A Quick Tip to Overcome Blogger’s Block!
Yikes! I’ve only been at this thing for 3 months and I got my first real case of writer’s block - or in this case, blogger’s block!
One major factor might be that I just turned in my senior thesis (a major paper for me) and after considerable difficulty.
The number one reason that I get writer’s block is the pressure to produce something of a certain quality. This was the case with my thesis, or “comps,” and it’s been the case this week with my blogging as well.
Ever since the Christmas-day tiger attack in San Francisco, I’ve gotten the senes that something was not quite right in the official story, and I’ve waited a good long time to get all the facts before I weighed in with my opinion. This was an article that I knew would be outside of the mainstream view, alledging that the boys were not traditional “victims,” per se, and I had anticipated writing it for months now.
However, after writing an article that meant so much to me, and about which I anticipated such a fuss, it’s been difficult for me to move forward onto a traditional article again. I did a knee-jerk announement about the Earth Hour movement, which was quick and easy, but it’s taken me a long time to finally move forward and make another post.
How did I do it?
I set myself free!
One of the most valuable pieces of advice I’ve gotten in my life came from a college professor who told me “Allow yourself to fail.” This might seem contrary to the general goals of an academic pursuit, but he knew me well and he trusted that if I could just take the pressure off of myself, that I would do good work. He could see what I could not - that the pressure to succeed and perform to my own standards (which are admittedly pretty tough) was getting in the way of me doing good, natural work.
This has been one of the hardest lessons for me to learn, and I certainly have not finished incorporating it yet. I still have the urge to push myself, to aspire to something greater than what comes to my mind in a given moment. However, it turns out that at any given moment, I’ve got a lot on my mind that is valuable and that I should remember to share.
Tonight, when I sat down at the keyboard to write, it took me a couple of hours of dawdling and avoidance before I could finally bring myself to fire up the WordPress and take a crack at a blog. At first it was painful and I felt pressured, but I remember just to let myself go. I didn’t worry about a clever title, or a cool picture, or making sure to properly cite a bunch of sources - I just wrote the things that I already knew and gave the opinion that’s been sitting at the tip of my tongue now for weeks, waiting for a bit of attention. I let it all out, and while it might not be my best structured or prettiest post of all time, it’s got me back on a roll again.
I mean look, I’m writing here, aren’t I?
Sometimes, writing can be a cure for itself: if you don’t think you can write one piece well right now, go ahead and work on another, or just start free-writing about anything . I’m not the sort of person who thinks that free-writing or stream-of-concsciousness is the key to truly authentic work (I throw most of it away.) However, it’s a great practice for getting your mind up and running, the words rolling, and to work through the kernels of some ideas that can grow into fully-formed articles later.
If you’re having writer’s block - or blogger’s block, in this case - just got for it: write anything! Get rid of your assignment or your goal, and especially any preconceived notions of what you Should Write! (capital-letters included for gravitas) Write about whatever is on your mind at that time and you’ll soon find that you can write about anything.
Don’t wait one moment longer.

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