“Writer’s Block” – The Enemy Within!

I have 2 friends, “The Left” and “The Right” (Male and Female), and our friendships go back deep into the early 1960s. “The Left” has always been a writer; “The Right” has always been a non-writer – and right now are both wanting and struggling to write their last book and testament (autobiography) – both are suffering from Writer’s Block! The Writer’s Block of “The Left” tells you that experience is not a guarantee for success; that of “The Right” tells you everyone needs help!

(image sources: male from storymind.com, female from writersblog.co)

Both the Storymind and Writer’s Blog advise that you first find “inspiration” – the problem with that is, “What do you do if you can’t find inspiration?!” Storymind says, “One way to beat Writer’s Block” – and proceeds to list 5 tips!

So, here’s some free anti-Writer’s Block advices from me:

Go digital.

The writers shown in the images above are primitive, sorry to say – they belong to the age I will call “Early Digital” – fingers. Today, “digital” refers to the laptop. As a writer, which digital are you? Now, listen to me who in this blog alone – “CoViD21” – has already published 1001 essays!

Everything must be digital, no exceptions.

Don’t give the would-be title of your book as the filename of the one you’re working on – a different chapter deserves a different filename. This will help your mind re/arrange the chapters’ contents as you go along.

Writing on paper: Certainly, for stray thoughts only – not writing whole chapters.

Writing digital (I use MS Word): Always write digital, for speed and safety. Save often – Ctrl+S. If you make a major revision of a would-be chapter, change the filename (“Alt+F, Save As”) – chances are you will want to go back to the text you would have deleted!

Save all those different digital drafts under different titles, so you can review or use them for checking much later.

List Down The People.

Remember, any recollection is/may be important – until you say “Finis” to your book, it’s not finished. Make a list of significant others in your life so far, and type, tentatively, whatever you recollect about each of them. Separate people, separate files, yes – these are not chapters but reminders for you.

Enumerate Significant Events.

No matter at what stage you are in your book, and no matter what chapter you are working on right now, create a separate digital file and list down the significant or important events and occasions in your life so far. Not complete sentences or paragraphs, just reminders to write thoroughly later.

Write & Inspire Yourself!

Always think pleasant thoughts, including godly thoughts.

Remember, everything is tentative. Each chapter you are working is different from the other chapters. Don’t worry about some mix-up of data or information; you can rewrite later – easy if you’re digital!

Review.

After your draft, good or bad, you want the best book you can write – send me your complete book draft and whoever you are, I will advise you, absolutely free, on how to improve it! (Message me on Facebook.)@517