new stuff. I’ve been so focused on getting an agent, book deals, etc for the past 12 years such that it became a part of my identity and now that my first book is out with the next 2 coming out this year. I’m like now what do I do? I seriously question if I’m a writer anymore since I’m not willing to put in the time.

The business of writing can be exhausting. It is so different from the introverted work of writing a novel. It is necessary and often unavoidable, but learning how to balance the two can be challenging for sure.

It’s funny (not ha ha but strange/mystifying) how some things come into your life at the right moment in time. The time meant. Like now, your words. Thank you. Brilliantly written and eaten hungrily 😊

Yay for good timing!

Your statement, “I’m not a Writer, I’m someone who sometimes writes.” That landed. I mean, I am afraid of it, yet the part of you that needed to hear it, I have that too.

Your story helps me understand why I don’t need to jump out a window, neither to escape a world even if it could never understand me (though the confusion wasn’t that dire), nor metaphorically in my writing, in the attempt to fly creatively.

Knowing that I am more than my creative dreams gives me reason to understand. If I am “who sometimes writes” then I can be the one who sometimes leaves messages that nobody will receive. And if I am to soar–if I even can–then I can allow myself the dignity of taking off from solid ground.

I am crying as I finish this. Thank you.

Totally. Really focusing in on our own personal motivations for writing can be so helpful in moving past blocks–either in realizing we don’t have to do certain things we don’t want to (e.g., publish) or realizing that we want certain things badly enough to take risks.

Thanks for being willing to put yourself out there, and for your ability to analyze your own situation in a way that can be useful to others.

I wouldn’t say I have writer’s block but I think I do have writer’s grind, as in I’m grinding slowly through the third draft of a novel which began as a flash of inspiration in (appropriately enough) a bookstore almost six years ago.

Slow forward to the present day, and after two drafts and a professional manuscript evaluation, I’m working on draft number three. My self-imposed tasks are 1) reduce the wordcount by about 20–30,000 words, 2) flesh out certain characters, especially my POV character, who ought to be but isn’t always the protag, and 3) integrate a bunch of replotting and rearrangement into the story.

I actually do have available time to write, but the writing itself is is going s-o-o-o-o s-l-o-o-o-w-w-l-y. Part of it is obsessing over sentence-level craft decisions. But part is also the nagging internal question of how much hard work can I put into this thing before I’m deeemed to have done enough or so sick of my characters that I just kill them off in an avalanche or soemthing.

So, short story long: Writer’s Grind; is it like a writer’s blockette — i.e. not big enough to be full on writer’s block?

Hah, “writer’s blockette.” I like that. I think there are *so many* parts of the writing process that are dreadfully boring and tedious. We need discipline to get through them, but we also have to learn ways to keep ourselves from burning out to getting *too* bored.

A colleague once told me “A writer doesn’t procrastinate; a writer gathers life experience.” This felt (and still feels) like the worst possible advice someone could give me. I was certainly not gathering life experience by watching a Project Runway marathon last night! I was just procrastinating. But the premise does fit here. Being blocked is rough, but the life experience and personal insights we get during the block can be so valuable to our writing when we can get back to it. I’m sure your fiction will be all the richer for the lessons you learned these past five years. I certainly couldn’t have written the book I’m working on now without having done a lot of difficult and painful personal work before I started. Thanks for sharing your insights!

Ah, you never know. Maybe you’ll write about a supermodel! 😉

This is great, I love that Jose Rivera quote. Also dividing block into plot block or a problem in the work and life block, personal problems diverting energy/disrupting creative flow. Will definitely share this. I think play as you say is such a vital part of creativity – and play includes the allowance of mistakes. That’s how we learn the most.

Yes, I loved that quote too! Thanks to Patrick for introducing me to it.

“Life-block” is a real thing and I understand it better now that I’ve been making writing a regular practice. But the “feeding” of creativity comes in so many forms and requires constant attention. It’s like a growing baby. Warm milk used to be enough but just doesn’t cut it anymore. Now my hungry teenage-creativity requires a full course meal and someday maybe multiple courses. When starved not only can it be derailed by some of life’s minor problems, when things get harder it can come to a complete halt. Then we have to learn how to dance all over again. Thank you for this post, I love it!

