Writer's block, noun: the frustrating inability to produce worthwhile writing, be it creative, professional, academic, etc. It often leads to crippling self-doubt and the termination of stories and projects. If you clicked on this listicle, I'm assuming you're in the same perpetually floating boat as me. So from one stunted wannabe writer to you, good luck.
1. Play Tetris. Master the game. Be the blocks.
2. Take a walk. A long walk. All the way to your preferred snack distributor, the one in the next town over. Don’t turn back — just keep on walking.
3. Browse Odyssey articles. Dive in the rabbit hole, going from one listicle to the next to the next to the…
4. Make yourself a pot of tea. Or coffee. Or coffee-tea. Or sweet-tea. Or lemonade with some kind of syrup. Or coffee-lemonade. Or a lemonade-tea. Become a professional drink creator. Sell a patent. Never write again.
5. Doodle. That one's from my playwriting professor.
6. Read Stephen King’s "On Writing" and hope that some of it syncs into your subconscious.
7. Not interested in the King? Then read any other book. Your writing can wait while you give yourself vacation in literature.
8. Take a nap. Wake up. Hit the snooze button. Dream big. Wake up. Hit the snooze button.
9. Delete every single adjective in the piece. Then every fourth word. Then see what ___ have to work ____.
10. Look over old documents and see if you have any good material there. Sort through the archives, find the nuggets of wisdom, like that time you wrote a story about…
11. Realize you’ll never write anything good again. Then think about how good of a writer you were. Read your own awesome work and hope that some of it syncs into your subconscious.
12. See if anybody’s hiring.
13. Change the font in which you’re writing. “Calibri” is overrated, anyway. Go with “Impact" instead.
14. Try a new social media platform.
15. Watch clips on YouTube of writer’s talking about writer’s block. It’s like going to group therapy but you don’t have to leave your desk.
16. Accept the fact that writing is sometimes difficult. That the industry is tricky, that the assignment is due tomorrow, that the world is full of terrible, horrible problems, and that this is not one of them. Make up your own journey and tackle one of those society-bound issues. Let the writing hang out while you’re off on an adventure saving the world. You’re the protagonist in your own story!
17. Adopt a kitten — they have great ideas. Allergic to cats? Watch kitten videos on YouTube.
*Note: a combination of suggestions may lead to best results.
