Fighting Writer's Block

What is Writer’s Block?

Writer's block is the most common problem faced my writers. It is the condition whereby the writer cannot summon up the creativity to continue writing. The ideas are completely stalled. The brain is totally empty. Nothing comes. The mind is a desert with nothing growing or flourishing. Bad enough, but worse - there is no sign that this can end, and no control over when it will end. It’s scary and frightening and frustrating in the extreme. Virtually all writers will experience it at some time or other and every one of them will eventually overcome it. This is easy to say while not caught in its clutches. When experiencing writer's block, it's difficult to see a way out.

What Causes Writer's Block?

Writer's block is often caused by conflicted feelings. We want the writing to be perfect and we want the paper done as soon as possible. We know what we know but we don't know what our readers know. We know how the memo should sound, but we don't have all the facts we need. We know everything about the software, but we don't know what an article should look like. We know what we have to say but we are afraid that it won't measure up to our expectations or to our readers' expectations. All of these feelings are natural and normal. Everyone finds writing a challenge. Many writers, however, compound their problems by employing weak writing strategies. When these methods fail, they give up. Probably the most common cause of writer's block are:

Fear of failure. 

You are afraid that what you write won't be good enough so you avoid writing at all. You expect everything you write to be perfect but you cannot live up to these ideals so you quit trying. You can prevent this from happening by accepting one simple thing.

Pushing yourself to do too much in too short of a time. Maybe you heard that your favorite author writes 1000 words per day or all your friends are entering writing contests and churning out story after story. You consider these people successful and adopt their writing habits in the hopes that you too will be a success. Unfortunately, it can cause the opposite effect. Setting unreasonable goals for yourself which you cannot meet will only discourage you and contribute to writer's block. If you get overwhelmed, you will have a difficult time writing at all. If you wish to set goals for yourself, make sure they are reasonable. If you can only write for 10 minutes, three times per day that is OK. Forget what everyone else is doing develop a schedule that works for you.  .

HOW CAN COMPUTERS HELP FIGHT WRITER'S BLOCK?

The best way to overcome writer's block is to figure out what is causing it and solve that problem. If you are unable to determine the source of your writer's block, there are several other things you can do to overcome it and jump start your writing. The most obvious method is to force yourself to write. Most people worry about how to start writing, where to begin, and how to write it. Usually the difficulty is not in deciding what you want to write about, but how to vocalize and convey what you have to say in a way that the writer is happy with. In this case computers will help you generate your ideas and combine all resources needed together for you in one place... because that's what they are for! Some of the greatest writers come up with their ideas out of the blue - just surfing the web late night until they stumble upon something that inspires them. You can expect fewer delays through using word processors instead of the old fashion paper and pen. Word processors enable ideas to flow effortlessly from your brain to a screen, not to mention having handy resources like YouTube, Wikipedia, Google, and many other sites that may not even be discovered yet just a click away. Also, you can use computers to compose documents a lot faster than other methods, be it PowerPoint presentations, Excel documents to make schedules, or even experimenting with structure and phrasing what you want to say. The possibilities are endless with computers because if you don't understand something that you are working on, or maybe you need some creative input, there are so many resources and application available. "Just Google it."