Never Say, “I can’t think of anything to write.”

Do not say, “I can’t think of anything to write!” Those words guarantee the onset of a severe case of writers’ block. If those words do enter your conscious mind, then sit down at the computer or get out your journal and use them as a free write exercise.

Begin the first paragraph of the exercise with, “I can’t think of anything to write, but if I could think of something to write about, I would write about...” and then begin listing subjects, objects, animals, pets, people, etc. For instance, you could end the sentence with something like this. “I would write about the neighbor’s cat that walked across my backyard while I washed the breakfast dishes.” You then describe the cat. Write for five, ten, or fifteen minutes or until you get tired of writing.

During the free write, do not worry about spelling. Do not worry about grammar. Continue to write until the time is up or you have exhausted the subject. The free write is an exercise to get you started writing and to prove you can think of something to write. If you want to use the free write exercise as part of another document, then rewrite after you have completed the exercise.

Writing Form Poetry Shatters Writers’ Block

A few years ago, I discovered that writing form poetry shatters writers’ block. I have meditated, contemplated, and mulled over this concept for several years in an attempt to answer the question: “Why does writing form poetry shatter writers’ block?

I have concluded that, for me, it is the focus on form. When I write a form poem, I concentrate on the form and the words or metaphors that fit form. By focusing on one poetic attribute, in this case the form, I ignore the voice of my inner critic telling my: “You can’t think of anything to write.”

As a result, of focusing on the form the poem I write may not be good. At this point, whether the poem is good or bad is unimportant because I can always rewrite the poem. The import thing is that I have written a poem and broken writers’ block.

Staring at my computer monitor on the last day of August 2009

I'm not sure why I'm staring at blankly at my computer screen this morning. I don't have a problem with writers' block or blog block because I completed two poems and an entry in another blog.

I've ate breakfast this morning and am on my third cup of coffee. I'm awake and aware of what's going on in the world around me. Perhaps that's my problem, there is so much going on that I'm having difficulty finding a subject to write about.

I have to finish my coffee and then I'll go out and get the Monday morning paper. Perhaps I can find an interesting story in the Las Vegas Review Journal. I'm going to have to make another entry today anyway, I haven't completed the word count goal in any of my blogs yet.

Summer writing excursions

I read about a writer who fought writers' block by going to different places to write. This writer, I can't remember the writer's name, would take a pen and note book with her (I think it was a woman). She went to parks, dinners, coffee shops and libraries to write when writers' block struck. It didn't matter if she had a deadline when writers' block attacked, she would put the present project aside for a few minutes or an hour and focus on the descriptions she was penning.

In the notebook, she would describe, in detail, the setting, a person or an event that was occurring. Then she would return home and continue with whichever writing project the episode of writers' block had interrupted. When she returned to the project, she was refreshed and ready to continue working.

This summer I'm going to take some writing excursions. This will help me with my writing and it will get my mother out of the house. I will take my pen and paper journal with me, when Mom and I go on our little outings and describe the setting, a person or an object in my surroundings. Mom will get out of the house and I will have descriptions of real setting to put into my stories.

Setting Writing goals for 2009

As 2008 draws to an end I am reviewing my writing goals. I decided I set my word count goals for my blog entries too high. Therefore, I cut the word count down to about 200 words. I can write a 200-word entry with very few problems.

A word count goal should push a writer to go beyond his or her limits. However, lately the only thing it did was stress me out. The problem with stress is it causes blog block, which doesn't help the writing process because blog block leads to a full blown attack of writers' block. I know this from experience.

I set my blog entry word count to 227 words. I think this is a good compromise between what I know I can do and what I want to do. I still have problems coming up with subjects, themes and intriguing titles. I can come up with titles, but most of the ones I think of don't sound intriguing. All though, perhaps an intriguing title isn't as important as the content of an entry.

At this point, the ideas is not to becoming overly stressed and just relax with the writing. A little stress is all right and contributes to the writing process, but too much stress is devastating. There must be a comfortable medium between too much relaxation and too much stress especially when it comes to composing a blog entry. I am just going to have to fine the proper combination.

Worry Causes Writers' Block

Writers' block has many causes
One is worry (without a doubt)
Repeating the same fear over and over and over again
Repeating the same problem endlessly
Yet never finding a solution or closure.

Can
Anyone fine a cure for this type of writers' block;
Unless the individual writer him/herself
Stops the obsessive worrying
Express the problem or the fear
States in written words on a piece of notebook paper.

Writing the problem causing the worry.
Reading
It over again and then
Taking the written copy of the worry and
Either putting it in a prayer box or
Rewriting it from a different perspective and a
Solution to the problem causing the worry is found.

Believe that the solution to the problem is approaching;
Look for the unexpected
Or the obvious;
Call on your muse for help, but
Keep writing not matter what.

To a Blank Page

I look at the snow-white page,
unmarked by stanza or line,
I ask the questions upper most in my mind:
Is this the cure for writers' block?
Is this an embryonic ode?
Is this an unconceived story?
Is this the birth canal of creation?

The answer my muse gives me is:
Yes, it is all of these and more.

Monday Writing - How to get unstuck

Kamál (Perfection), 13 Jalal (Glory), 165 B.E. – Monday, April 21, 2008 about 6:23 PM PDT

I think I need a vacation and I do not see one coming for sometime. Perhaps I am too close to my problems to see the light. I could just need a slight change of view to get me going. The problem has to do with writing and worrying. I have several writing projects I cannot seem to complete. I have tried getting away from them, but that does not help. I think my only solutions is just to work on the project push trough the block.

I am going to try that with a novel I have to finish. I am going to start at chapter one and make the necessary changes. I will go on to chapter two and continue to work through one chapter at a time until I get to the last chapter. It is the last chapter I am stuck on. I thought I had it finished until I realized I needed to get one more group of colonist to the planet's surface. The problem is simple; I am not sure where to put them. The other four groups I have a place to put them, it is only one group that I am having difficulty placing.

Perhaps I am over thinking the problem. I have a tendency to over think problems sometimes. However, lately I am doing a lot of over thinking all my problems. I could be too close to them. Sometimes you can be so involved with a problem that the solution is not obvious.

Writing is Frustrating

Fidál (Grace), 19 Baha (Splendor), 165 B.E. – Tuesday, April 8, 2008 12:29 PM PDT

Writing is frustrating
I encounter a period
and can't go any farther.

I look at the page
and see the white pure paper
without a word on it.

I look out my window
and see white clouds covering
the blue sky.

Perhaps if I get up
and check the Hobo stew
in the slow cooker
something will come to me
and end to a chapter
or the beginning of a poem.

I Don't Know What To Write

6 Qudrat 164 B.E. - Thursday, November 8, 2007 about 6:15 PM PST

I don't know what to write
I could write another Octava Rima this one about about Veterans Day,
I could write another Garlan Cinquain this one about Baha'u'llah's birthday,
I could write another Cyhydedd Hir this one about Thanksgiving,
There are so many things I could write about that I don't know what to write.

Sometime the problem isn't writers' block,
Sometimes the problem is indecision,
Sometimes there are so many things to write about that I can't decide the subject.

However, instead of not writing at all
I'll write about indecision.