“The “feeding” of creativity comes in so many forms and requires constant attention. It’s like a growing baby. Warm milk used to be enough but just doesn’t cut it anymore. Now my hungry teenage-creativity requires a full course meal and someday maybe multiple courses.”

Such a great metaphor!

To me this seems silly, though I can easily understand the reasons some become blocked. I; as a concious choice, once gave up writing in the nineties when my computer and back up crashed sending my almost complete novel into cyberspace. Three years of work gone. So, I decided, in my frustration, that I was never going to write again and at the time meant it. Even then I was composing novels in my head whilst not writing them. Everyone is, of course, different but I never understand writer’s block. For me, the whole thing is always so many ideas, so many stories, and so little time. I already have the ideas in my head for three lifetimes, but I am no Michael Moorcock I need time to write. Lol I keep trying to give ideas away to other writers and thankfully many accept them. Lol. I suppose I am the opposite, The ideas come easy, the writing also but where then do you take a stand on a book when so many other ideas are worming their way into your consciousness. A difficult decision. Great article. K.M.

Hey, K.M. I’ve been having a plot block for about 8 months or so, on a book I’ve been working on for about 10 years (part of an earlier project that’s been going on for about 26 years now). After a frustrating morning, I just went to google and typed “Can Writer’s craft books help you overcome writer’s block?” and, to my great surprise, your article popped up. I am a longtime reader/viewer/listener of yours, and my book is in a very niche genre I know you’re a fan of, as well. I always wondered what happened to you, and assumed that life had just gotten in the way, or that you had given up, in frustration. Very good to know you are working to overcome your block and that you’re still in the game, although there’s no reason anyone has to keep writing if they don’t want to. Something around the end of my book isn’t working, but I just can’t figure it out for the life of me. If I just filmed it as a movie, it would work, but it sounds ridiculous/boring when written out in prose form. Unfortunately, I am very stubborn about shoehorning things in that shouldn’t work, but the “everything and the kitchen sink” adventure story is what I set out to do. Through time and massive effort, I have made a lot of things work that shouldn’t have, but I am stuck trying to make the absolute wackiest part fly.

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Interview: 37 Famous Author Quotes About…

37 famous author quotes about writer’s block.

Every writer’s been there, it’s inevitable really: Staring down at a blank page, struggling to string sentences together, seemingly without a creative bone left in your body, and barely mustering the courage to keep going. Writer’s Block — the drying up of a writer’s wellspring of creative imagination. It has likely existed since the dawn of writing, but […]

Every writer’s been there, it’s inevitable really: Staring down at a blank page, struggling to string sentences together, seemingly without a creative bone left in your body, and barely mustering the courage to keep going.

Writer’s Block — the drying up of a writer’s wellspring of creative imagination. It has likely existed since the dawn of writing, but the term itself was only coined in 1947 by the famous psychiatrist Edmund Bergler. In 1950, Bergler published a paper titled  Does Writer’s Block Exist?  A question still asked by anyone who consistently tries to put pen to paper. Below are 37 quotes on the matter from 37 famous writers.

What do you think? Does writer’s block exist?

[1] “When you face writer’s block, just lower your standards and keep going.” — Sandra Tsing Loh

[2] “Writer’s block is a misnomer and can be compared with turning off a faucet. Like the ability to write, faucets can develop problems when they’re seldom used. You get all this rust in the pipes. When you turn on the faucet, a lot of rust comes out.” — Susan Neville

[3] “I tell my students there is such a thing as ‘writer’s block,’ and they should respect it. It’s blocked because it ought to be blocked, because you haven’t got it right now.” — Toni Morrison

[4] “Don’t stop because you’ve hit a block. Finish the page, even if you write nothing but your own name. The block will break if you don’t give in to it. Remember, writing is a physical habit as well as whatever you want to think it is—calling, avocation, talent, genius, art.” — Isabelle Holland

[5] ” Writer’s block is the biggest myth out there. The idea that you’re just lost for any possible words isn’t some vague illness that strikes people when they’re trying to be creative. You’re not missing the words; you’re missing the  research . All ideas are a combination of preexisting ideas. So if you’re “out” of new ideas it’s probably because you don’t have enough old ideas to combine. Go back and read more. Or spend more time mapping out the book. Don’t show up to the keyboard without a plan and then tell the world you have writer’s block. You’re lying to us, and to yourself.” — David Burkus

