How to Fight Writer's Block

Guest Article from Sarah Sax!

So, it’s happened. You read a book, watched a movie, or had a random thought, and now you know what to do with your life: write a story about a singing octopus. You’ve thought about this day and night. You know your characters better than you know yourself. You can picture all the scenes they’ll include in the movie trailer someday. . .

“Well,” you say, rubbing your hands together, “let’s get to it!” You pull out your laptop. Open a document. Carefully title it: The Eight-Armed Wonder of Crockett Middle School. (The cover will feature this big-eyed orange octopus in a tank under a spotlight, surrounded by curious kids and frowning teachers.) You scroll down and type Chapter One, hands shaking with excitement. Chapter One: The Mysterious Aquarium.

Here goes nothing!

Chapter One: The Mysterious Aquarium.

The

You rest your fingers on the keyboard and frown at the screen. This is going to be the novel of the century, or at the very least a New York Times Bestseller. You’ll have to be picky about what goes on the page. Can’t just start with any old line.

Chapter One: The Mysterious Aquarium.

The sun

Hmm, that’s promising. What to say next? Well, what is the sun like? Hmmm. . .

The sun was warm.

Nah, that’s too typical. Everyone knows the sun is warm. Maybe starting with the sun isn’t a good idea. Maybe. . . let’s start with suspense!

Chapter One: The Mysterious Aquarium.

One Tuesday morning, a mysterious package arrived at the

Oh, shoot, the aquarium needs a name! Um, um, um—we’ll just leave that blank for now. One Tuesday morning, a mysterious package arrived at the aquarium.

No, it’s missing something. Grrr. Let’s try a different sentence. Or actually, let’s not start with the aquarium, let’s start at the school where everyone is talking about the upcoming music contest!

Chapter One: The Music Contest

Chapter One: The First Day of School

Chapter One: I don’t know what to put here blahhhhhhhhh

Chapter One: How the heck do you write a story anyway???

Fear not, O writer of the musical mollusk. You can in fact write a story. Trust me, you are perfectly capable of sitting at your computer, resting your fingers on the keys, and typing words onto a page. Chances are, if you have a phone and a few people in your contacts, you’re doing it every day without thinking.

But what makes writing different? Because I’d bet the majority of writers would agree, the minute you sit down to write, doubt comes slamming down like a wall, blocking you from the words, or trickling in like a stream, slowly filling everything until it’s all wet.

The thing is, when we decide to write a story, we do that because we care about it. We want to put it to paper. We want other people to read it. Because it has value to us, and we want it to have value for other people. And that ironically gives doubt a field day. Because if something is important to us, we want it to be the best it can be. If we’re going to share something with other people, it has to be of the highest quality so it can bless them as much as it blesses us.

Unfortunately, we are not good judges of character when it comes to ourselves. When we’re looking at everything and trying to make it perfect, we’ll get nowhere fast. How are we supposed to really say if our chapter is good or bad if we haven’t even written it yet? Put down those words, all the words that make you cringe, and just write. Making it good is for editing. And, as my mentor likes to say, words beget more words.

And there are other things you can do. For example, if you’re not sure where the story will go, maybe you should sit and plot it out. Speaking as someone who isn’t a natural plotter, it genuinely helps (as much as I hate to admit it). And if the doubt creeps in? You have to slap it down and keep going. Maybe you’ll go as slow as someone slogging through mud, but little by little you’ll get faster and better. Never trust doubt in this part of the process! Save that for later. Right now, you’re beginning creation. After it’s created, you can refine it.

The best way to conquer doubt is also the worst, hardest, and scariest way. You just have to go against it. If the doubt has you so crippled you can’t bear to even type the word ‘the’, sit down, type the word ‘the’, and type something after it. See how long of a sentence you can write down in a minute. Show doubt it doesn’t know what it’s talking about. And it will be hard, it will hurt, and it will be scary, but you have a weapon: prayer. God genuinely cares about you, and He gives you the skills you need to write. Ask Him to take away the doubt and help you keep going. Ask Him to inspire you. If you’re having troubles, brainstorm them with Him as if you were talking to another writer. (God’s the original creator, after all!) If you need resources to help you become a better writer, start searching and ask God to direct you to content that will genuinely help you. Get someone to pray with you. That singing octopus is in your mind for a reason, and you have a choice: to let it stay in your mind, or to put it on paper and possibly get a chance to share it with other people. You got this, writer! I’m sitting here writing this through a terrible case of doubt but recognizing what looks terrible to me now is probably going to look much better later. Keep going, writer! You got this!

Meet the Author!

Sarah Sax is an avid reader, writer, and geek. She started storytelling as soon as she could talk, and never looked back. Sarah is currently developing a professional writing platform and has been published in the Fantastical Summer Anthology and on The Pearl. She loves listening to Coldplay, training with her lightsaber, and dreaming up epic science-fantasy tragedies. Check her out at sarahelizabethsax.com, where she posts weekly articles about finding joy in life and hope in mental illness.