What is Writer's Block? Identifying the Causes of Writers Block & Ways to Get Rid of Writer's Block

What is Writer's Block?
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Most writers will tell you something along the lines of this: that Writer's Block is some dark inner demon that secretly torments them, while freezing their brain and refusing to allow them to think of anything to write.
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Many editors will tell you that Writer's Block is as fictional as fiction itself, and is nothing more than a cop-out and sheer laziness on the part of the writer.
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What is Writer's Block? That's a very good question. Lets look at that question on a closer level, shall we?
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First off let's ask: What is a writer?
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A writer is who writes on a pretty regular basis, wither or not they have been published. Writers can mean those who write for newspapers or those who write fiction, those who write for medical journals, or those who write TV sitcom scripts. They all write. They all get Writer's Block. If I was to start detailing all of them, I'd have to write an encyclopedia on the subject, so, for the sake of simplicity, in this article, we will assume that a writer is one who writes fiction in novel or short story format. Now, back to the question: What is a writer?

A writer is someone who writes, probably every day or nearly so. Usually they feel compelled to write, as though they have no control over it. It is as though they will die if they cannot write something down. Their every fiber burns with the sensation, the uncontrollable passion, that they must put words to paper in order to survive. They feel every emotion their characters feel: the love, the pain, the horror, the fear, the anxiety, and the lust for adventure. They not only feel their characters, they become their characters. Everything in life sparks a new story idea. They awake at night from their sleep to jot down in notebooks. They pull their car off the road to write down ideas on the edges of maps. They are obsessed with the fever that is coming known as writing. That is a writer.

Now, what is a block?
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A block is something that stops the flow. Beaver dams block streams. Concrete dams block rivers. Cholesterol blocks blood vessels. Fallen trees block roadways. Sand blocks gas lines. Oceans block dry land. Rubber duckies block tub drains. Writer's Block blocks the writer's brain.
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So there you have it, Writer's Block is anything that stops the flow of creative concentration through a writer's brain.

What Causes Writer's Block?
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Fine, but now you ask: What causes Writer's Block? Anything can cause it. What blocks one writer may have no effect on the next writer. All writers are different; therefore different things cause writer's block. It could be something simple: like the loud road construction in front of the writer's driveway. In which case, the block will go away when the big yellow trucks leave. In a case like this, all the write has to do to cure the block is to go someplace else to write for a few days while the city fixed the streets.
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For most writers though, the cause of writer's block may not be so easy to cure. Nine times out of ten, writer's block is a result of stress in your daily life. Stress and worry can cause writer's block. To many hospital bills, a house fire, moving, these stress-filled causes of writer's block can haunt a writer so badly that they find themselves worrying so much about life events, that their mind is simply too exhausted to think about writing, than when they try to write, they find that they can't and often, they don't understand why.
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Health is another cause of writer's block. If you are sick, run down, in pain, or tired, all your brain is going to do is try to convince you that you need to rest. No matter how much you try to think of something to write, your brain just keeps blocking. Curing this kind of writer's block can be as simple as taking a 2-hour nap, but it could also be near impossible to cure if your health is really bad off. Your best bet is to get to your doctor and get your health back.
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For freelancers, one of the most common causes of writer's block is a deadline. Fear of not reaching a deadline in time, can cause your brain to "panic" and freeze up.
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In the end, whatever the cause, whatever the reason, the rabidly obsessed writer, who moments ago couldn't stop, writing for a second, now is stuck with a massive dam blocking their flow of creative thought. And there you have it: Writer's Block.

Need to Kill Writer's Block? Kill a Character...works best for Horror or Murder Mysteries, but can be used in any genre.
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Do you find you have a great story going, than suddenly without warning writer's block stops you dead in your tracks? Writer's block, that horrible dreaded thing, is a great boon to horror writers. In fact writers block makes for some of the best horror stories out there. How? Easy. I have found that if you want to kill writer's block, all you have to do is: kill a character. The death of a character (one already in use or one you created just to kill off) changes everything in the story, and gives you new challenges.
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In my books, when in doubt, I create a new character, and than bring back my psychopathic serial killer (The Red Dragon) who is supposed to be in an asylum but some how escaped, killed the new character and left the body in pieces all over The Twighlight Manor. The result is Roderic gets to go off on one of his crazed "my house kills people" frenzies (I have so much fun writing those!), while everyone else racks their brains trying to figure out how the killer escaped, why did he kill this person, how did he get back in the asylum, and who the hell is the dead person anyways?

Yeah, there's the death of Writer's Block, right there in that last question. Who was that person who got killed? Why did the killer choose to kill them? Two very good questions to get your brain up and running again. As I never know who the "new" character was, and the body is chopped up beyond recognition, and I don't know why he did it, I therefore get to solve the mystery right along with the characters. Now tell me: How can you still have writer's block by the time you get to this point? Yep, killing a character always works for me, ever when I never "met" the character before.

More Ways To Kill Writer's Block: Have a Plan.
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What is Your Plan? Having a plan, is like having a map. Or rather, not having a plan, is like trying to drive somewhere you have never been before and have no idea how to get there, and get there on time with out a map or any sort of directions at all. So next time you feel like you have writer's blockm ask yourself these questions and see what happens:
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Do you have a writing plan? If so, what's in it? If not, why? When did you write it? When did you last look at it? Is it still up to date? Do you need to make changes and revisions to it? If not, why?

Do you have target dates attached to the goals inside your plan? When does this story/article/piece of writing need to be finished? How many words per day do you have to write in order to get it done in time?

Did you write up an outline of your goals? Do you know how many chapters/pages/article you have to write this week/month/year? Do you know when each one needs to be written? Are the deadlines clearly marked?

