Blogging and the occasional writer’s block…

Writer’s block – The struggle is real. Writing is something that I do just for the fun of it, and it’s second only to reading on the list of my favorite pastimes. When inspiration strikes, I don’t have much trouble coming up with a blog post. Words keep on flowing and I race to put my thoughts into words before the onslaught of the next train of thought. Those are the good days. But there are also the bad days…and days even worse than that. Days when I just can’t get any writing done at all. Also,  when I have accidentally ended up publishing a work-in-progress.(read: unedited rough draft)

Those are the days when I end up staring at the screen, struggling against my blank mind (and screen!) to come up with new ideas. I might even type a paragraph or two, but nothing will survive past the first edit. Sometimes it’s really hard for me to overcome the writer’s block – those are some very testing times, indeed. Whenever this happens I take a break and read, hoping to find inspiration. But there are times when this plan backfires. When I’m reading a really good write-up, I find myself analyzing it to great depth, and wishing that I could be as brilliant as the author and/or blogger in question. I might even get started on a new post and get halfway through writing it, only to find that it isn’t quite up to the mark. So I delete it entirely and start over. Again and again. Rinse and repeat until I lose my patience. 😂 But there are times when I can finally hold on to an idea (and rein in my perfectionist ideals) long enough to beat the block and subsequently come up with a brand new blog post.

For me, writing is the easy part(unless I’m caught in the clutches of a Writer’s block, of course!). It’s the editing that’s tricky, and it also happens to be what gets me so frustrated at times! I’ve found out that it’s much better to jot down anything and everything that comes into my mind and start the editing only after I’ve done writing the entire post. For one thing, I’ve found this approach to be far less demotivating, and it takes less time than when I try to write and edit simultaneously!

When I had just started my blog, I would keep on checking my notifications obsessively every time I had published a new post. I would often compare the new post to my previous posts. Those were the times when every like and comment counts. An increase in the number of likes and comments is an absolute joy! But a decline in numbers is cause for worry. But that’s how blogging works – You can never be sure how a post will fare until you have published it. Or at least, that’s how it is for me anyway! The happiness that every new comment, like and follow gave me was so immense. It still is. That much hasn’t changed at all. Eventually, I have come to terms with the fact that it’s not the likes and comments that determine what a post means to me. It is the happiness that you find in being able to put your thoughts into words and the opportunity to convey your thoughts to several others across the globe. It’s the sheer joy of getting to interact with others who might share the same opinion or even better, the opportunity to get to see the matter from an entirely different viewpoint. It’s the reassurance that you have got a way with words and that there are people out there who enjoyed reading your work and would like to read more. It’s the knowledge that even if you might be experiencing a writer’s block, it’s only a matter of time before it passes. After all, without the bad days, you wouldn’t really appreciate the good days! 😊

Another interesting way of writer’s block is to go through your comments, both on your own site as well as the ones you have left on other blogs. Read other blogs. Sometimes the comments can help light a spark in your otherwise blank mind. Find out if there’s any topic that you can relate to, or even anything that you strongly disapprove of. Find your voice. Get started on your own brand-new blog post. Voila! It can be as simple as that, overcoming a writer’s block.

There are a lot of writing challenges and writing prompts that can help you overcome writer’s block. Click here to find more blogging events.

I would strongly recommend noting down ideas as they come to your mind so that they can come in handy the next time you are desperately searching for an idea.

So how do you overcome writer’s block? Feel free to share your experiences and thoughts on writer’s block.

Image courtesy: Pixabay

© 2017 Shweta Suresh. All rights reserved.

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