So many writers experience what we commonly call writer’s block, and that might include you. But what exactly is writer’s block and, more importantly, what can you do about it if you find yourself blocked?
In today’s episode, on the Middle-Grade Made Easy(er) podcast, we’ll be looking at mindset and why it matters. Specifically, we’re going to identify:
- what’s behind writer’s block
- what you can do to get past it
What is writer’s block anyway?
You may have taken all the writing classes and read all the craft books on writing, and you may theoretically know everything you need to know to start your middle-grade novel, or to push through to the end if you’ve already begun. But while you may think you’re ready for anything that writing can throw at you, if you have only managed the theory of writing without managing your mindset, you are going to encounter fear at some point.
Writer’s block is just a fancy way of talking about fear that you may feel when your mindset about writing is not constructive or grounded in reality.
Here’s a casual definition of mindset:
Mindset is a set of beliefs that shape how you make sense of the world and yourself. It influences how you think, feel, and behave in any given situation.
Basically, this means that what you believe about yourself impacts your success or failure because your beliefs lead to thoughts which lead to feelings which lead to behaviour.
If those beliefs and thoughts are constructive and grounded in reality, then you will behave in a way that can eventually bring you closer to what you want. On the other hand, if your beliefs and thoughts are destructive and not grounded in reality, you are going to behave in a certain way that will take you further away from getting what you want.
As writer’s block is less about being blocked and more about feeling fear, I’m sure you can imagine how fear might be a great motivation to flee if you found yourself face-to-face with a hungry lion, but it’s not the best motivation to have if you’re trying to write a middle-grade novel.
Is this your writing mindset?
Let’s look at three problematic behaviours to show you what I mean. While I go through them, take a minute to see if you can recognize yourself in one of these examples:
Problem #1: It’s great to learn everything you need to know about writing before you start your middle-grade novel, right? Knowing what you’re doing will help you write a stronger first draft, and will make your chances of finishing your novel, and getting an agent or publisher higher.
But if you find yourself taking endless writing classes, reading the same craft books over and over again, or buying every new craft book that your critique partners swear by, then what is happening is overwhelm, not education.
You may have started off learning but, at some point, you became so overwhelmed by all the different advice out there that you started to think you wouldn’t be able to write a book unless you understood all the things. That thought lead you to feel fear about not being able to move forward, and not ever achieving your dreams of being a published author. So, you either froze and put your story aside, thinking something like, “I’ll get back to it when inspiration strikes,” or you signed up to more classes and read more books to combat that feeling of not knowing enough, or of not being good enough to call yourself an author.
Either way, you’re blocked because neither of those two behaviours is going to result in you eventually writing your book.
Problem #2: If you find yourself writing and revising the same opening to your novel or the same scenes over and over again, you are also probably sparring with some sort of fear.
You’re worried that you don’t write well enough now, but you’re sure that by studying what you have already written and then constantly improving on the same words until it’s perfect will help you become a better writer. And who knows, maybe if you write your novel that way, you’ll end up with a perfect first draft whereas if you just pushed through, you’d end up with something that you’d need to rewrite completely? And who wants that, right?
But here’s the thing… those thoughts are not grounded in reality, and they lead to a feeling of false confidence which then leads to behaviour that is not constructive. Because if you don’t write forward, all you’re doing is spending a lot of time writing the same few scenes instead of writing a book. You’re just stuck in a never-ending loop of sameness.
At some point, one of two things is going to happen: either fatigue will set in and you’ll give up on your book, or you’ll eventually finish but you won’t be able to revise or delete scenes you’ve spent so much time on because all of the effort you’ve put into them has made them more worthy in your eyes than they actually are in reality.
Either way, you’re blocked because neither of those behaviours is going to result in you eventually writing your book.
Problem #3: You are a perfectionist. The thought of not being or doing something to the point of perfection is terrifying to you. You might equate anything less than perfect as worthless, and you want no part of imperfection in your life, your relationships or your writing.