[6] “There’s no such thing as writer’s block. As long as your fingers can move over the keyboard, eventually it’ll segue into something.” — Mary Kay Andrews

[7] In my experience, novelists and others who complain of a mysterious disease called Writer’s Block should be treated with suspicion. This inexplicable failure to write anything can be the result of two conditions— simple laziness or having nothing to say…One needs only to develop a certain power of concentration and have something to say.” — Auberon Waugh

[8] “I’m superstitious about writer’s block to the extent I don’t particularly feel like devoting a great deal of time to dwelling on it.  It seems like getting stuck in a desert, a nightmare. But there are definitely times when the inspiration flows more freely than not. It seems to me that writing is a muscle: it gets stronger the more you use it.  If you let yourself fall out of the habit, it can be hard to get back in form. Writing a regular column keeps you limber and sharp and guarantees that any fear of writer’s block is kept at bay.” — John Avlon

[9] “When I have writer’s block it is because I have not done enough research or I have not thought hard enough about the subject about which I’m writing. That’s a signal for me to go back to the archives or to go back into my thoughts and think through what it is I am supposed to be doing.” —  Annette Gordon-Reed

[10] “One of the pieces I’m deeply proud to have written started with a paragraph that read: “This story needed an ending before it could find its first sentence. So please forgive me for delivering it ten years overdue.” That ten years was a war with writer’s block.” — Cal Fussman

[11] “Do you ever go into the bathroom and sit on the toilet when you don’t need to take a shit? Do you ever just sit there completely empty and sit there and push? No, you don’t. You go eat something and then you live your life and what happens, happens. It’s the same thing with writing. If I don’t have an idea that I’m not absolutely terrified of losing, then I don’t bother to write.” — Chuck Palahniuk

[12] “You can’t think yourself out of a writing block; you have to write yourself out of a thinking block.” — John Rogers

[13] “Writer’s block is a phony, made up BS excuse for not doing your work.” — Jerry Seinfeld

[14] “I write like I talk and I don’t get talker’s block.” — Seth Godin

[15] “William Stafford, one of our great poets, said that the best thing to do about writer’s block is to lower your standard, and it’s the best advice to give someone who’s stalled.” — Ted Kooser

[16] “‘Writer’s block’ is an emotional or logical incoherence in a future work slowly working its way through our unconscious.” —Alain de Botton

[17] “I’ve always said “Writer’s Block” is a myth. There is no such thing as writer’s block, only writers trying to force something that isn’t ready yet. Sometimes I don’t write for weeks. And then all of the sudden I’ll get a rush of inspiration and you can’t drag me away from my notebook. But I don’t stress out if I don’t hit some arbitrary word count each day or if I go a few days without writing something.” — Julie Ann Dawson

[18] “I haven’t had writer’s block. I think it’s because my process involves writing very badly.” —  Jennifer Egan

[19] “Writer’s block is almost like the equivalent of impotence. It’s performance pressure you put on yourself that keeps you from doing something you naturally should be able to do…The reason you don’t get writer’s block as a writer is because you have a deadline. It has to be in. You have no choice. But, if you sit there, and you think, “This piece has to be the ultimate article, the ultimate book ever written; my entire selfish being is wrapped up in this; and, this is me.” – The bigger of a story you make up about what you are doing, the bigger the block will get. It has nothing to do with the talent of writing or the skill of writing. It’s completely performance anxiety.” — Neil Strauss

[20] “I don’t believe in “writer’s block”. I try and deal with getting stuck by having more than one thing to work on at a time. And by knowing that even a hundred bad words that didn’t exist before is forward progress.” — Neil Gaiman

[21] “Writer’s block is only a failure of the ego.” — Norman Mailer

[22] “I deal with writer’s block by lowering my expectations. I think the trouble starts when you sit down to write and imagine that you will achieve something magical and magnificent — and when you don’t, panic sets in. The solution is never to sit down and imagine that you will achieve something magical and magnificent. I write a little bit, almost every day, and if it results in two or three or (on a good day) four good paragraphs, I consider myself a lucky man. Never try to be the hare. All hail the tortoise.” — Malcolm Gladwell

[23] “Give yourself permission to write a bad book. Writer’s block is another name for writer’s dread—the paralyzing fear that our work won’t measure up. It doesn’t matter how many books I’ve published, starting the next one always feels as daunting as the first. A day comes when I just have to make a deal with myself: write something anyway, even if it’s awful. Nobody has to know. Maybe it never leaves this room! Just go.” — Barabara Kingsolver

