Note: 2 of my numerous blogs over the years: (1) since
March 2019 – Communication For
Development Of Vibrant Villages (blogspot.com), 1,079 articles; and (2)
since Jan 2020 – The Editor In Chief (blogspot.com),
549 articles. Total: 1,628 articles in the last 5 years, 27 articles every
month, 517 words each article.
(Image sources: top, grammarly.com/blog, bottom positivewriter.com)
That all shows I have suffered no Writer’s Block!
Oh, and I am almost 84 years old!
I am a publicly
known creative writer since I became a writer from home (WFH) for the International
Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) 2007-2014 when ICRISAT was under now PH
ex-Secretary of Agriculture William Dar.
Wikipedia
says (“Writer’s Block,” en.wikipedia.org/wiki):
Writer's block {has) various degrees of severity, from
difficulty in coming up with original ideas to being unable to produce work for
years. This condition is not solely measured by time passing without writing(;)
it is measured by time passing without productivity in the task at hand.
Here’s advice from
Frederick Meyer (“Writer’s Block:
What Causes Writer’s Block, And How To Overcome It” (24 May 2024, Writers.com, writers.com): “Writer’s
block … affects almost every writer at some point, and it can be debilitating
for our creativity.”
In the 1970s, two
researchers at Yale studied writer’s block, and concluded that it had four main
causes:
1. “Feeling constrained and
creatively blocked by the “rules” of writing.“
2. “Seeking external
validation and attention through one’s writing, and becoming disappointed and
angry if not getting it.“
3. “Feeling not good enough
and paralyzed by self-criticism.“
4. “Feeling afraid of having
one’s writing compared with the work of others.“
Here’s my pieces
of advice. This is just a listing to help you get rid of your Writer’s Block.
Choose what works for you:
(1) Do something else. Do something unrelated
to writing.
(2) Cultivate other interests other than
writing. I recommend reading. Select what you want to read, but read!
(3) Add to your knowledge before and after
writing. This will help you increase not only your breadth but also your width
of thinking.
(4) Keep a scratch pad ready all the time. I
have what I call “Notesbooks” – plenty of them: in my room where I am writing
this, outside where I sit and watch the world go bye, on the dining table, on
my bed, and in my little shoulder bag!
(5) Read anything, including the labels of
products. If anything, it will take your mind off what you are writing about.
(6) Learn digital writing – it will open new
windows for you! Windows for more knowledge, windows for thinking some more.
(7) Don’t reject thoughts that run counter to
what you are writing.
Oh yes! Why
is humor not included as a way out of Writer’s Block? Humor me!@517
No comments:
Post a Comment