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HOW TO REALLY OVERCOME WRITER’S BLOCK
Here’s the honest truth. Many writers do a lot of things, but one thing that we tend not to do is…well…write. We flick through the channels, or browse the web, or look at the same pictures over and over again on Facebook, hoping that perhaps there was some detail in our eighth grade best friend’s smile that we overlooked.
But we sometimes believe that if we talk about writing or if we blog about writing, then we must be writing. All that and a bus ticket to Georgia will only get us to Georgia. Unfortunately, we aren’t getting as much done as we would like. We are just going to have to starting “biting the bullet” or the laptop in this case.
I have issued a challenge for writers to write 1,000 words a day for ten days. What I’m essentially asking is for people to write 1% of their WIPs with me each day. I started this on 6/6/12, and I have since written 3,000 words. That’s 3% of my novel in 3 days.
Please consider joining me in this journey, because if we aren’t writing, then we aren’t writers.
A test was done on the perception of productivity. Group 1 was told to come up with something that they wanted to achieve within the hour. They were NOT allowed to tell anyone what their goal was.
Group 2 was told to come up with something that they wanted to achieve within the hour. They WERE allowed to tell people what their goal was.
Here’s what was discovered. After the hour was over, Group 1 (the group where people were asked not to tell others) was asked if they felt like they accomplished what they wanted. They felt that they’d made some headway, but there was a lot more work that needed to be done. Surprisingly, they worked for the entire hour.
Group 2 was asked the same question, and they felt like they had accomplished a lot. However, they actually only worked on their projects for about 30 min. The rest of the time was spent talking.
The moral here is that we sometimes feel that we are making progress towards our goals if we are simply talking about them. Though talking things out does help, if we never do the work, then our conversations are fruitless.
Please join me in the 1,000 Word Blitz!
Thanks! Have a good weekend, and happy writing!
William Stadler 
not sure how much you like baseball, but i liken your advice to a baseball adage that comes up when a player is not hitting well, mired in a slump, and the manager takes him out of the line up for a game or two. “you can’t get out of a slump while sitting on the bench.”
hahaha i do like a good baseball game. but rich i really appreciate that. i know for me, i was having trouble because i kept trying to block out the fact that i wasn’t wiring, and i just had to knuckle up and do it.
I wrote about 500 words today, but, come on, it is the weekend 😉
Xx
500 is still pretty good 🙂 and yeah…it certainly is the weekend.
Thanks honey 🙂
Xx
And btw: I’ve yet to write my 1000 today. It’s my little one’s second birthday party! 🙂
Awwww…. Well you have a VERY good excuse 🙂
Xx
Funny, I recently gave myself the same goal — 1,000 words a day excluding weekends. I am working really hard at it, since I have only 1.5 hours a day to write. My goal is clear and defined because I’m trying to get something new into my publisher’s hand by a certain date,
I fell behind when I had to do some edits for my publisher for two days, but then worked harder and now I’m happy to say after working double-time yesterday, that I am AHEAD of schedule by 2500 words. Yay!
With an outline, I am surprized how quickly I can get the words out.
Jennifer that’s pretty impressive. And I’m sure it feels good to be ahead of schedule. Thanks for sharing!
🙂