Dig a Little Deeper

Are you stuck and not able to move forward in your writing? Do you find that no matter what you do those words just won’t come, even when you bang your head up against the wall? Are you feeling completely abandoned by your muse and not sure he’ll be making an appearance ever again? Then it just might be time for you to dig a little deeper.

Writing blocks come for many reason:  a lack of material, a lack of direction, overwhelming pressure to complete a task or project, personal issues that remain unresolved and fester, lack of creative stimulation, and self-doubt. All these things and others can cause a person to shut down and not be able to move forward in their own lives and in writing as well. If you are like me, your writing is connected to your emotions, so if you have any sort of emotional upheaval or emotional decline, writing becomes difficult, if not impossible. Here are some ideas you can use to work through this creative slug and find your way back to the light.

First of all, write even when you don’t feel like it. The nature of writing itself will lift you up- that is if you write about something uplifting. As you place words onto the page, you are tapping into that eternal spring within (yeah, it’s there even when you think it’s completely dry), as you dive into it you become transformed by those words. Write happy and you will be happy. Write sad and you will write sad. Write contemplative and- well, you get the picture.

Get those creative juices flowing by surrounding yourself with creative, stimulating things. What inspires you: music, art, candlelight? Also change your venue where you write. Do you normally write at home in your office then try writing in the kitchen, in the living room. Take an afternoon trip to a coffee shop, the library, or take pen and paper out and let Mother Nature spark those creative thoughts.

Another great way to try moving over roadblocks of creativity is by doing writing exercises. It can be as simple as setting a timer and writing none stop for ten minutes or as elaborate as buying books with writing exercises and using that. It really doesn’t matter what you do as long as you write. Doing the exercises will break loose the dirt clogs stuck in the mind and sprout a garden of new ideas. Do it every day and you’ll be amazed by the results!

Still feeling the glum of that block pressing down on your shoulders? Try digging a little deeper. What do I mean by that? Pick a topic that is personal, one that elicits strong emotion and write about it. You know what I’m talking about. It’s a topic you may not talk about or simply ignore because it’s too uncomfortable to go there. Dive in head first. Don’t think twice about it. Just write. Go where you’ve been holding back. Just let it fly and see where it leads. Chances are you will not only come up with a multitude of ideas for your writing, but you may very well make some key discoveries about yourself as well,  so don’t hold back and just dig a little deeper.