Are there projects you take on that you wish you didn't have to write at all? Maybe that's a large part of your problem. Writing should be fun. Writing should be something that you enjoy. Writing should never become a chore. When writing becomes a chore it is time for you to step away and rethink why you are writing to begin with. Try to remember why it is that you started writing to begin with and than look and see if you can't find what it was that caused you to go astray from that path. Finding your way back to your roots, can do wonders to boost a stale writing career.

When you get busy with a lot of doing things, do you ever ask yourself, "How does this project fit inside the plan for my writing life?" If a project is contrary wise to you plans and goals, you should farther ask yourself if it is really worth your time to bother writing it at all?

If you had your choice (and you do) what projects and types of writing would you focus on? Who are you and what do you REALLY want to write? Fiction? Non-Fiction? Short stories? Novels? Articles? Chick-Lit? Horror? Poetry? Literary fiction? Editorials for the local newspaper? Book reviews, movie reviews, or resturaunt reviews? A new translation of the Bible? A play based on your favorite novel? The next big screen movie? Are you the dark and torment reincarnation of Edgar Alan Poe forced to walk these dreary streets of the modern world in vain attempt to finish writing all those unwritten poems?

Have you set aside time for writing? Most writers forget they have to do this. We writers are a scatter brained lot and do need to be reminded that it's important to set aside a clear and specific time hen which we are to do nothing but type or fingers blue, like it or not.

How are you doing with the word "NO"? In other words, are you too much of a YesMan, saying yes to absolutely every writing offer that comes your way, even those that make you wish you could flush them down the toilet instead?

Have you determined how many words you will write each day? Each week? Each month? Each year? Each hour? Each minute? Yes? No? Why?

What well you do to ensure that you reach your goal? Bribery works wonders for some writers. Are you one of those writers? How well you reward yourself for reaching your goal? Are you sadistic enough to punish yourself for not reaching those goals?

More Ways to Kill Writers Block... Free Writing
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More Ways to Kill Writers Block... Set a Writing Schedual
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Some people write better under pressure. Maybe you do too! Not sure if you do or not? One way you can find out is to sign up for The National Novel Writing Month writing contest.
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Held each November, the goal of NaNoWriMo is to, in spite of Thanksgiving dinner, fall exams, and Christmas shopping, find time to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days or less. It's not as hard as it sounds, though, because that's only 1,667 words per day, something that you can easily do by setting aside one hour in the morning, during you lunch break, or just before bed. In one hour you can easily write 1,667 words. Some writers can write over 3,000 in one hour, others may need two hours to get to 1,000 words. But for most people, one hour a day is all you need.
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Writing 50,000 words in a mad dash against the clock well do wonders for killing your writers block. Many writers get to the end of NaNoWriMo, do the final word count and are shocked to discover that they didn't write 50,000 words. No, they wrote 200,000 words or more! Thousands of NaNoers did this last year. How many well do it again this year? Well you be one of them?
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But what if it isn't November? What if it is only February and NaNoWriMo is still 8 months away? Well than you need to have your own private PerNoWriMo. What is PerNoWriMo? It's what us NaNoers do when it's not November: Personal Novel Writing Month. It's the same as NaNoWriMo, only you do it on your own. Pick a month, any month, and declare it your Personal Novel Writing Month, than write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days.
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You can also do a PerNoWriWe: Personal Novel Writing Week; write a 50,000 word novel in 7 days.
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No matter how you do it, there's nothing like writing against the clock to get your writing faster than you ever thought possible.

More Ways to Kill Writers Block... Read Your Way To Writing
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Reading your way to writing? Yep. Read. Read books. Read novels. Read non-fiction. Read Travel guides. Read magazines. Read cereal boxes. Read street signs. Read clothen labels. Read picture books. Read the newspaper. Read, Read, and than read some more. Reading fills your brain with ideas. The more ideas you find, the more things you well have to write about and the less likely you are to getting writer's block.

More Ways to Kill Writers Block... Sleep On It.
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You can't write if you are dog tired. Your brain needs to rest just as much as your body does, so just go to bed! Get some sleep, have a few dreams, maybe a few nightmares about the NaNoWriMo guy chasing you with a giant pencil! LOL!
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Most writers find that the words flow better seconds after waking, so keep a notebook by your bed and as soon as you wake up, write down everything in your head. Amazingly you'll find yourself writing down dreams that you forgot you had just had. Many bestselling writers (including Stephen King) use the method. It is not uncommon for bestsellers to have started out as a dream.

More Ways To Kill Writer's Block: Write the back cover copy first, then write the book.
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What is the Back Copy for your book and why should you write it first?
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The back copy is the info stuff. A paragraph or two which tells the basic plot summary of the book, followed by a quick blurb that tells us one or two sentences about the author.
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Back copy is what the reader reads in order to decide wither or not they well actually buy the book. Back copy needs to be short so that it well fit on the back cover without looking crowed. It must grab the readers attention. It needs to be alluring as to hook the reader and make them open up the book and start reading. It must tell what the story is about, without giving away any spoilers. It must do all that and it must do it in less than three short paragraphs.
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Okay, so now you know what it is, but why should you write it before you start writing your book? Well, that's an easy question to answer: To Kill Writer's Block!
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Imagine that you are not the writer of the book. Imagine that you are in the bookshop and you've picked up this book and are now reading the blurbs on the back cover. What images flash through your mind? What do you think well happen in this story?
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Why did the back copy hook you? What was it that grabbed your attention? Why did it make you want to read the book? What did you expect to read? What did you expect to happen? Once you have those questions answered, you have something to write.
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Now, armed with the images of your story in your head, go out there and get typing!
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This article was originally published in April 2007, under the title "Need to Kill Writer's Block? Kill a Character..." is copyright to Wendy C. Allen and The Twighlight Manor Press, and is reprinted here on AC with permission.