THE HACK TO OVERCOMING WRITERS BLOCK!
Who hasn’t been in such an annoying situation? You’ve either been paddling around the issue or just put off the work for so long, now you haven’t got a choice. The Work needs to be completed. Now what?
In this article, I will showcase a few hacks for overcoming this anxiety. We have no paper to waste here! The easiest hack of them all is to just get over it and book a consultation with the great folks of the writing center. Seriously!
You’d be amazed at how effectively that can work for you, and all it takes is 45 min of your time and a somewhat stable internet connection!
The 5 Hacks on overcoming writers block!
You will be at different stages of your writing journey, so as follows I’ll rank the best tips for the beginners on top and the more advanced ones last. Not everyone is going to be as interesting to you, feel free to skip those.
That’s exactly how it works in a writing session, you are unique, and as is your writing style.
#1 Write to Write - See what sticks!
This technique is called “Free Writing” perfectly explained by my colleague Maria in her article. Feel free to check it out, for the detailed instructions.
Now, the reason I do recommend it for every beginner is because it doesn’t require anything but a little bit of time, and it gets you from zero to 100 ideas really quick. You don’t know what to write, doesn’t matter! Write about your grocery list, the thoughts in your mind, and it doesn’t have to make sense at all. You could apply the same to a specific topic.
It may not be perfect, but it will generate ideas, and that’s the point!
#2 Experience life and practice journaling!
The quality of a great writer is the sum of his or her experiences, truly self-reflected. Most of you who will be reading this are probably students and as such, experience is extremely valuable.
Often it is wrongly assumed, that has to mean traveling or going to a club on a Friday. It means to build a sense of awareness. Look around on campus, everyone is distracted! That can be by listening to their headphones, posting memes on WhatsApp, or obsessing about the latest gossip on campus!
This habit of daily self-reflection on what happened that day in a journal, will not only make you a better writer expressing yourself, it may just make you more productive overall!
#3 Go to a book store and pick up the game!
Yes, this is going to be about books, while it surely couldn’t hurt to get into the habit of clipping a couple of books a week. Just joking, we all have things to do. I am not telling you to read or buy a book. I call this game, looking for gold!
Every single bookstore has numerous sections about everything and my recommendation is to do this at least once a week and just walk around, looking at titles, same as if you are looking at any store. You could even pick up a couple of books, go through the chapters, and see what catches your attention.
Be aware and build up ideas, if you are interested you can analyze the trends and see what is being written about and how! On a side note, it may also be a great spot to meet someone special, but that’s a different story! 😉
#4 Develop an Expertise in a specific area!
Did you ever meet this one person who seemingly knew everything about a topic? It has been hours on end and still going on about the most detailed considerations!
As a student, especially one that aims to make an honest living at some point, you have no choice but to become an expert in something and odds are you already are. You sure know what it’s like to be you, don’t you?
Building up an expertise, and writing about it, will naturally build up a certain vocabulary and style. You can even combine that part, and write about your thing first (as a practice run) before going into what you have to do!
#5 Start sharing your thoughts on X, Linkedin or via Blog (this one for example)
I recommend this power move for everyone who aims to improve in all seriousness.
It’s been shown, that the more you write with consistency and over a long period of time, the more you will develop a sense of how to do it fast and effectively.
My recommendation for that is to start actively pushing out articles on topics you know or are interested in. You can do this perfectly on LinkedIn while showing off your skills to potential employers!
The advanced version of that would be to start a Twitter aka 𝕏 Account, if you do that and tag me at @rawnickpulido you get an instant follower!
