What do Walt Whitman, Katherine Mansfield, and Ernest Hemingway have in common with you right now? Well, if you are reading this chapter there is a very good chance that you are suffering from the curse of writer’s block . . . just like these literary giants once did. Being a lauded writer does not make you immune to the misery that happens when the words we rely upon, the very words that help us define our world, decide to head south (or north) for the winter. In fact, we would be hard-pressed to find a writer anywhere who hasn’t had a case of writer’s block at some point in his or her life.
In this chapter, we will define writer’s block and discuss two distinct approaches that can help you overcome it. We will also share practical activities that you can do to help flex your writing muscles and reconnect with your creative self. Let’s rediscover your muse!
Writer’s block is that claustrophobic feeling of not being able to get the words out. Writer’s block may be seen in the glaring reflection of a white page, or a page that has just a few words haphazardly strewn about on it. Whatever it looks like for you, it is the frustration of not being able to find the next word, or the first word, or even worse—not having a single idea to start with in the first place.
The good news is that writer’s block can be cured. How long it will take comes down to you and the reasons for your block in the first place, but there are two paths that you can tread to find your muse again—so keep reading!
The first method for curing writer’s block is the academic approach. This is very simple to understand, but can be difficult to implement. Most professional writers will tell you that they write every day. They have a set schedule for writing, including a start and end time and/or a word count target, and stick to this schedule no matter how uninspired they may feel. This approach creates a habit of writing, training the brain to write in exactly the same way that someone who gets up at five a.m. every morning to run a 10k trains their muscles. On the days where you don’t feel creative or motivated, you write anyway. You may not use any of the words that you write on these days, but you are training yourself for your future poetry-writing marathons.
The easiest way to begin this approach is to start with ten minutes at a set time. You might decide to get up slightly earlier in the morning, or you might decide to switch off the TV at seven p.m. every night. The important thing is that you choose a time when you can turn off your devices, close your door, and focus on your writing. It should also be a time that can grow as your writing habit grows. Each week you should challenge yourself to add another ten minutes to your writing time. At the end of six weeks you will be in the habit of writing for one full hour every day! And after sixty-six days (the magic number for habit formation), daily writing will be just as much a part of your life as your morning cup of coffee. However, if this approach doesn’t appeal to you, check out the next approach, where the muse finds you!
The organic approach is much less rigid than an academic approach: all it asks of you is to breathe and let go. Rather than stressing about the fact that you can’t write, do things that inspire your creativity. Take a walk on the beach (or in a park, or on a mountain). Listen to music. Take some pictures and manipulate them in an app. Paint, draw, or scribble. Pick some flowers and arrange them in a vase. Dance around your living room. Meditate and practice mindfulness. Instead of demanding creativity, this more gentle approach gives your creative mind a break, and creates space for the muse to find you.
Now that you have an understanding of the two main approaches to curing your writer’s block, let’s take a look at some exercises that can help you get your pen back on paper!
Whether you use an academic approach or an organic approach to cure your writer’s block, the following exercises can further help to fire up your imagination and creativity. These poetry workouts of the day (WODs) are a great way to exercise your writing muscles.
An important note on these WODs: we don’t expect you to write the next great poem, although that might happen! The purpose of these WODs is to just write. Even if you aren’t writing well, you are writing. As Maya Angelou once said, “What I try to do is write. I may write for two weeks ‘the cat sat on the mat, that is that, not a rat.’ And it might be just the most boring and awful stuff. But I try. When I’m writing, I write. And then it’s as if the muse is convinced that I’m serious and says, ‘Okay. Okay. I’ll come.’ ”
The purpose of this exercise is to upcycle your old writing and help you reconnect with your voice. Although this exercise can be done on a computer or tablet, we believe it is more effective when you do it with your hands on good old-fashioned paper (shocking, we know!).
Take some of your old poems (or lines that you have written but haven’t used), write them on paper, and then use scissors to cut them into individual lines. Place them on a flat surface and create an entirely new work by moving lines together or apart. You can cut words out, add words in, or take a line from a final stanza and make it your opening line. The only rule is to create a new work free from the context of the poems you have cut up. Cut and paste together at least four lines. This method was famously used by Walt Whitman, who upcycled his unused material to create brilliant and enduring new works of poetry.
Mind sprinkles, as funny as they sound, are exactly that: little bits and pieces of creativity that are floating around in your mind right now. On a piece of paper, write down the first twenty words that come to mind. Don’t overthink it; just let the words bubble up to the surface. Write them as quickly as you can. Now write a poem using five of your mind sprinkles. Again, don’t overthink it; just write. Now start again with five of the other words.
The purpose of this exercise is to show you that at any point in time you have ideas waiting in your subconscious. This WOD allows you to quickly connect with the hidden gems that are waiting to be discovered.
The natural world has long been a source of inspiration for poets. From the seasonal references in traditional Japanese haiku, to the garden poems of the seventeenth century, landscapes, seasons, and natural events have been featured in poems throughout history. In this exercise, you will select a natural occurrence and write at least four lines about it. You can either write about it directly or use it as a metaphor for something else.
You can find inspiration by walking outside and writing about what you see. This models an organic approach, where you allow inspiration to find you in your travels. You can also search for images of the natural world online, or write about the images that come to mind when you think about nature. To get you started, here is a list of natural objects and events:
• Hurricane
• Waterfall
• Autumn leaves
• Camellia bud
• Winding river
• Albatross
• Pinecone
• Meadow
• Winter frost
• Dawn
• Honeybee
• Southerly wind
• Tsunami
• Moss-covered log
Can you describe an omelet using all five senses of taste, touch, sight, smell, and sound? Can you help a reader not only see the spots on a cheetah, but smell the surrounding plains as it runs, and feel the heat of the sun on its flanks? In this exercise, pick an item or situation and write a poem that incorporates all five senses. This exercise will help you improve your descriptive writing and vocabulary skills, and will also push you in new and unexpected directions. If you aren’t sure what to write about, you can start with these examples:
• Train ride
• Missed call
• Ironing board
• Fireworks
• First love
• Snow
• Flowers in a vase
• Bright red shoes
• Stray dog
• Dreams
• Broken zipper
• Cupcakes
• Books
Pie isn’t just good for eating; it is also good for nourishing your inner creative! This poetry WOD relies on page and line selection to create inspiration. First, you will need a book. We grabbed The Great Gatsby off the shelf. Now, take the first word that you see from pages three, one, four, fifteen, and nine. Our words are: begin, last, club, debts, and first. Now write a poem of at least four lines that uses your five random words. Don’t think too much—just let the words and theme flow. This is what we came up with:
So it begins,
this lonely hearts club;
where we pay our debts,
with first and last loves.
Want to write another stanza? Grab the first words you see on pages twenty-six, five, thirty-five, eighty-nine, and seven. You can look up “pi” online if you want even more numbers to use. You can also mix it up by selecting the first word from each of these pages, or selecting a single page and then using the third word, first word, fourth word, fifteenth word, and ninth word. The combinations are endless. Bored with the words in that book? Grab a new one and start from the beginning.
Now that you’ve cracked your writer’s block and are full of inspiration, it’s time to think about sharing your work with others—and learn how to do so using the different platforms and channels available.