6 Steps to Overcoming Writer's Block

I’ve blogged almost daily for 4 and 1/2 years now. There are a few things I have found work to overcome writer’s block. Here they are:

Write: There’s only one way to overcome writer’s block and that’s to write. Bring up your word doc or bring up a sheet of paper and pen/pencil. Then write on it.

That act alone gets me out of my head. It stops the I don’t have anything to write. I’m not inspired... Can I have some cheese with this whine. Ok, I don’t say that last sentence; my wife does. Deservedly.

Now I’m looking at, in my case, the screen.

Now I start to write.

Write the keyword. Not sure what to write? Write the keyword. If the topic is innovation then write the... innovation.

Now, write the first thing that comes to mind. I write a few sentences. Now, usually, I am off to the races.

Gather your sources

To do that, I scan through my twitter lists and groups on Hootsuite.

I have gathered tweeters into either Twitter lists (big list) or HootSuite groups (filtered list). Each list/group is organized for the daily meme on my blog: healthcare, small business/leadership, social media/marketing/branding, innovation/collaboration, failure and its role in our success. That’s the memes Monday - Friday.

Each day I can scan that group for their links and conversations.

I favorite the tweets of interest. Favoriting, in either the Twitter or Hootsuite, works and feeds to both.

I also review my rss reads. I have them sorted by categories of interest: social media, small business, leadership, innovation. These are some of the daily memes for my blog posts.

Identify a common thread.

I always find 3-5 favorites around a common theme. It could be several perspectives with the same opinion. Or it could be same issue, differing opinions.

That begins to jog my brain. Either I see conflicting opinions, contradictory data or consistent data and conversation on that common theme.

Drill down.

Now I click on the links in these favorited tweets. That step is to gather more detailed information, supporting quotes, broaden my perspective and educate both myself and my readers. It definitely works for the first and I hope the second.

By now, I have the content I need and my brain and fingers are now engaged.

Some other steps and resources.

Caffeine: Tea, coffee, espresso, whatever. They are called stimulants. They stimulate. Sometimes a little mental stimulation from my favorite wonder-drug, caffeine, is all I need.

Aerobics: Same principle is at work here. The increased aerobic functioning is stimulating. Heart beats faster, pumps more blood, delivers more oxygen. And where is the biggest train station for the greatest amount of blood newly replenished with oxygen? The brain. Think about it. Or go for a run.

Deadlines: Deadlines push me out of the indulgence of obsessively word-smithing. And, I do write better, often, under pressure. Many people do.

Sleep: none of this works if we are chronically sleep-deprived. Do not pass go, do not waste time on anything else than this issue. Do this first. This is a systemic issue. The points above are tactical steps you can take to solve an immediate challenge. Sorta like having good tactics and a bad strategy. See the difference? No? Get some sleep.

I'm done.

Try these, some or all of them. Let me know if they work for you.

Got better ways to break writer's block? Share them in the comments. We all need all the help we can get. We all have great and wonderful ideas waiting to be expressed.

Photo credit: iStockPhoto, Joe Cicak.