Writing Exercises to Break Writer’s Block

Writing Exercises to Break Writer’s Block

Writer’s block. It’s one of those things that happens to many writer’s when they least expect it. I know it’s happened to me. I can have dozens of story and blog post ideas floating around in my brain at almost a constant rate  but then I sit down to write and not one single word will flow from my thoughts to my fingers. It’s like someone plugged the drain. I just can’t seem to get the story down.

One way I have found to break the block is to do writing exercises.

These are simple 5 minute writing drills to help you clear your mind. This is free-style writing. Don’t worry if the writing doesn’t make sense or if your grammar is bad or even about spelling errors.

JUST WRITE.

I repeat.. .JUST WRITE.

This is to free your writer’s block and get you moving toward the book that is waiting to  be released from your mind to the world.

For example: Write for five minutes answering these two questions in detail (these are prompts for book or fiction writing):

1) What is my main plot about or where does it take place? Just imagine anyplace an describe it in detail. It might turn out it’s not even related to your story. This exercise will help you in other ways as well. It gives you practice in describing in minute detail the things your reader can see.

2) My hero describes himself or herself as what? This doesn’t necessarily have to be about your story hero. Just describe any character. Include hair and eye color, the personality of the persona, the way they walk or talk.

When your five minutes are up, you should be free of your  block and can now move on to writing your story.

Now if you are trying to write a  blog post or other marketing piece, there are a few places to visit to give you ideas for writing. It’s important to go ahead and create that post, though, after you have gotten the idea of what you want to write.

Here are some of my choices for ideas:

Google Trends

– Find out what is trending and popular right now.

Amazon–

Find what is popular in your niche just  by searching through Amazon’s vast resources.

News sites

– Sites like CNN and USA Today have the happenings of the day so your post isn’t only current, gets search traffic from the same keywords.

Forums, social media and other web 2.0 sites

– People comment about what is going on in your niche. Do a search on Twitter and Facebook to see what people are saving and talking about.

Get out in public.

-Go to your local coffee shop, the library or any place where people gather. Listen to what they are talking about.

A resource I just recently started using is Evernote. I can keep notes of story ideas, plots and character ideas on it so that when I sit down to work on my  book I can refer to my notes.

I’d love to hear how you get past any block. Feel free to share how you combat writer’s block below.