How to Kill the Blank Page
Hey writers! This month’s writing tip is: to
overcome writer’s block with inspiration. We’ve all been there. We’ve all felt
the drive to write, we’ve all procrastinated until a deadline looms, and we’ve
all wanted (needed) to write something well. But we constrain ourselves the
second we sit down, pen in hand or fingers flat on the keyboard, with the
pressure of needing to write a masterpiece. We think, okay, I need to start
this now, and this needs to be the best thing I’ve ever written. And sure,
maybe that’s true. But when something unsavory comes out instead of the
beautiful words we’ve been expecting, the panic rises. And that panic can be
absolutely debilitating. I believe that in order to avoid the pains of writer’s
block, we have to make conscious efforts to look for inspiration wherever we
can. The following suggestions can help you squeeze out the ideas spinning
around in your brain and give you the peace and confidence you need to approach
your writing.
1. Act like a kid.
Like many people at Emerson,
I’ve been in love with words since I was very young. This topic came up during
a workshop of mine just last semester: kids who write do so freely. They don’t
think of a grade, they don’t have expectations confining them, and they don’t
try to limit themselves to demands and specifics. They are completely free to
tell whatever story they want to and so, they do. It seemed everyone in my
class lamented this, felt envious. This is because like most writers, we all
get older and allow our freedom to get bottled up. We put so much pressure on
ourselves and set rules that only serve to put more stress and anxiety on our
shoulders.
