Instant Cure for “Writer’s Block”

Those of us in the business of producing content for others have run into this before. What are we going to write about next? What hasn’t been covered, is insightful, and will bring value to my readers? Sometimes it seems that the well has run dry.

I have seen some suggested solutions to this. Some say to take a break. This can sometimes work depending on how much time you take and what you do with that time. Of course this doesn’t work very well when working against a deadline. Others say to work on something else. A little more productive I suppose but still flawed. I’m not a big fan of starting and stopping as your thoughts get disjointed and your line of reasoning is hard to pick back up right away.

What we need is a solution that won’t make our pieces disjointed and broken. That utilizes our time to the best of our abilities. After all time is one of our two greatest assets. So we want to make sure we are making the most out of it. We need something that will propel us forward and revitalize the creative juices in our brain.

There is one thing and one thing alone that I have found accomplishes both of these tasks.

The Solution

The only way to keep your creative juices from drying up is to have a constant influx of knowledge going into them. Your mind should be a river not a lake. This means if your not reading, listening, or taking actions to learn from experience your well is going to dry up. It will become stagnate and stagnation is the death of creativity.

Writer’s block is simply the brain not having anything flowing in so therefore it has nothing to offer you. If you never feed it don’t expect it to be ready when you call on it.

For example if you had a power-lifting meet in a week. During the week you barely drank any water and ate like a bird. Then on the day of the meet you go in dehydrated and malnourished. Your numbers suck and you lose. Now imagine you go and say to your friends “Man I just have lifter’s block”. You would feel pretty ridiculous right?

For some reasons writers get a lot of passes that others don’t, at least traditionally. If a writer doesn’t make money he’s just a “starving artist” not a crap writer. If a writer wants to be lazy and not develop his social skills he just “writerly” not a lazy douche.

There is nothing special about being a writer. Let me repeat that.

There is nothing special about being a writer.

And if you think your special because of it you won’t survive in today’s market and world. Arrogance will get you killed in today’s market and rightfully so. The old gatekeepers have lost their power and it is up to the people who rises and who falls. And guess what your average person doesn’t have time for a snobby like punk. If you are a writer and have a “writer’s personae” get over yourself now. Same goes for artists. Neither one of you are special. Never have been and never will be. Stop using being a writer/artist as a way to cover up your insecurities. Instead work at it like everyone else should work at their jobs. To be the best at your craft and make an positive impact on peoples lives. No one is above the market.

Now with that being said how do you constantly refill your mind?

The How

I’ll list three things I do that keeps me producing content at a speed most others would not be able to keep up with.

1. Read

You have to read. Books not blogs, not articles, not magazines but books. Not romance not fiction, unless that’s what your business is in but non-fiction books. Books related to the field you are in. So if you are a copywriter you read books about the art and craft of being a copywriter. Not about the french revolution or the physics of the universe. Those things can be nice but life isn’t a trivia contest, it’s being the best at what you do. You must focus your reading. Reading for the sake of reading is almost as useless as not reading at all. Don’t read to become good at Jeopardy read to become the best at your field of study. This doesn’t mean you can’t branch of from time to time. But a good ninety percent of your readings, if not more, should be in your related field.

2. Listen

Find someone who us more successful than you at what you do and listen to them. I don’t care if you have to pay them for an hour of your time. Do so. Listen to what they say. There is a reason they are in the position they are in and a reason you are in the position you are in. Figure it out so that you can soon match and then exceed them. You would be surprised how many people are more than willing to help someone who asks for it, some are even flattered that you asked. You can learn a lot from those that are ahead of you. To not do so is foolish.

3. Watch

Every day I watch a YouTube presentation on something related to my field. I take notes on it and then it often turns into an article or at the very least a betterment of my life. YouTube offers so much free knowledge, it is an essential resource. No matter what you field is there is someone on YouTube who has excelled at it and is now offering information and advice on it. You no longer have to travel across the country or world to hear from the best but can do so from the comfort of your home. You can watch seminars, lectures, speeches, just about anything. Make sure it is focused on what it is you do. Not about esoteric subjects and certainly not then dumb click-bait sheeple videos that make up the majority of YouTube’s content. YouTube is a learning device not a distraction device. Utilize it properly.

So now you know that writer’s block can be cured easily. And that the cure is something you should be doing anyways. You know as a writer you are not above the crowd.

Remember a constant influx of knowledge will always cure writer’s block and keep your brain’s tanks full.

If you have any questions you would like to see answered in a future post send them to me at charlessledge001 (at) gmail (dot) com. If you found value in this post then I would encourage you to share this site with someone who may need it as well as check out my books here. I appreciate it. You can follow me on Twitter here.

-Charles Sledge

Charles Sledge