Blasting Through Writer’s Block
by Victoria C. Leo
April 2015
You know how suddenly it can strike. Sometimes with a creeping paralysis, sometimes like the blow of Thor’s Hammer. You can’t write. You can force yourself to go through writing exercises, but the clear, beautiful, inspired prose or poesy that you are used to just won’t come. You get panicked; it doesn’t go away. You bribe yourself; no luck. You get drunk, go shopping, or eat a pint of premium ice cream. Nothing is working.
What causes it?
#1 Cause: Fear
When the underlying cause is fear, it can be fear of what success might bring. No one who loves me now will love me then, because I will be a published author while they are still struggling. My family will think I am “showing up” my dad, who could never get his poetry published.
But fear is usually fear of failure.
You don’t want to finish the book because if you do, you’ll have to send it out, and when you do – maybe no one will buy it! If you have your Block at the middle or later stages of the book, suspect this cause. This yields to deep hypnotherapy.
You can also get a Block when you are trying to do something that you don’t know how to do: writing a scene from the perspective of a mercenary and no matter how much you research, you just can’t think like a stone-cold killer; or you need a first person narrative for part of the chapter and you just don’t know how to make first person sound other than dead boring. The Block is your subconscious mind refusing to move forward (to inevitable failure) until you teach it how to do whatever it is you want it to do. Get the education, through PNWA or elsewhere.
The most important first step is – DON’T PANIC. Sometimes, the cause – as in these examples – becomes clear as soon as you do some meditation or reiki and clear away the fear so you can peer into the depths and understand the underlying cause.
If the cause still isn’t clear, move on to the next steps:
Have New Experiences. Go somewhere new. Do some new activity. This is the most powerful action you can take to help yourself! Roller skating is not wasting time. NEW experience wakes up the brain, forcing the creation of new neural connections, which allows the formation of new “ideas.” Stop trying to write and engage in totally different creative activity. If you write, paint; keep some cheap craft paint and inexpensive paper or canvases on hand and just throw some colors around. Even painting the floor of the garage – I’m turning it into a writing and reiki studio – has tremendous potential to flush away stuck energy.
Exercise/move. Yes, I know you hate this. But your body doesn’t and your brain needs it. Take a class. Walk in nature or in the neighborhood for an hour. Walk and meditate. Check out Take Back Your Lost Heart (www.soaringdragon.biz).
If the blockage is strong, persistent or has a long history with you, you need to bring out the big guns. My writer’s program End Writer’s Block Forever uses hypnotherapy to blast the cause of the blockages away.
#2 Cause: Your Wisdom from Deep Within
Sometimes, your deep wisdom blocks you from writing, because it knows that you’re wasting your precious time and creativity on something that, for whatever reason, will never deliver you ANY benefits. This is the last category because it is the least common. But it happens.
I wrote a 204 page travelogue full of reflections and insights when I drove solo across America for six weeks but I could never get myself to turn it into a book. When I finally realized that I was holding on only because I hated to think I had wasted all that time (actually, it was a marvelous and valuable journey of self-discovery, not at all wasted), I freed up a torrent of energy that had been frozen in the “stuck” project.
Telling the Difference
You can always tell the difference between fear and wisdom. Get very, very calm and quiet through meditation, reiki, reflective yoga, or prayer, and look at the feelings that come up. Fear is urgent, it is chaotic, and it frequently speaks in the voices of other people from your past and present. Wisdom is quiet, slow, and alights gently on your shoulder like a kiss from a butterfly. Listen and know. And be well on your way to banishing “writer’s block” from your life permanently.
Victoria C. Leo’s program End Writer’s Block Forever has been freeing writers from the tyranny of creative blocks for five years. Your custom program includes power tools of reiki energy, clinical hypnotherapy, guided journeys, and directed coaching. She is licensed or certified in every tool she offers. Victoria is a published author and uses her own techniques to continue to make herself writer’s block-proof! Visit her at www.soaringdragon.biz.
Victoria C. Leo’s program End Writer’s Block Forever has been freeing writers from the tyranny of creative blocks for five years. Your custom program includes power tools of reiki energy, clinical hypnotherapy, guided journeys, and directed coaching. She is licensed or certified in every tool she offers. Victoria is a published author and uses her own techniques to continue to make herself writer’s block-proof! Visit her at www.soaringdragon.biz.