by Anastasia Bolshova
Photo: Etienne Girardet, Unsplash
Sometimes passion and vision are not enough, and the creative ‘block’ we all experience serves as an excuse to give up and avoid facing the creative impediments along the writing journey. How can we overcome these creative obstacles and learn to benefit from them? Each writer requires an individual and unique approach to boost and revive their writing; while one thing can work for you, it might not work for someone else. Having said that, I have gathered some of my favourite ‘nudges’ to help you step out of a creative block.
1. Your Voice
Begin with testing and exploring what is unique about your voice. What is particular and striking about the choice and pairing of your words? Discover and recognize what nudges you to start writing. Who are you through the words on the paper? Your voice is your guide and your anchor. When lost, your voice will re-adjust the ‘direction’ and the ‘sense’ of your writing.
2. Read for Clues and Inspiration.
Go back to the roots of where your passion for writing started. Which writer, author, poet has inspired you to pick up a pen and start writing? Read around books, texts, poems, reflections of your favourite authors and explore the reasons why they stand out to you amongst others. What about their work makes them so unique in your eyes, and does their writing reflect in yours?
3. Freedom in Uncertainty
Embrace the limitless possibilities of imagination and creation. Be curious rather than resentful about not knowing what the next step is, or where the story is leading you. Play around with the unpredictability of where your creativity can take you. Don’t shy away from the writer’s block, but welcome it and see it as a chance to change the perspective on your own writing and the flow of your story.
4. Who Is Your Reader?
Who are you writing for? Who do you want to be reading your words? Imagine the intended receiver of your text. Create a niche out of your audience, so that you don’t lose yourself in overgeneralizing your work and shaping it to appeal to any reader, without a more precise direction of where you want your writing to go.
5. Don’t Be Scared to Start Anew.
It’s okay to leave behind what no longer serves you and start afresh. Mistakes are what helps us move forward. We learn from our own experiences by seeing what works and what doesn’t. Re-drafting or tossing out the early drafts is not something that should discourage you, on the contrary, by testing out different paths we broaden our perspective and improve our individual ways of storytelling.