[24] “All writing problems are psychological problems. Blocks usually stem from the fear of being judged. If you imagine the world listening, you’ll never write a line. That’s why privacy is so important. You should write first drafts as if they will never be shown to anyone.” —  Erica Jong

[25] “All writing is difficult. The most you can hope for is a day when it goes reasonably easily. 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?” — Philip Pullman

[26] “If you’ve got writer’s block, enjoy the silence while it lasts. In another day, week, or month, you’ll be so filled with things to say you’ll be sneaking out of bed again. Who knows why the brain is into different things at different times. But we’re so much more effective when we follow what our body wants to do, rather than trying to fight it.” — Derek Sivers

[27] “Writer’s block is just a symptom of feeling like you have nothing to say, combined with the rather weird idea that you should feel the need to say something. Why? If you have something to say, then say it. If not, enjoy the silence while it lasts. The noise will return soon enough.” —  Hugh MacLeod

[28] “I think writer’s block is a bad name for a number of real problems facing writers, most notably of which is fear. Typically when I feel blocked, I’m really afraid…What do I do when I feel blocked? I write through the block…I push through the discomfort, so that I can keep going. Momentum is a writer’s friend.” — Jeff Goins

[29] “I don’t believe in writers’ block. Do doctors have ‘doctors block?’ Do plumbers have ‘plumbers’ block?” No. We all have days when we don’t feel like working, but why do writers turn that into something so damn special by giving it a faintly romantic name.” — Larry Kahaner

[30] “Basically, the most raw, deep truth is shut up and write. There’s no such thing as a writer’s block. If you’re having trouble writing, well, pick up the pen and write. No matter what, keep that hand moving. Writing is really a physical activity.” — Natalie Goldberg

[31] “I don’t believe in writer’s block. Think about it — when you were blocked in college and had to write a paper, didn’t it always manage to fix itself the night before the paper was due? Writer’s block is having too much time on your hands.” — Jodi Picoult

[32] “Beat it into submission. That’s the only way. How would you get rid of runner’s block? You go for a fucking run.” — Ryan Holiday

[33] “Resistance never sleeps. It never slackens and it never goes away. The dragon must be slain anew every morning. However, as with anything in life, if you’ve succeeded in the past, at least you know that you  can  succeed.” — Steven Pressfield

[34] “Writer’s block is just another name for anxiety. People always have something else to say. It’s not like you ever run out of ideas. There’s just a filter in our brains where we decide what is “worthy” of being put down on paper, and when that filter gets too strong (due to high expectations or fear of being judged or whatever), few ideas will get through it. This happens to me at times and I just have to remind myself to chill out (or “not give a fuck” as it were), get over myself (or my ego) and trust the process to take care of everything.” — Mark Manson

[35] “I never get writer’s block, because I always have a good dozen projects that I’m working on, so if something isn’t working I’ll just switch gears.” — James Patterson

[36] “Writing about a writer’s block is better than not writing at all.” — Charles Bukowski

[37] “I don’t think “writer’s block” actually exists. It’s basically insecurity — it’s your own internal critic turned up to a higher level than it’s supposed to be at that moment, because when you’re starting a work — when the page is blank, when the canvas is open — your critic has to be turned down to zero… The point is actually to get stuff on paper, just to allow yourself to kind of flow. It is only by writing that you’ll discover characters, ideas, things like this.” — Philipp Meyer

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• AJNR Am J Neuroradiol
• v.35(6); 2014 Jun

Writer's Block

After writing nearly 70 Perspectives , it was bound to happen; it seems I have hit “writer's block.” This is the first time I sat down to write my monthly essay in over 8 months and I decided to use the occasion to familiarize myself with this condition (and try to liberate myself from it). Writer's block varies in intensity from extreme (abandoning one's career as an author—think Harper Lee and Ralph Ellison) to trivial and temporary (which I hope mine is). Why worry? Most writers have it at one time or another. The most common causes cited for writer's block are lack of inspiration, illness, depression, financial pressure, and a sense of failure. None of these apply to me. In my case, maybe it is just good old academic pressure. With increasing frequency, I hear that the only part of AJNR that our subscribers read is my Perspectives , to which I say: What about the rest of the Journal ? That is where most of my energy and time are spent! And, if our readers are paying that much attention to my short essays, should each one be better than the last? Writer's block sounds like the ideal excuse to avoid thinking about what to write (just look at the title of my first reference: “Writer's Block as an Instrument for Remaining in Paradise”). 1

