Ways to Overcome Writer's Block

Writers Block: A Common Affliction

Do you struggle with writer's block? I certainly know that I do. 

Hi there, I’m Aleah: A musician, blogger, journalist, poet, and fantasy-style artist for LittleEccentricities. As you can see, all of my jobs are centered around creativity. Despite this, I’m not exempt from running into creative roadblocks. 

The video below is one of the most accurate captures of this feeling…Dark circles under eyes, repeating two or three words over and over again, twisting them around, but still nothing. 

So, what is one to do when the door to your ideas is superglued shut? 

In this article, I’ll give you some tips as well as share some of my personal experiences.

Remove Distractions & Make Your Space Nice

When I was studying Jukai at our local Buddhist temple, I realized how much a cluttered or distracting space can impact the mind. I spent one week in silence, sewing a robe and looking at wooden floors. While I certainly don’t expect you to do the same, there’s something to be said about changing your space to make it more simple and pleasant. 

• Use a scent: Light a candle, diffuse an oil, or burn incense 

• Choose one room: and close the door

• Declutter the space you’ll use or put up a tapestry

• Consider all of the sounds and other distractions around you

As a musician, I am very sensitive to sounds around me. Sometimes I can even hear the pitch of the clock ticking- it just depends on the day. If you’re also hyper-aware of sounds, consider investing in headphones that have noise-cancelling features. Sometimes if I’m making music while traveling, I’ll bring earbuds and noise-cancelling earmuffs/headphones and put one over top of the other as a sort of poor-man jerryrig. I digress!

Oftentimes, it’s the little things around us that are pulling at our focus without us even really realizing it.  So, get a blank room, pick your favorite scent, and make it quiet. Sometimes, all you need to do is to grab your favorite candle and tell yourself “Ok, time to sit down with this thing!”. 

Making Friends with a Pomodoro Timer

I was first introduced to ‘Pomodoro-ing’ about 3 years ago. Pomodoro is Italian for tomato…Once upon a time, a college student became overwhelmed with his work. His solution to getting things done was taking a little tomato-shaped timer and turning it on for a short work session.

The recipe goes something like this: Work hard on a single task for 25 minutes, and take a break for 5. You can change the fraction, depending on how long you feel you can focus. I’ve tried 10-5 on ‘bad-focus’ days and 50-10 on good ones. After a couple of sets, take a longer break. 

For starters, you can use Pomodoro.io. Again, sitting down and just doing it can really help. It’s like when you can’t sleep, and you tell yourself to stop wiggling around in the bed so much. Once you actually sit still for a moment, you fall asleep before you realize it. Similarly, the Pomodoro method can have you creating in no time. After all, sleep and creativity do have something in common: They both are related to the subconscious mind and relaxation.

A Blank Page is Your Biggest Enemy 

Another sort of issue that happens with creatives is the dreaded “blank page” syndrome. 

For example, I’ll tell myself I’m going to write a movement to a symphony, and then I find myself looking at sets of blank staves in my notation program for hours, punching in and deleting notes over and over again. It’s kind of like writing “Once upon a time there was a…a…” and then never finishing the sentence. 

Don’t do that! 

Write something, anything! 

Keep it, and add another layer.

Whether you are a poet trying to write your first line, or a musician choosing their first chord to a tune…know that the first thing you put down doesn’t really matter that much. The important thing is that you build. 

Get on the creative train, and move the only way a trolly moves: forward. 

The Catch-22 of “Making It Perfect”

The other day, I was trying to make a perfect dinner in the kitchen so that I could surprise my partner. I was going to make fish and chips and his great-grandmother's cole slaw. I imagined a candle being lit, and us laughing and smiling over the table. But that’s not what actually happened. 

Here’s how it went in real life:

1. I decided I was going to make “the perfect dinner”

2. I got everything out and started rushing around

3. I got distracted trying to make too many dishes all at once

3. Smoke filled the kitchen from one plan, while the ahi tuna was plated, undercooked

4. We opened all the doors and windows trying to let the smoke out

5. I sat down, dejected, with cold fries/chips, burnt smelt, and undercooked ahi

This story may sound completely unrelated, but it’s not.

 If you decide before you start that you’re going to make a creative endeavor perfect before you even start, it’s not going to be. Actually, the pressure you place on yourself will make everything exponentially worse. 

You can give yourself writer's block. 

