The stereotype of the author blankly staring at a computer screen in total writer’s block has become a cliché for what occurs when creativity short circuits. In a recent episode of Fox’s New Girl sitcom, Jake Johnson’s character Nick is trying to write a zombie manuscript and after hours of crouching in front of his laptop he has still to write a single word. The primary reason why this scenario is humorous is because anyone who has ever written on a professional scale has found themselves facing the wall of The Evil Block.
The Finalized Work Must Be Seen as Something Desirable
Examining the actual process of writing is critical to any author of any type of work. Whether you’re trying to write the Great American Zombie Novel or if you’re just crafting your latest blog entry, you need to be motivated to let the muses flow. You have to see the finalized work as something desirable and the process of creating that work as a pleasant activity. If you are dreading the next keystroke, you will not only fail to produce a satisfactory result, but you may fail at producing any result at all.
Examining the actual process of writing is critical to any author of any type of work. Whether you’re trying to write the Great American Zombie Novel or if you’re just crafting your latest blog entry, you need to be motivated to let the muses flow. You have to see the finalized work as something desirable and the process of creating that work as a pleasant activity. If you are dreading the next keystroke, you will not only fail to produce a satisfactory result, but you may fail at producing any result at all.
Reconfigure Your Writing Perception
Many authors in the midst of Block won’t be able to type a single word of their current assignment but they will gladly have browser windows open beside their word processor and be entering personal Facebook updates or be animatedly participating in an online forum discussion of just exactly which canonical Star Trek villain Benedict Cumberbatch will be playing in the upcoming movie sequel. The reason for that redirection of author energy is simple: The writer sees one form of writing as pleasurable and the other as not. All that has to be done, in essence, is to reconfigure your perception of your assignment writing to be sparked by the same creative impulse and pleasurable correlation as the elective writing you’re preferring to do.
Many authors in the midst of Block won’t be able to type a single word of their current assignment but they will gladly have browser windows open beside their word processor and be entering personal Facebook updates or be animatedly participating in an online forum discussion of just exactly which canonical Star Trek villain Benedict Cumberbatch will be playing in the upcoming movie sequel. The reason for that redirection of author energy is simple: The writer sees one form of writing as pleasurable and the other as not. All that has to be done, in essence, is to reconfigure your perception of your assignment writing to be sparked by the same creative impulse and pleasurable correlation as the elective writing you’re preferring to do.
Sling Broad Cultural References with the Best of Them
Even the most staid and stultified blog can be lightened up and placed into perspective by crafting ways to integrate what you’re passionate about into your work. If I managed to sneak a Trek reference into an online marketing blog, then you can certainly weave what you’re passionate about into whatever you’re writing, whether it’s dropping a relevant quilting reference into a CPU article, or an automotive allusion into a blog about the latest Parisian fashion. The art is in doing so in a way that is not only fully amalgamated into the overall work, but also amply demonstrates to your readers that you are a real person with wide ranging interests.
Even the most staid and stultified blog can be lightened up and placed into perspective by crafting ways to integrate what you’re passionate about into your work. If I managed to sneak a Trek reference into an online marketing blog, then you can certainly weave what you’re passionate about into whatever you’re writing, whether it’s dropping a relevant quilting reference into a CPU article, or an automotive allusion into a blog about the latest Parisian fashion. The art is in doing so in a way that is not only fully amalgamated into the overall work, but also amply demonstrates to your readers that you are a real person with wide ranging interests.
Relate to an Aspect of Popular Culture that Resonates with Your Audience
You can use virtually anything at all as a spark for the creative flow. Personal memories, landscapes, minor events, even fictional stories can adequately serve as triggers for the avalanche of words that will soon be flowing through your fingers. It is the sign of a great writer when they can bring a humanizing element to the flattest or most technological subject. Sure, you may be discussing the Firmware Bug that is bricking Samsung’s 840 series of Solid State Drives, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t enculturate that blog by relating it to some aspect of popular culture that resonates with your audience. It’s imperative that whatever particular aspect you choose to intermingle with your primary subject matter may be discordant at first sight but upon completion of the article should leave your reader thinking how clever and perceptive you were in drawing that particular metaphor and how well it worked.Whether it originates from an Athenian philosopher sitting under a Grecian olive tree relating metaphorical tales to his students, or from the laptop keystrokes of a writer on a deadline, the most memorable writing incorporates references of the wide world around us in a fully coherent and relevant way. Draw those references from topics that you’re passionate about and your writing will break through.</div
You can use virtually anything at all as a spark for the creative flow. Personal memories, landscapes, minor events, even fictional stories can adequately serve as triggers for the avalanche of words that will soon be flowing through your fingers. It is the sign of a great writer when they can bring a humanizing element to the flattest or most technological subject. Sure, you may be discussing the Firmware Bug that is bricking Samsung’s 840 series of Solid State Drives, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t enculturate that blog by relating it to some aspect of popular culture that resonates with your audience. It’s imperative that whatever particular aspect you choose to intermingle with your primary subject matter may be discordant at first sight but upon completion of the article should leave your reader thinking how clever and perceptive you were in drawing that particular metaphor and how well it worked.Whether it originates from an Athenian philosopher sitting under a Grecian olive tree relating metaphorical tales to his students, or from the laptop keystrokes of a writer on a deadline, the most memorable writing incorporates references of the wide world around us in a fully coherent and relevant way. Draw those references from topics that you’re passionate about and your writing will break through.</div