Writer's block is a modern notion, and the term was coined in 1947 by Dr Edmund Bergler, a famous Austrian psychiatrist living in New York City. 2 Today, it is well accepted that the notion of writer's block arose in conjunction with the sudden prestige of psychiatry in the United States after World War II. Dr Bergler, a follower of Freud, blamed writer's block on oral masochism and a milk-denying mother (that gives me something to think about because I know that I was bottle-fed!), in addition to other “phallic and anal” explanations along Freudian lines. Stress leads to panic, and some scientists believe that the reticular activating system in the brain stem will shift higher functions associated with writing from the cortex to the limbic system under duress. 3 Others disagree and think that the creative writing process starts at the level of the limbic system, whereas more technical writing is initially fueled by the frontal cortex. If both were true, all writing would stop as functions shift from one location to the other. However, writer's block can be selective, as it is in my case. That is, I continue to write other articles, chapters, and books, but writing this specific series of essays is my problem. Writer's block is commonly seen in college and university students who consistently fail to turn in their written assignments. In them, procrastination (a behavior specifically called “academic trait procrastination”) is a major component of writer's block. Procrastination is learned, so education specialists claim that it can be unlearned. 1 Perfectionism is also blamed for the block; it seems to motivate some procrastination, and together these both promote writer's block. 1 In academia, the notion of writer's block is disdained by younger members but seems to gain respect at higher levels where it occurs more commonly. 4

Writer's block is better termed “creative inhibition” or “creative block.” 5 It is becoming more prominent: it was little known by the early Romantic writers, became more prominent during the epoch of the French Symbolists, and last, was rampant (and became a recognized entity) during the period of the great American novel. Today, in a manner similar to attention-deficit disorder, writer's block is a nearly unique American affliction (though it occasionally happens in other countries, vide infra). 6

Agraphia is the ultimate writer's block because it refers to the physiologic inability to write, but, in this case, lesions in the brain, such as those induced by trauma or stroke, are present and explain it. Agraphia results from damage to the Wernicke area and is nearly always accompanied by other language disabilities. In some cases, the inability to write may be physical, such as so-called “writer's cramp.” This is a muscle dystonia, and DTI has shown fractional anisotropy changes in the fibers connecting the primary sensorimotor areas with subcortical structures in individuals who suffer from it. 7 In such individuals, fMRI has also shown abnormally low activation of the sensorimotor cortex and supplementary motor areas. 8 The findings of these studies imply that both inhibitory and excitatory mechanisms play a role in writer's cramp and that the pain it causes prevents writing by hand. Writer's cramp can also develop during typing and other activities such as using a screwdriver. Compared with men, women are thought to be better writers; however fMRI does not show significant differences in brain activation for either sex while writing. 9 The same study found significant differences between good and poor writers while handwriting, mostly in brain regions involved with planning for serial finger movements.

The opposite of writer's block is also known to occur, and it can be temporary or affect an individual all of his or her life. Balzac, Hugo, and Dickens probably had “graphorrhea.” The problem with calling the obsession to write “graphorrhea” is that this term is also used for manic patients who compose long lists, many times containing only meaningless words, which is not the same as writing many great novels. As psychiatry evolved from an analytic discipline to a chemical science, writer's block came to be blamed on abnormal brain chemistry. More seriously, writer's block can be a manifestation of a dangerous underlying psychiatric disease such as schizophrenia, obsessive compulsive disorder, or substance abuse (think Scott Fitzgerald).

Writer's block has been assessed in individuals who speak languages other than English. Two studies addressed it in Chinese and Spanish native speakers and found that it occurs in those languages as it does in English. 10 – 12 In other languages, as in English, writer's block appears to be related to premature editing and to a lack of strategies for dealing with complex writing tasks. Developing a strategy before the actual writing helps some individuals. Princeton Professor and author John McPhee tells a related story in his essay “Structure.” 13 For 2 weeks he lay down on a picnic table under the trees looking at them and wondering how to start a piece on pines. After 8 months of work, he was finally able to turn it in. He suggests that having a preplanned structure eases the stress of writing and results in a better organized and flowing article. The ease of cutting and pasting makes attaining the desired structure easier today than in the past.

