27 Wacky Ways to Beat Writer’s Block
Let me guess…
You’re staring at the blank screen. Your brain is fried. You can feel a headache coming on.
You know you should be writing, but…
You can’t do this anymore. Your muse is gone. Your well of inspiration is empty. Finished. Stone-dry.
You’re not just bored or tired. No, no. This is far worse:
Writer’s block.
You try to stop your mind wandering off. You try to stop being distracted by your long to-do-list. You try to write, but you feel like everything you do manage to jot down is… well… terrible.
You know you have to keep going, but how? How can you get back into your writing groove?
The truth:
You need to have some fun.
Not take a break, not go for walk, not get some sleep. All of that is fine and good for a simple case of boredom, but the real cause of writer’s block is you’re holding on too tight.
You need to loosen up. You need to go a little crazy. You need to let the goofy side of you out for a little while and get your creative juices flowing again.
Here are 27 wacky ways to get you started:
read more5 Strange and Wondrous Techniques for Spicing up Your Writing
Happens to the best of us, you know.
We’ve all been told to let the words flow loose and easy and free, but instead, we stiffen up like a British banker before his annual rectal exam.
It feels horrible too. Instead of enjoying writing like we’re supposed to, we end up gritting our teeth through the entire experience, knowing something just ain’t right but feeling so uncomfortable that we can’t help sounding like a robot.
The good news is that deliverance is at hand. Like any good friend, I hereby pronounce myself ready to pry said stick out of your posterior, curing you of robotitus once and for all.
Let us begin.
read moreWhy Your Blog Is Going Nowhere (and the Truth about Getting Traffic)
Note from Jon: This is a post by Johnny B. Truant. Aside from being a close friend, he’s also one hell of a writer, and I don’t say that lightly. You should listen to everything he says, both here and on his own blog. In fact, do yourself a favor and grab his How to Be Legendary e-book. It’s free, and you can dissect everything he’s doing to learn the proper way to succeed online. Worth every minute.
Ever feel like your blog is stuck in quicksand?
You’re writing lots of posts. You’re promoting them. You’re responding to each and every commenter like they’re your best friend.
But it’s not working. The more you work, the harder you struggle, the deeper you sink.
Why?
Well, it might be a little tough to swallow, but here you go:
You could suck at writing.
That’s not the only reason people fail. Some people are just lazy, thinking it’s going to happen without doing any work. Other people never learn how to promote their posts. Still others are totally anonymous, and they need to improve their connections before they can succeed.
But there are also bloggers who do all of that right, and they’re still stuck.
They are working their butts off, doing everything imaginable to promote their blogs, and they’re even networking masters who know everybody, but they’re still failing. And it’s because they suck at writing.
Think about that for a second.
You build it and they come … but it sucks, so they leave.
And another potentially great blog bites the dust.
read moreHow to Get Paid to Write for Magazines – The Ultimate Guide
But you’re just a little old blogger, right?
Why would popular magazines like Forbes, WebMD, and Redbook be interested in you?
Well, you might be surprised.
Thousands of magazines are out there churning out issues and garnering readers, and they’re constantly on the lookout for new writing talent. Yes, your audience may still be small, but all those hours you spent slaving away on your content has probably honed your writing skills to where you could, in fact, compete with the big boys and girls to write for magazines.
And it’s SO worth it.
If you’ve been blogging for a while, let’s talk about why you should be interested:
read moreThe CSI Guide to Finding Your Next Killer Idea – A Guide for Bloggers
You know how it is…
Your blog post is well overdue. You sense your readers are waiting, but you can’t come up with anything fresh to offer them.
You’ve been writing for so long about the same topics, you just can’t think of anything new to say. It’s kind of like you’ve reached the bottom of the well, and now all that’s coming up is mud.
To cap it all, when you do get a cool idea, something that sounds fun to write about, you look around and discover an A-lister just delivered the final word on it. Doh.
Frustrated, you decide to flip on the old boob tube and relax for a bit. Maybe inspiration will strike while you’re watching the latest episode of CSI…
Sounds unlikely, right?
Well, I would’ve thought so, too, but that’s exactly what I did the other night, and I noticed something surprising.
read moreStephen King’s 20 Tips for Becoming a Frighteningly Good Writer
Have you ever wished you could peer inside the mind of one of the greatest writers in the world and find out exactly what makes them tick?
Well… here’s your chance.
Stephen King has published 49 novels, all of them bestsellers. He has sold more than 350 million copies of his works. According to Forbes, he earns approximately $40 million per year, making him one of the richest writers in the world.
And now he’s going to tell you exactly how to become a frighteningly good writer.
Sort of.
In 2002, King temporarily abandoned writing horror novels, instead publishing On Writing, a little book chronicling his rise to fame and discussing exactly what he believes it takes to become a good writer. Since then, it’s become the most popular book about writing ever written, pulling in over 1000 reviews on Amazon and selling God only knows how many copies.
Here’s why:
The book is… magic.
I’ve read On Writing from cover to cover at least five times, and each time, I saw a noticeable improvement in my prose. For one, it teaches the fundamentals of the craft, which is something no writer should ignore, but it also sort of rubs off on you.
As you read through King’s life story, you can’t help but see that, to him, writing isn’t a chore. It’s an adventure through undiscovered worlds where no one knows what’ll happen next (not even him).
And it’s contagious.
You can’t read On Writing and not come away with a smile on your face. Where other writing books are focused on the mechanics of the written word, King shows you how to capture the joy of the craft. You’ll find yourself wanting to write, not because of fame or fortune, but because it’s fun, and there’s nothing else you would rather do.
Personally, it’s inspired me more than any other book I’ve ever read, and if I could recommend only one book to bloggers, On Writing would be it. But don’t take my word for it. Below, I’ve collected a monster list of my favorite quotes from the book, and I also wrote down some of my own thoughts on exactly how they apply to bloggers.
If you enjoy them, grab yourself a copy of On Writing over at Amazon (aff). You won’t regret it.
Here are the quotes:
read more