Perfectionism leads to feelings of inadequacy or the fear of not being good enough, as well as the fear of people not perceiving us as good enough. So, those feelings then motivate behaviours like not showing or sharing our work to others for critique, or not querying an agent or submitting to a publisher because we don’t want to fail.
Just like the people in the first two examples, you too are blocked because not sharing or submitting your work is the best way to make sure that it’s never published, right?
What’s the solution?
Did you recognize yourself in one of those scenarios? I did!
If you did too, the good news is that you are not alone because, like most writers out there, we all struggle with the fear of not being able to do something we so badly want to do: to write a good middle-grade novel, to get it published, and to get it into the hands of kids who will love it.
What’s interesting to know is that fear is hardwired into the human brain because it’s quite simply the emotion that keeps our nervous systems scanning the horizon for danger that could kill us.
While fear is useful when is stops us from taking a shortcut through a dark alley in the middle of the night, and instead guides us toward taking the longer, well-lit and safer route, fear is not as useful if it’s stopping us from moving closer to our goal of writing our middle-grade novel.
So, what’s the solution?
Let’s look at some simple mindset methods you can apply to help you manage the fear that is keeping you stuck:
Solution #1: If you’re the type of person who takes all the classes and reads all the books about writing to keep fear at bay instead of actually writing, then set yourself one specific writing task to do today, and do it.
For example, you can decide that you will write the dialogue for a scene, no matter how much you know about writing dialogue or how ready you feel to tackle it. By the end of your writing session, that dialogue must be done.
The great thing about this approach is that you’re allowing yourself to write something that may not be perfect, but that will exist. And that means that you’ve moved forward, and are no longer blocked. The cumulative effect of setting yourself specific tasks like this means that by the end of the week, month, or year, you’ll have produced work instead of just thinking about producing it. Also, you’ll learn so much more about writing by actually writing than by attending classes and reading books on writing.
Solution #2: For those of you who recognized yourself in the type of person who keeps revising the same scenes over and over again, allow yourself the time to look over what you’ve written, to analyse what you feel is working and what isn’t. Make a note of what isn’t working, and put it aside for when you finish your draft and begin revisions.
Then take the knowledge you’ve gained from analysing your work and, instead of continuously applying it to the same work, apply it to the next scenes you write.
When you do this, not only do you become a better writer as you write your novel, but you are actually writing your novel as you move forward with your book. Basically, practice what you’re learning by writing new scenes and by moving your book closer to the finish line instead of tying yourself into a never-ending loop of revision on the same scenes.
Solution #3: If you pride yourself on being a perfectionist, or actively dislike being one but know that you are, then what might help you get closer to your goal of finishing your book is to learn to be comfortable in your discomfort.
This just means that you’re going to have to embrace the fact that you won’t ever write a perfect book… because let’s face it, perfection doesn’t exist! By trying to avoid feelings of failure and discomfort, you’re not allowing yourself to become a better writer. Facing failure, and learning why something didn’t work, is how we actually learn and grow. So, flip the thought of failure onto its head and see it as an opportunity to learn that will take you closer to your goals instead of a roadblock that will stop you from achieving what you want.
To sum up…
Before I leave you, let’s quickly go over what we’ve covered today:
- Writer’s block is the fear you feel when your mindset about writing is not constructive or grounded in reality.
- The first reason you might be blocked is because you’re so busy thinking and learning about writing that you’re not writing. The way around this block is to set yourself a specific task every time you have time to write, then to sit down and do only that task.
- The second reason you could be blocked is because you are stuck in a loop of continuously revising the same work. The solution to this problem is to identify what’s not working in the scenes you have already written, and then to apply what you’ve learned to your next scenes so that you write forward and finish your draft.
- The third reason you might be blocked is because you’re not sharing your work for critique or submitting to agents and publishers because you’re afraid it might not be good enough. The solution to this problem is learn to be comfortable with the fact that nothing you write will ever be perfect and, instead of seeing that as a failing, see it rather as an opportunity to learn, grow and become a better writer.
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