If you say “I’m going to write the perfect album today” it’s going to turn out like my dinner did last week. What’s better is to do it, and let it be rough around the edges. Skip the idyllic daydreams of how impeccably clean each track will come out, or how it will be the best song you’ve ever written. That step is a waste of time that adds loads of pressure, avoid it if you can.

Oh, and just make one tune at a time- or rather…Don’t put a pan on every burner all at the same time. You will burn the fish.

Being Weird & Art for Arts’ Sake: A Poetic Case Study

• Try making something “just because”

• Dig through the archives and rework a forgotten piece

• Create and put it out there: Listeners may like it even if you don’t

• Make a “whatever” song and let it flow

Well, we all know by now that my dinner didn’t work. But you know what did? Taking a poem I didn’t remember writing and turning it into music. As it turns out, art doesn’t always even have to have meaning for you to make it. 

You can, you know, create “just because”. 

Forgotten works, and things that you thought were too strange or not good enough can be pulled out and reworked. You don’t need to know what you meant or mean. 

I can only assume that the beginning of this circa 2017 poem “The Moon” was about an eerie frost, but I can’t be too sure. 

“The killing moon, I must ask you to stop 

When the crickets play the strings of their legs

And the water runs cold”

If you have one element that is created, you can keep adding layers and achieve a flow state. For me, I found a poem and it didn’t really matter that much to me- but it ended up acting as a foundation for sound. 

From there, I added a pitched-down flute drone which resembled an alto flute and nighttime insect noises, and I let it build and build until it became unsettling. Honestly, it’s not even a favorite piece of mine. Other people have reached out stating they like it, but I’m not sure if I do or not.  BUT it did get me out of a rut and creating again. 

Sometimes, you’ll finish the thing that got you out of a rut and you’ll go “What even is that? That was me? How bizarre”. 

But that’s alright because at least you created.

Other Ideas to Combat Writer's Block

Unfortunately, there’s no tried and true cure for writer's block. What works for me one day very well may not work for me the next. 

• Get out of the house

• Move your body

• Do something you want to do and take care of your wants

• Create, but don’t start from scratch

Watching a comfort show or listening to the artist that inspired you in the first place…Doing something familiar and comfortable can help ease your emotions. It’s goofy, but if I really want to visit the fruit market and the library there’s no chance of me achieving my artists goals until I have an outing, and do the things I want to do first. 

Music studios, either in the home or away, can feel cramped and stuck if you haven’t had a chance to roam/move first. 

There’s also magic in allowing oneself to do something just for you. Watching Emily in Paris or going fishing might feel selfish, but it’s not. You’ll come back to your space with a clear head if you take care of your wants first. 

On Artistic Overwhelm

Emotions and writer's block are inevitably intertwined, which is why I recommend doing something comforting or relaxing. Overwhelm is a big one for me, and countless other artists. That’s what makes us different: it’s a two-sided coin. With our art comes our sensitivity. 

 You can’t look at every tree in a forest all at once and take it all in, but you can look at a single branch. Think of each line to a song or bridge or chorus as a branch to a tree. The tree is the song, and the forest is the album…Don’t let being lost in the largeness of your goals prevent you from doing anything at all. 

Then there’s option anxiety: the affliction that arises when we feel that we have two many options to come up with anything at all! This is a great time to bring in copyright-free loops, pick a simple chord progression, or decide on a theme. Creating can be faster and easier if you have to work inside a given framework.

Creating with Loops Soundtrap

One way I like to get rid of song-writing writer's block is to find two or three loops in Soundtrap. Even if you just find one copyright-free loop that you like, you may find your song will write itself. You don’t have to always start from scratch when you make something, you could write a song about a song, or use music that already exists. Remember, we’re simply trying to get the ball rolling! And any way that you can achieve that is a win. 

• Start from the ground up with bass/drums

• Mix genres into something completely new

• Combined unexpected textures easily

In Soundtrap, it’s easy to make loops match the key you’ve chosen for your song. To combat a musician’s writer's block, try choosing a bassline or beat first, and build the pyramid of sound from there. You can try the cloud-based DAW for free here. 

Conclusion: Go Forth and Create!

Writer’s block doesn’t last forever (even if it seems like it might). Try the above tips with your poems, lyrics, or music-writing endeavors, and let us know how it goes!

About the author

Aleah Fitzwater is a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, music journalist, and blogger from Temperance, United States. Aleah holds a Pk-12 instrumental music education degree. Her main instruments are flute, piano, drums, bass, and guitar.