Hiya! I love your blog it's absolutely amazing. I'm an aspiring author and I was wondering.. How do you overcome writers block?

Hello there, writerly friend~ ♥︎

I have to be straight-forward with you, because I need to be honest right now. This is the sort of question that I have difficulty answering… because every time I try to tackle this very (very) general and vague question I end up writing something that’s a little too meta and I become afraid of what people will think of me.

But, then again… I get this question an awful lot, and while I wish that people would look at my Mega Masterpost (which is updated every Saturday by the way) and find the answer to their question, I have not really tackled Writer’s Block in general. So, let’s talk about it— okay?

I will be brave, and you will listen with an open mind, okay?

Let’s pretend I am a Doctor, and you are a patient. You walk into my clinic and tell me that you get headaches all the time. Of course, I prescribe you headache medicine and we both go our own ways.

Now, let’s pretend I am a Writing Advice Blog (which I guess I am ;p), and you are a Writer (which you certainly are). You come into my blog and you tell me you have writer’s block. Now, I could just give you my cure for Writer’s Block— but what does that achieve? Just because it worked for me does not mean it will work for you. And if next week you come back asking for more help then have I really given you the tools to overcome Writer’s Block, or have I just put a band-aid on your problems and say you have ‘healed’?

No. I have something more useful for you.

You see, people think Writer’s Block is something like the cold— that you catch it out of the blue, but I disagree. Writer’s Block is a problem with you. Yes, it is something that is going on with you— and thus you have the tools to overcome this. You just need a little help realizing exactly what you need to do~

I want you to step back for a moment. I want you to take a deep breath and consider the following question. Forget about what is going on right now. Forget about your phone notifications, and that email that you meant to send last week. Forget about them for just one minute and focus on this:

What is the first thing that came to mind? What was the first enormous hurdle that rose before your path? Our greatest foes are just that— great, huge in size, and they make themselves known to us if we call to them. Remember: this foe is a part of you, and thus you hold the tools the defeat them, destroy them, or have them join your side.

But you need to be honest with yourself in order to see them for who they really are.

'Writer's Block' is a fancy catch-all term for a bunch of things— and to be honest I don’t like to use it, because it adds a veil of mysticism, almost romanticizing the problem instead of focusing on overcoming it.

Again, consider the question you asked yourself earlier.

Are you bored with this story? Be honest with yourself. If what you need is excitement, a spark to re-ignite that flame, then you already know what you need, and I can help you.

Are you afraid of the opinions of your peers? Be honest with yourself. If what you really fear is what people will think of you, then you already know what the problem is, and I can help you.

Are you tired of this story, and you want to write something else? Be honest with yourself. If you dread writing this story, but you don’t want to feel guilty by leaving it, then you already know what the problem is, and I can help you.

Are you afraid that writing is a waste of your time? Be honest with yourself. If you are really afraid of that, then you know what the problem is and I can help you.

Because let me tell you… you hold within you the answer to your questions, because the foe blocking the path is a part of you. I am sorry of this offends a lot of people, but it is a really big part of American culture to blame your problems on other people. It’s easy to just remove yourself of all blame and demand the world to fix you. And I know that I am opening myself to hate by saying that, but trust me when I tell you that I used to be a very rotten person. I used to demand things of the world, and I used to blame my problems on everyone but me.

But I changed. I got tired of being who I was. I got tired of being rotten. I got tired of blaming the world for my failures, and I got tired of not achieving my dreams because I was afraid of taking responsibility for my destiny.

If you have read this, and you still think that the problem is not you, then it most certainly is. And while some people look at that and feel insulted, I have found empowerment within it. You are the source of your problems, and thus you have the power to fix them. Even if it deals with things that may seem external, you can still fix them.

If you can’t talk about what is stopping you without centering it around yourself (I/me) then the problem has to do with you.

And this is good.

Because you have the tools within you to overcome your problems. You just need to be honest with yourself, stop blaming the world around you, and take action. And — just like that — that foe will step out of the way. Your path will once again be clear, and you will be able to return to the things that truly make you happy.

I hope this helps. Part of me didn’t want to publish this, because it is more about Life Advice than Writing Advice, but it was time. I hope that those of you who followed me all the way through (this rather long post) will find the same empowerment I did when I realized… I held the key to my own personal definition of happiness.

I haven’t suffered from Writer’s Block ever since~ ♥︎