6 Confidence Boosters to Combat Writer’s Block

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Is writer’s block de-motivating you from completing your book?

This is a common ailment in a writer’s life. Do not worry! There are some beneficial hacks that you can engage in order to eliminate this oft experienced problem. As a writer with many unpublished manuscripts, and recently published novels, I have 6 hacks that have helped me in my journey of writing.

(1) Make an outline: Draw a map of where you are driving this book. Write the outline like milestones. If it is a thriller/fiction, for example, what are the milestones that need to happen to get you to the final scene? E.g. Milestone #1: Joe got a job at prestigious advertising firm. Milestone #2: Joe had a disagreement with his new manager, and almost got fired. Milestone #3: Joe’s manager goes missing. Milestone #4: The cops are on the work premises, and while conducting investigations, they find incriminating evidence that points to Joe as a suspect…and so on.

(2) Write daily: Make sure to write something every day, even if for just 5 minutes. Writing daily helps you to stay connected to the world you are creating in that book and remain familiar with the direction you intend for it to go.

(3) When nothing tangible comes out of a series of daily writings: I would say that give yourself a week to write daily during any particular bouts of writer’s block. If nothing fluent and fluid comes out of the effort to put on paper after an entire week, then this is a signal that the mind is crying for a re-group. Allow yourself about a couple of days to think and sleep on the book idea. Go back to the outline mentioned in step 1. Are you deviating from the milestones?

(4) Set a deadline for when the book needs to be completed: If you treat it like a project with a finite end time, it will gain the attention it needs

(5) Do not edit while writing: I have been guilty of this. It is tempting, but don’t do it. This tends to make one lazy with going back to the real project of continuing the book

(6) Start publicizing: Yes, I know the book is nowhere near complete. In fact, you want to keep the book a secret because you are not certain about the direction you are going with it yet. But if motivation is becoming a big problem, I recommend using this opportunity to start publicizing the book by asking friends their thoughts, mentioning tidbits about it on social media, and involving your community in the life cycle of producing the book. In fact, providing an advance review copy to your readers would not hurt, because you are getting your book out there before an audience that will likely buy it from you once it comes out. The chances of its gaining sales upon publication becomes higher because people are now anticipating the final version.

Use these 6 steps to get yourself motivated again with writing that piece, and find novel completion success along the way!

As always, it is a pleasure to hear from you about your ideas for overcoming writer’s block, or any tips that you have found successful in your writing journey. Drop a comment below!

Till next blog, keep on writing, Friends!