What Is Writer’s Block?

Writer’s block is a phenomenon experienced by copywriters, entrepreneurs and marketers, where the author is simply not able to generate or launch their new ideas. This phenomenon may be a major cause of sticking points in the business which will lead to a lack of movement within it. Here is a guide to get rid of writer’s block for entrepreneurs.

The person facing writer’s block may not be able to generate new ideas, new projects or even take new action. The term “writer” in “writer’s block” has a connotation of putting things down on paper or the lack of ability to put things down on paper.

In the realm of crafting the words for marketing, also known as copywriting, writer’s block is something that you will have to overcome every single day as it is a requirement in developing good copy.

The origin of writer’s block has its debates but in general, writer’s block comes the inability to let go and to go with the flow in terms of writing, which stifles creativity and the generation of innovative ideas.

However, if the cause of writer’s block is simply a lack of movement, then to get rid of writer’s block is to find ways to begin the writing process.

Procrastination may be one of the results of experiencing writer’s block, delaying the creation process to some other distant time in the future. We believe however, that overcoming writer’s block and overcoming procrastination go hand in hand. And with training, there are a multitude of ways to overcome writer’s block but before this, we must first identify the reasons why someone may be experiencing writer’s block.

A major cause of writer’s block is having perfectionistic standards. Perfectionistic standards in the sense that you do not want to put things down on paper because you are scared that it will appear less than perfect.

But if you go back to the time when you were in college, with looming deadline ahead for your term paper. Magically, within a day or two before your deadline, you suddenly stopped having writer’s block somehow, managed to put yourself together, and come up with a well written report for your professors. Why? A reason may be due to the sense of urgency you had which forced you to put ideas down.

Without this sense of urgency, then the writer’s block will probably continue. Without the sense of urgency, you will also want to “wait for the right time” to open your word document and start writing things down. The sense of urgency pushed you to put something down on paper regardless if what you wrote was good or bad.

That’s why a first step into overcoming writer’s block is to first let go of the sense of perfection in your work. Understand that there is no such thing as perfect, and that whatever work you put out there will always have room for improvement.

The Implications Of Having Writer’s Block

Writer’s block has a myriad of negative implications on any business. Since this is a marketing/copywriting blog, let’s explore the implications it will have on simple marketing funnel. If writer’s block stifles creativity and movement, the result you will find is that nothing getting published, or your content schedule drastically slowing down. This may result in a lack of leads, a lack of awareness and eventually a slowdown in sales.

That’s why it’s crucial as marketers, and business owners to be able to generate a stream of creative ideas, have a method of validating these ideas fast, and launch them to the market to acquire valuable feedback regardless of how bad the ideas are.

Now of course, we do not want to be publishing content that is subpar but we also want to be able to work with bad ideas, knowing that a bad idea can be transformed into a great idea.

Writer’s block also have these implications on the person experiencing it:

• Slower time to market which results in a delayed sales cycle for their business.
• Acquiring less customers which results in lower gross profit margins.
• May lead to depression or anxiety to the individual
• Trouble concentrating and focusing.
• No ideas. Confused head.

In addition to the above, writer’s block at its core also prevents you from generating ANY ideas. It is not even about the generation of good ideas, there is a block present preventing you from generating even bad ideas. If you cannot generate any ideas, and execute on them then there may be a cause of a business bottleneck.

That’s why you want to be consistently training yourself to have a timeframe to launch your campaigns regardless if the ideas are good or bad.

Having momentum in launching ideas is better than not having any momentum because momentum is what will melt away perfectionism. An over obsession on quality will most definitely create writer’s block while a focus on creating momentum is what will defeat it.

The Three Causes Of Writer’s Block

Writer’s block have many causes. Many professionals believe that writer’s block to be caused by overwork. However, we would like to argue otherwise, that it’s not overwork but rather the result of a lack of action: the act of NOT taking out your pen and writing things down.

Due to the above, you are not in a state of Flow, a term psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi coins where during a state of Flow, people typically experience deep enjoyment, creativity and a total involvement with the work at hand.

Flow is a state that occurs when someone is doing work that is just slightly above their comfort zone which results them in having a “zone-like” state of focused concentration. The inability to enter flow also lies the reason why we have writer’s block.

There are three main causes of writer’s block:

The first cause of writer’s block is perfectionism. You can check out my article here on overcoming the fear of self-promotion which is interrelated to the topic of writer’s block. The exact same reason of the fear of self-promotion is also the same reason why someone is experiencing writer’s block. Perfectionism stifles movement and does not allow things to get done.

The second cause of writer’s block is the lack of clarity. You don’t know where you are going in your business, you don’t know the purpose of why you are writing. You are simply just going through the motions, inevitably resulting in writer’s block. A lack of clarity in your headspace will translate to a lack of clarity in your physical writing space, that’s why it’s important to find the purpose in what you are doing. Always know the end result you are trying to create. E.g. leads, revenue, conversions or email signups.

