Image: scrunched ball of paper, that may or may not contain an idea (Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash)

Is there such a thing as writer’s block?

Does writer’s block exist? Or is it a comforting lie we tell ourselves when we can’t get over our egos to start writing?

After all, if you've done your research, you know your audience and you've got a trusty PAS framework to hand, the copy should write itself. Right?

It’s not writer’s block, it’s Resistance

In The War of Art, Steven Pressfield calls this Resistance. An internal, self-sabotaging force that stops us from closing the gap between the writer we want to be, and the writer that actually shows up.

Resistance is anything that stops you from sitting down at your laptop and finishing that blog post. It’s the whisper in your ear telling you to get a cup of tea and then start writing your newsletter.

The temptation to check Twitter to see how many likes your last post got.

The permission to be distracted by external interruptions like emails and hungry pets.

The stress of trying to get on with life as best we can, when there’s a global pandemic going on the background.

Naming what is really holding you back might be all you need to break through. But what if it's not?

“Work it hard, like it’s your pro-fesh-on!”

To be clear, I’m not judging any of this. We’re in a weird time. Time itself is weird, stretching and shrinking with each passing week we’re confined to our homes. March lasted about 6 years. April whizzed by in about 6 minutes. These aren’t the usual distractions.

I agree with those who are saying you should be gentle with yourself and not beat yourself up if you haven’t ‘made the most’ of quarantine by writing your version of King Lear. (Shakespeare definitely wasn’t home-schooling his kids during the plague.)

But at the same time, if you have work to do, at some point you've got to find a way to knuckle down.

As Britney advises in my current home-workout song of choice, you’ve got to tap into your inner pro and “work it hard, like it’s your pro-fesh-on”. (Maybe she’s a Pressfield fan too?)

We don’t know how long lockdown is going to last, so if you want to make progress along whatever path you’re on – whether it's your profession or not – you need to find some strategies to help you move forwards.

Just Do It

Quarantined or not, we all get Resistance.

Pressfield knows it. Britney knows it. Nike definitely knows it.

But with the right tools and frameworks, we can overcome it.

As a copywriter, this usually means going back to the brief. What’s the goal? Who are the audience? What do they care about? What do we want them to do with this information?

WHAT IS THE POINT I’M MAKING?

Getting clear on the message is always step one.

If you’re not clear, you need to do more research.

If you’re clear, but still stuck, you need to find your own ‘Just Do It’ system.

My Just-Do-It System: 8 ways to overcome writer’s block

If you ever suffer from blank page syndrome, here are a few of my go-to strategies to knock through the wall and get the job done:

Brain dump everything that springs to mind on the subject and roughly organise your research and ideas under broad headings. Then it’s an iterative process of reorganising and rewriting, until that shitty first draft starts to come together.
Speaking of shitty first drafts – it’s basically a writing rule to accept that the first version of your article whatever you’re writing will suck. You’ll edit in the awesome later. If you think of this first draft as having a duty to be sub-par, it’ll make the writing process much easier. The aim is simply to get the arguments down in a sensible order and polish it up later.
Try a different copywriting framework. Most standard copywriting frameworks (like Problem-Agitation-Solution (PAS) or Attention-Interest-Desire-Action (AIDA)) are for sales copy, but you can work them into articles and blog posts too.
Go for a walk. Exercise and fresh air are both proven to stimulate creativity. Get outside or have a change of scenery to clear your head.
Start with the conclusion or call to action. If I ever get stuck trying to write something, it’s usually because I’m obsessing over the perfect headline or intro. Mix things up by writing the conclusion first, then you’ll know where the whole thing is aiming for.
Write a haiku version of your argument. Ok, a little left field here. We’re not talking super-strict sound patterns here, but really just to take a step back from what you’re writing and distill it down to three lines. What are you really trying to say? What points do you want your audience to take away? How does the second idea follow on from the first? And so on.
Try the Pomodoro technique. This is a productivity tool where you work for 25 minutes, then break for 5. There are apps to help. It works, honestly!
Come back to it later with fresh eyes. Nuff said.