I Just Don’t Feel Inspired! 4 Tips To Unlock Inspiration
But don’t try them all at once
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Whether you have been suffering writer’s block for days or for years, the frustration and helplessness is the same. Perhaps the most irritating thing about this affliction is there is no pill you can be prescribed to magically cure you. You are left searching online for articles to help you clear the creative jam. If you are desperate you might sign up for a course written by someone who considers themselves an expert on the topic. Chatting to other writers about your condition will likely open dialogue about how they too suffered, and they will empathise but if you are unlucky, you might encounter someone who does not believe it is real. Jerry Seinfeld once said, “Writer’s block is a phony, made up, BS excuse for not doing your work.” Maybe that is because he, and others who subscribe to that belief, learned tools to keep their productivity flowing during challenging times. Here are five ways to keep your confidence in your ability high while you are dealing with writer’s block.
Morning Pages
Simply put, morning pages are three pages, or however many you can manage, of notes written as soon as you wake. They can be about anything and certainly do not have to make sense. Many writers swear by building a habit of writing, particularly in the morning before anything else can interfere with their plans. Keeping a notebook by your bedside and picking it up as soon as you open your eyes can be a great way to start developing that habit. Dorothea Brande was one of the first writers to advocate this method and more recently, writers like Julia Cameron have published special journals for morning pages and focused on the practice on their own websites.
The best thing about morning pages is that you do not have to use a particular journal or notebook. It can be any discount store blank lined journal that you keep by your bed. You can write about your dreams the night before, your hopes for that day, your plans for the future, or your thoughts on events in your own life and the wider world. It can be fiction or fact and does not have to be a diary. You are in complete control of what goes into it, which is a luxury not all writers can afford in their professional work! Nobody ever has to see it. It will not get published, unless you want it to be, and the only goal here is to write. No matter what kind of writing you aim for, whether fiction, non-fiction, poetry or academic, this will start your day the right way.
Freewriting
Freewriting is exactly what it sounds like. You have the freedom to write anything at all. You simply put the pen to paper, or your fingers to the keys, and write whatever pops into your head. You may think, ‘Well if it were that easy, then I wouldn’t have writer’s block, would I?’ This is not necessarily true. Writer’s block can often stem from the pressure to write one particular article, essay or story. You may be so stressed about that task that you feel you cannot write anything at all, which is often not the case. Freewriting allows you to write your thoughts, whether they make sense or not and they should tumble out of your brain and onto the page or screen in fragments, not proper sentences with grammar and punctuation. Free yourself from the idea that your writing must be perfect to be useful!
This method will not necessarily help you to write exactly what you want to produce. It certainly will not be fit for publication, unless as an example of freewriting. What it can do is help you dredge up ideas. After all, when you switch your brain off and simply let your thoughts run wild, it is often when writers come up with their best ideas. Saving your freewriting can provide you with a wealth of information to draw on when you are feeling a little more creative. It can also build your confidence as you are still writing, even if you are not producing a high quality of written word. You can even write your thoughts about your own situation. As Charles Bukowski said, “Writing about a writer’s block is better than not writing at all.”
Clustering
This method is a little more complex and it could be something that you have never tried. Clustering is similar to a mind map in that it will end up looking like a big spider. You begin with a word that you want to write about. For example, you could be a student who wants to write an essay on tourism in France. So, you would begin with the word, “France.” You would draw a bubble around it and some spider legs. Then at the end of each leg, add a word that you associate with France. For example, Paris, Escargot, Wine, Brie, Victor Hugo, Vanessa Paradis… You write each associated word on the end of the spider legs and draw a bubble around them. You would repeat this as many times as necessary to stimulate ideas and possible research topics. Suddenly the ideas start to flow, and you have a lot to write about.
Clustering was developed by Gabriele Lusser Rico in the book Writing the Natural Way and has been recommended to students on Open University courses in the UK as a way of kick-starting the creative writing process. Neuroscientists have written about the interaction between the orderly, analytical side of the brain and the emotional, creative side and how one side can get in the way of the other functioning well. Clustering helps us to move between the two sides effectively, using the emotional responses that bring about the word association and ordering them into a diagram. Clustering can be particularly useful for people who are writing poetry as it deals with word association, and mental imagery that is not forthcoming during blocks.
Research and Clippings
Time spent reading is never time wasted when you are a writer, and this will be advised by almost everyone who writes on the subject of writer’s block or writing in general. If your writing is not flowing, reading can help to get that blockage moving again. Research your topic again if you are writing non-fiction. Read a new author in your genre if you are working on fiction. Make notes on what the other author has done well or about details that you would also like to include in your own work — but remember to give credit if you are quoting directly! It is sometimes good to switch things up too. If you are writing non-fiction about the Viking period, read a novel set in that era. It may not give you facts you can use in your own work, but it can help you to submerge yourself in the culture. Similarly, if you are working on fiction set in 9th century Denmark, watch a few documentaries about Viking life.
Research does not always have to mean reading though. Perhaps you are writing a story set in Italy. Go out to an Italian restaurant or watch a movie set in Rome. Other people’s vacation photo albums on Facebook cannot be underestimated when it comes to inspiration material! Head to Pinterest and explore the images that others are sharing. They might lead you to articles or websites that will be helpful and plant seeds of ideas in your mind. Whatever your topic is, start to keep a clippings file of pictures you have found in magazines that you can refer to when you need a little push in the right direction. Save websites that have been useful to a folder and visit them again. Just because you are not physically writing does not mean you are not working on the piece.
If All Else Fails…
Take a break. There is no shame in it. After all, if your laptop or phone is not working, the first thing you do is switch it off and switch if back on again. It is the same with our brains. If we walk away from what we are working on and take a well-earned break, because periods of writer’s block producing nothing still count as time spent working, we can go back to it later with fresh eyes and a new perspective. Whether it is listening to music, having a night out with friends, cooking a delicious meal or binging on Netflix, do not feel guilty about the time you take away from your work. You will need it because writing is hard. It is not glamorous, or sexy and it requires both the creative and logical sides of your brain to be used. No wonder you are exhausted.
Whatever method you choose for dealing with your writer’s block, be kind to yourself and remember that it happens to the best of us. Good luck!
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