Tips for Writer’s Block

by Joshua Cook

There’s an ongoing problem in the school system that I’m sure has impacted you in the past, the same way it’s affected me in the past. In fact, I’m willing to admit it’s one that I’m facing right now as I write this article; Writer’s Block, and it has no plans to leave anytime soon nor does it discriminate, it’s ever-present regardless of when or where you are in your life.
But what is Writer’s Block? In the simplest terms, Writer’s Block is the name for the feeling in your head when you have an idea and a bare outline but don’t know what to write about. But you can’t be having this kind of complication especially when it comes to High School since this is where your writing ability matters the most, and likely where it will peak, but the best part about Writer’s Block is that it’s both temporary and somewhat curable with solutions that are not very hard.

What I do personally, and what has been the most successful for me, is simply taking a stroll. Every
time I can’t think up my next sentence I just get up from wherever I am and move to another space,
usually another room but I’ve found it most effective travelling outside. According to the
combined results of a Stanford and Wellable study, this increases creative output for their students by
60% since walking helps to facilitate and manage the flowing of ideas through the brain as walking,
according to the Stanford study and some others, opens neural pathways, triggers the subconscious to
shuffle between ideas, and can improve mood which encourages more novel concept creation.
Keep in mind, the study also found that only 81% of participants found results in creativity increase, so
this method may not be for everyone.

Something else that could be done to hasten the process of writing is simply not being too harsh on
yourself. Yes, it is good to hunt for straight-A’s in your classes especially if you have any sort of plans
to attend college but seeking out perfectionism is just going to hurt your ability to write. Because of
this I do recommend writing the bare minimum when it comes to word/page length requirements for
an A and not doing anything more than this unless extra credit comes into the equation. If there is no
specific writing requirement then I’d just recommend stopping when it feels right, don’t try to
force anything unnecessary onto yourself just for the sake of a better grade.

The last piece of advice I have to share for you is to remind yourself that you are far from a perfect
writer in the same way that I’m sure every person in this district is, and that your work can always use
more edits. One cause of Writer’s Block can be that you merely don’t know how to continue your
writing, in which case it’s alright to delete a line or two and rewrite them so they flow along better. Yes,
while it can be a good thing to explore different subjects/topics in your writing, you shouldn’t need
to struggle to get it in because most of the time when you do struggle it’s just not worth it to
consider as it probably is not something you researched before your writing and could be
chalked up as insignificant because of this. Lastly, if you want to find a specific word to continue your
writing I would personally recommend that you visualize the entire alphabet in big letters, slowly,
one by one, in your head. This might sound ridiculous but you can usually recall the word once
you land on the first letter of it and it’s a tactic that I’ve had success with before.

If none of these worked for you, you should definitely look into alternatives, as there are many
more treatments for Writer’s Block that I chose not to cover here for length reasons and it is quite
interesting to study how Writer’s Block is affected by psychological matters. Nobody should have to
deal with this sort of thing especially in high school when writing up large amounts of work is the most
important skill you’ll likely utilize for the rest of your entire life. I hope you have found this helpful.