The use of a computer with word-processing capabilities reduces writer's block for second-language writers but not for native-language writers. 14 Spelling is also intimately related to the ability to write. In one study, disabled spellers showed significantly more activation in clusters of neural networks associated with working memory and executive functions. 15 Computer programs that automatically correct spelling may help these individuals overcome writer's block.

Because writing is intimately related to reading, recognition of the written word is needed for both activities. Alexia is a condition in which patients lose their ability to read and is associated with lesions in the left parietal and occipital lobes. 16 Alexia has been “folklorized” in several accounts by the famous and popular author and neurologist Oliver Sacks. His patients who had this condition were said to have lesions affecting the VWFA (visual word recognition area), which is presumably located in the left midfusiform gyrus (running from temporal to occipital lobe under the parahippocampal gyrus). Because this area is also involved in the recognition of auditory, phonologic, and visual impulses, patients with lesions there have more symptoms than alexia only. Pure alexia caused by a lesion in the VWFA has not been reported. More importantly, a meta-analysis of the literature, including fMRI studies, states that this brain region does not participate in visual word processing, and thus its concept is erroneous. 17 Alexia without agraphia occurs with lesions involving the left-sided splenium of the corpus callosum.

Strategies for coping with (and curing) writer's block include group discussions, brainstorming (I wrote an essay against this), list-making (I have a long list of topics that I have considered, but none seem very attractive now), and engaging with the text (I have no idea what this means). Recalcitrant blockage must be treated with extensive “therapy.” 15 Other cures include “automatic writing” in which texts are produced from the subconscious without conscious awareness. 18 Instead of coming directly from the writer's mind, Arthur Conan Doyle believed that automatic writing came from external spirits. Channeling writing from a spirit is called “psychography.” Both phenomena may be explained as “ideomotor effects” meaning just an activity of which we are partially or completely unaware. Of course, all of this is nonsense, and fMRI has proved (many times) that ideomotor effects originate in the brain and not outside of it. 19

At this point, I must say that having finished this Perspectives , I feel somewhat liberated. Whether that feeling will be short-lived or last and allow me to write next month's piece, you, kind reader, must wait and see.

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Nat Ogle and Victoria Adukwei Bulley named Centre for New Writing 2024 Burgess Fellows

The centre for new writing has unveiled its 2024 burgess fellows as authors nat ogle and victoria adukwei bulley. both writers join the centre, based in the university of manchester..

The Burgess Fellowships introduce two new, published writers to each year’s new Creative Writing Masters programme at the Centre.

In their role as Writer Fellows, Nat and Victoria read work-in-progress by the MA Creative Writing cohort, and by undergraduate students enrolled on the BA English Literature with Creative Writing, offering feedback and editorial guidance. 

The Fellows make a significant contribution to the Centre for New Writing’s policy to introduce a range of mentors for students and to increase awareness of the practical elements of the publishing industry, as students will work with writers who are publishing new work during their Fellowship.  

The Burgess Fellows are such a striking addition to the Centre for New Writing every year. They are generally writers at an early stage of their careers, whose prose and poetry is already causing a stir in the publishing world, and they form a vital bridge between the Creative Writing students and the established writers who make up the staff of the Centre.  Nat and Victoria are both such daring and dynamic writers – simultaneously pushing formal boundaries and tackling challenging issues around care, justice and structural racism (to name just a few). It’s a pleasure to have them with us through the Spring semester.

About the 2024 Burgess Fellows

Nat Ogle is the author of In the Seeing Hands of Others , a novel. He has a PhD in Creative Writing from The University of Manchester. His work was shortlisted for The White Review Poet's Prize in 2021. He grew up in Darlington, County Durham, and lives in London. He works in bookselling. Victoria Adukwei Bulley is a poet, writer, and artist whose work has appeared widely in publications including the London Review of Books , LitHub , and The Atlantic . She is the winner of an Eric Gregory Award, and her critically acclaimed debut poetry book, Quiet , won the Folio Prize for Poetry, the John Pollard International Poetry Prize, and was shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize. Quiet is published by Faber in the UK and in North America by Alfred A. Knopf.

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