SEVEN CAUSES OF WRITERS'S BLOCK

I think writer’s block is something akin to the common cold. It’s a catch-all phrase used to cover a multitude of symptoms that may mean one thing to one person and something completely different to somebody else. I’ve never suffered what might be considered a classic case of writer’s block, but I do know in my time writing I’ve experienced moments that would fall into that general category.

Here are seven different causes for what we call writer’s block.

1. Fatigue 
Just like a cell phone with a dying battery or a car sucking the last fumes from the gas tank, when you are struggling with fatigue you don't have the extra energy to create that masterpiece you have planned out in your mind.  This is true of both physical and mental fatigue. I know from personal experience that when I'm tired, the creative juices just don't flow. I may still be marking time, but I'm not creating quality work. 

2. Nothing To Say
I touched on this concept in my last blog post. Consider writing like a bank account. You can't make a withdrawal until after you've made a deposit. You may sit down at the keyboard and feel like you have nothing to say. Your experience/reading/writing bank account has pennies or worse, it is empty.

3. The Busyness of Life 
This probably describes most of us. Nature abhors a vacuum, so we fill it with taking care of our families, the details of life, church, a full-time job, and all the rest. All valuable, important things. On top of this foundation, we pile sports, binge watching, shopping, birthday parties, college classes, and everything else and wonder why we're struggling to meet word counts and not creating that masterpiece. We struggle with not having the necessary margins to handle everything, including quality writing.

4. Unsure of Your Story’s Direction
The root of this problem is that you have too little or incomplete material. This is more of an issue for pantsers (those who write without an outline) and those who sketch out only the briefest of story details. You hit a spot in your story where you have no clue which direction to take it because you didn't do the necessary structural planning up front. This can apply equally to plot or characters. You know your storyline inside and out and yet have totally neglected your key players. Conversely, you may know your character's middle name, their favorite snack, and their last four addresses, yet have absolutely no clue where they are headed.

I'd like to add a corollary to this point. Particularly in the outlining phase, you can experience the opposite problem. You don't know how to stop the discovery/outline stage and start writing. You are effectively blocked before you ever had the chance because you think there are plot holes too big to fix in the writing process, so you work and rework your outline and never make the jump. You are stuck in an infinite preparation loop.

5. Divided Attention
This one serves as the counterpoint to point two above. You're withdrawing too much from the account, but not properly managing what you have taken out. This happens when you are good at starting and not so good at finishing. You have a great idea, start working on the premise, and maybe even start writing a draft. Somewhere during this process, another amazing and altogether different idea pops into your head. You now have a crisis. Do you jump into that bright, shiny new idea, or do you stick to the old idea that already has a ton of miles on it? You so desperately want to give the new idea a spin, and may even promise to the return to the old one. The problem is the new idea becomes old, and you soon spot yet another shiny new idea, and another, and another.

6. Fear of Failure
This can be debilitating. The difference between the vision in your head and the final product can be miles apart. Knowing this can force us as writers into an awkward position. Do I write the inferior book, or do I keep that treasured fantasy of an idea locked up in my head, perfect and unmarred by my writing ability? Or maybe your writing skills are just fine, but you wonder if anybody will be interested in what you have to say. There can be a thousand variations, but the key point is that the unknown future is stopping you from writing in the present. 

7. The Human Factor
Whether it is laziness, procrastination, or simple distraction, this factor may be the trickiest and cover the most territory. Human nature, by its very definition, is something we are stuck with for life. And it doesn’t just apply to writing. We are all faced with this struggle until we draw our last breath. Every area of our lives can be an exhibit of our shortcomings, whether it be weight gain, an addiction, or forgetting to stop and pick up the milk. But in the context of our writing, human nature can be a formidable obstacle to putting words on a page. 

So you there you have it, the symptoms of the common writer's block. Next time we’ll take a look at Seven Tips for Unlocking Writer’s Block!

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