How to Conquer Writer's Block in the Time of CoVid-19

So normally Carrie writes the podcast part of the podcast and this week she had no idea what to write. Should she write about Covid-19 and try to help people with things to do during their lock downs and times of social distancing? Should she totally ignore that and we go the other route with a happy, fun, dorky and totally non-informative episode? Should she cry?

It turns out that Carrie was thinking too much and giving herself writer’s block. Writer’s block is something Carrie never gets. So, she had to overcome it, right?

So here are some quick steps to overcoming writer’s block in the time of Covid-19.

1. Go for a walk if you can go for a walk without coming into contact with anyone else going for a walk.
2. Eliminate distractions. If there are other kids in the house or cats, lock them out of the room so you can focus.
3. Read a book.
4. Write something that isn’t what you’re pressured to write.
5. Set a timer and tell yourself that you only have 15 minutes to write so you better hurry up.
6. Disconnect your Wi-Fi.
7. Close your eyes and listen to a song that you’ve never listened to before. Then open your eyes and write.
8. Do a Graham Greene (old British author) and keep a dream journal. Every morning write what you’ve dreamt. This will come in handy some day and it counts as writing.
9. Visualize scenes in your story without writing. Just sit and try to daydream. Can you do it?
10. Allow yourself to make mistakes, jump around to scenes you can see. Writing does not have to be linear when you draft.

Back in 2016, Maria Konnikova wrote “How to Beat Writer’s Block” for the New Yorker, which touches on the research into writer’s block and it’s pretty interesting.

And way back in the 1950s, a man named Bergler wrote “Does Writer’s Block Exist?,” which was published in American Imago. Bergler said a writer “unconsciously tries to solve his inner problems via the sublimatory medium of writing.” A writer wasn’t lazy or bored. They hadn’t used up their muse and ideas. They just needed therapy. Later psychiatrists learned through studies that most writers blocked for three months or more were indeed unhappy. Was this correlative and how did the causation factors work?

I can’t find that, but what they did determine was that these unhappy writers seemed to be one of four blocked groups:

1. Anxious and Stressed Out Authors – Writing no longer gave joy because of emotional distress. They’re are the ‘nothing is good enough’ authors.
2. Irritate AF Authors - They were lashing out at others. These are the ‘I don’t want to be compared to others’ authors.’
3. Whatever Authors – Apathy rules and they figure there is no point. These are the no daydreams, rules are mean and constricts my creativity’ authors.
4. I Am So Freaking Mad Authors – They aren’t sad. They’re really sick of it all and they are so angry and hostile. These are the ‘I am getting no attention’ authors.

I (Carrie) just was teaching an online class to some writers and admitted that I don’t daydream anymore, which is a big deal for me because I used to daydream all the time. A lack of daydreaming is a symptom of a writer who is blocked.

Other symptoms Of Writer's Block:

1. Less able to form images in their brains
2. Images they do form are more vague than in the past
3. Less ambition
4. Less joy
5. Less creativity

So work on creatively visualizing different things in your book and your life. Imagine what your character eats, what’s happening at the grocery story right now, the best kiss ever. Reawaken your creativity in ways that don’t involve judgement – yours or anyone else’s.