The final cause of writer’s block is the fear of criticism. You fear too much about what other people think of you, or how your published work will look to other people, or what other people are going to think of you. These irrational thoughts come up, due to the fear of being judged from other people. People will always judge you, even if you do nothing so might as well let this irrational fear go.

Do note that for the causes listed, I have mentioned nothing on the skill of the writer nor the technique the writer uses. This is because writer’s block is a purely psychological phenomenon. Yet the consequences of not resolving this may be detriment to one’s productivity.

Everything Starts From A Great Idea

Overcoming writer’s block at its core is about allowing your creative genius to generate amazing ideas with ease. Without great ideas, you will not generate great results and you really do not have a profitable business without a central good idea.

Everything in the online marketing space comes from firstly, having great ideas and secondly, executing these great ideas.

Of course, you will still need to put yourself out there and execute. But overcoming writer’s block is really about generating ideas, and to do that, you will have to ultimately develop momentum. Therefore, we can say that overcoming writer’s block at its core is about creating momentum.

How To Overcome Writer’s Block

Here are some ways you can overcome writer’s block:

1. Find a system to start. The Pomodoro Technique is a great time management technique to overcome writer’s block. It’s basically a system where you force yourself to work for 20 minutes while taking a five minutes break after. Every time you start the Pomodoro, i.e 20 mins, you have to work nonstop during that timeframe. This is great for getting rid of writer’s block because you are forcing yourself through a period of time to start and after that giving yourself a “reward.” Having a system that forces you to put things down on paper will do wonders for getting rid of writer’s block.
2. Start. Let go of perfectionism. As discussed, perfectionism is the killer of creativity. You need to just start. Are you able to write badly? I think if you can write badly, then you can write well. At least when you have something down on paper, it can be worked on and improved versus starting from a blank sheet.
3. Consistency is king. Are you waiting for inspiration to come to you? Then chances are you will be disappointed because inspiration is something that requires to be generated and does not come from praying to God. Block out times on your day for your project where you are scheduled to work on it, regardless if you feel like it or not. Remember this: consistency will always triumph quality any time of the day.
4. Go out searching for inspiration. Instead of waiting for inspiration to come to you, why not go out there and look for it? Find existing material related to your project and study it and take inspiration from it. There is a saying: “do not reinvent the wheel”, because chances someone on this planet has already tackled a project, business idea, or marketing funnel that is similar to yours. So go out there and find things that people have already done which is similar to what you are trying to achieve. We’re not talking about plagiarism here, but taking elements of completed projects as inspiration.

Letting Go of Perfectionism – Get Rid of Writer’s Block

So you need to get everything right before getting started, your glass of water placed in front of you, your files neatly organized and having a quiet work environment before writing even a single piece of word on your word document.

Except, after making all the necessary preparations, nothing has yet been accomplished and your mind remains blank.  

The only way to overcome perfectionism is to understand that there will probably never be a right time to start. You don’t have to get it right, you just have to get it going.

In the book Atomic Habits, a classmate hit author “James Clear” with a baseball bat which landed him in hospital. While left temporarily crippled and contemplating his life, Clear developed the “Atomic Habits”, a technique to create change which was what he used to put his life back together. He argued that taking massive action is one of the sure-fire ways to become burnt out. On the other hand, it’s about creating small habits and tiny, daily improvements.

This is how you want to overcome writer’s block, through taking small and minut steps. Begin with just writing a section at a time, take a break, start the next section, take another break. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.

Additional Perspective Shifts

• There is no such thing as a bad idea, only ideas. Bad ideas can easily be transformed into good ideas, as long as you have AN idea which you now have a base to work with.
• Confidence. Writer’s block is all about a loss of confidence – you can be an experienced person, but you are also very likely to lose confidence in yourself from time to time. It’s about finding ways to renew your belief in yourself.
• Know what your strengths and weaknesses are. Self-understanding of how you operate and what you are good at will allow you to overcome writer’s block. You know which areas you are good at and which areas you are bad at. Use this knowledge to double down on your strengths while steering clear of your weaknesses.

Conclusion

In the online marketing realm, we are in a “war of ideas.” The best ideas will rise to the front page of Google while the rest remain in obscurity. The catch is, you don’t really know if your idea is good unless you publish it to the marketplace. Writing and publishing extensively allows you to test your marketplace which gives you experience to formulate ideas you absolutely know your consumers will love.

This could be in regards to content, products or services.

But if you don’t go out there and write, how will anyone see your ideas? You got to get in the game. So go out there and start taking action. Writer’s block stems from the lack of action. Do not wait for inspiration, as inspiration does not come to those that wait. It comes to those that take responsibility for their productivity and those that take action.

Finally remember, your best teacher is your last mistake so go out there and start writing.