How to get over writer’s block

Writer’s block comes in many flavours.

When you’re faced with a blank screen, there’s your basic vanilla procrastination. ‘I’ll just do this first’, or ‘I need another cup of tea before I start.’

Sometimes the procrastination is shot through with raspberry ripples of imposter syndrome, ‘who am I to say this?’, or cinnamon sprinkles of self-doubt ‘no one will want to read it.’

Basic vanilla procrastination is cured by taking a deep breath and plunging in. Make that cup of tea, sit down, and start writing.

Next level procrastination

However there’s next level procrastination too. And that’s harder to overcome.

That’s when you make yourself too busy to even contemplate the blank screen. There’s no space in your calendar for writing. Or for even thinking about writing.

Chunks of client work are squashed next to essential admin bites and Zoom meeting shards shot through with other people’s priorities. If it were an ice cream, it would be something like choc-cookie-dough-salted-caramel-peanut-brittle-rum-raisin-syrup. Overwhelmed with flavour, and hard to digest. If you’ve eaten a big bowlful of that, you’ll probably just want to lie down for a bit.

When you’re too busy to write

The trouble with that kind of procrastination is it feels very hard to break free from. When you’re too busy to even think about it, you’ll probably find that if you do get a spare hour, that writing is the last thing you feel like doing.

So what’s the solution? Because if sharing your expertise is how you build your reputation and attract the right clients, then you do need to find a way through.

‘Too busy to do my marketing’ is such a common problem that it almost feels inescapable. Yet, without marketing your business you’ll either find that at some point the work dries up, or that you stay stuck at the ‘working so much you can’t think’ level. Neither of which is a happy place to be.

Overcoming writer’s block

The simplest solution is to make time for writing. Block time in your calendar for writing, and protect it in the same way you would a client meeting.

Do that, and you’ll only have vanilla level procrastination to deal with. (The time will come to write, and your mind will tell you that writing is too hard, and you’ve got nothing to say, and it’s all too difficult, and what you really really need is a cup of tea and a biscuit. But ignore those thoughts, start writing, and the words will come. And if they don’t, try some of the ideas here. How to write through brain fog)

Make time regularly, and it will become a habit, and once it’s a habit, all those intrusive ‘it’s too hard’ thoughts will ebb away.

Once you get into the habit, you should find that the relentless over busy-ness of life also subsides. Because the conditions that you need to fuel your writing - breathing space, focus, uninterrupted time - are also good for lowering stress levels.

Slow down and start noticing things. Feed your curiosity and you’ll fire up your creativity. Enjoy the rewards of getting your own stuff done. Writing serves lots of purposes, but one very underrated one is the investment it represents in you and your business.

And when you’re regularly sharing your writing, you’ll start seeing results.

More engagement, more conversations, more leads, more opportunities. Help your clients with their challenges, and your network will grow. Good stuff happens when you create and share valuable content.

Get into the writing habit

If you like the idea of getting into the regular writing habit, you can join us at the Content Writing Club every month. These afternoon group sessions are designed to get you writing quickly, and to keep your writing on track. It’s accountability and support and productivity all wrapped up in two and a half hours of enjoyable focus with a great bunch of people.

If you’re procrastinating about a bigger project - maybe you want to write a book, or a series of case studies, or launch a course - something that’s going to take your business to another level, check out our Intensive Content Writing Retreats.

These two day online retreats are designed to help you get these more complex writing projects done. We know from experience it’s easy to get lost in the middle of this kind of work. So we help you work on the structure of what you’re writing, and break the writing tasks down into manageable chunks. Planning time and thinking time are built into the days - they’re highly focused and super productive.

Make time and the rest will follow

Regularly putting aside time to write is the key to overcoming procrastination. Prioritise your own business development, and create the conditions in your life where you have the space to think creatively, and you’ll be on the way to developing some really useful productive habits.

And habits are what you need to overcome procrastination. Make writing easy and enjoyable, and you’ll want to do more of it. Get into the habit, and that writer’s block should just melt away…