3 Fun Ways to Overcome Writer’s Block

Have you ever had writer's block? It can be a real pain! But it can also be easily whacked out of the park while you have fun doing it! Here are three "highly scientific" solutions.

PROBLEM 1: Your brain is stuck in a loop, desperately trying to force out brilliance.

SOLUTION: Use the "Distract and Conquer" Method.

Take a detour! March directly to the kitchen, find the most complex recipe you've got (something with at least five steps and uses obscure spices), and dive headfirst into it.

By the time you've wrestled with puff pastry and questioned the purpose of

making five layers of lasagna, your brain will be so exhausted from not thinking about your writing, it'll spontaneously generate ideas just for a break.

Bonus points if you burn something, creating a dramatic, smoke-detector-induced plot twist in your day.

PROBLEM 2: You have ideas, but they're trapped in your head, refusing to form coherent sentences.

SOLUTION: Try a "Dramatic Monologue to an Inanimate Object."

Grab the nearest inanimate object—your houseplant, a dusty lamp, perhaps a particularly judgmental-looking stapler. Now, with all the fervor of a Shakespearean actor, deliver a passionate, unedited monologue about your project to it. Rant about how your intro spirals off-topic, why Chapter 3 keeps acting like it belongs in someone else’s book, and how that one sentence refuses to cooperate like it’s negotiating a contract.

The stapler or potted plant, being a patient listener, will never interrupt, and often, hearing your thoughts in the echo chamber of your own voice is enough to untangle the knots.

Just make sure no one else is home.

P.S. To make this even more productive, open you favorite AI and speak your thoughts there. Ask for suggestions on how to get past this problem. The key is to speak it out loud, no matter how ridiculous you feel.

PROBLEM 3: The blank page is mocking you, and every word you try to write feels wrong.

SOLUTION: Fire up the "Brain Dump of Utter Nonsense"

Embrace the wrong! Open a new document (or grab a fresh piece of paper) and for five minutes straight, write down anything that comes to mind, no matter how illogical, inappropriate, or utterly insane. Think of it as purging your brain's junk drawer. "The secret life of socks... why does my cat judge me so much... the color of Tuesday..."

The goal isn't to write well, it's to write something, anything. You're basically tricking your inner critic into taking a coffee break while your creative muse slips in through the back door. You'll likely delete it all later, but you'll have broken the spell of the blank page.

Looking for more writing and publishing tips? Stay tuned! I am working on something you will want: a Manuscript-to-Published Timeline. With this, you can know at-a-glance where you are in your book’s journey.

The usual disclaimers... You can opt out whenever, but I don’t think you’ll want to.

Cheers!

Shauna