I Think I Banished My So-called Writer’s Block

I was stuck. I thought that once I had more free time and peace of mind, I’d be able to write more. I’d be a blogging machine, churning out post after post. Of course, all good ones. I saw myself writing regularly for my blogs, Medium, LinkedIn and every other avenue I could think. Far from it!

As I stared at my computer screen, I was just blank. Not even a working title or idea!

I managed to get out a handful of good posts, but it was gruesome. Writing felt like a chore and it was a struggle to get the right words out.

I was stuck, stuck, stuck.

Writing is not something you can force. Just because I could write once upon a time, doesn’t mean it will always come naturally.

Just like any other skill in the world, writing needs practice and the more you practice, the better you get at it. There are athletes that practice hours and hours a day to hone their skills and be the best at what they do. Writing is no different.

But I couldn’t even get started.

So, I decided to slow things down. I took pen to paper and just started writing. I was amazed at how my words started to flow.

For the next one week, I didn’t even touch my laptop to write. I just wrote pages and pages of blog posts and ideas. I’m still feeding off of those ideas.

It’s no secret that I love pen and paper. I’m very much an analog person. So, when it came to writing my blog posts, longhand just made sense.

I know it sounds silly to write out something longhand for an online medium. I’d eventually have to type it out. But, writing by hand has given me double benefits. Not only does it help my ideas flow, it helps me edit the writing while I’m actually typing it up.

It’s not surprising that writing by hand can help you free your mind. There’s plenty of research on the Internet that will attest to the benefits of writing by hand.

I know writers in the past regularly wrote longform. A lot of great writes draft entire novels longform even today, including Neil Gaiman, JK Rowling, James Patterson and Jeffrey Archer. Need I say more?

I’ve read numerous posts and articles arguing that writer’s block is not real. But I feel it’s not uncommon to have troubles getting started. Drafting posts by hand is a good way to get the creative juices flowing.