Today is the twenty-eighth day that I’ve written and posted something new every day. For experienced writers this must sounds unimpressive but for me it represents a small achievement. For twenty-eight days I’ve sat down and focused hard enough to write something longer than a post on X. Not a big deal, except to me. Maybe you, too.
My experience doing this has been mixed. Some days I have more ideas than I know what to do with and the challenge of sitting down to write is in choosing one. Which do I want to think deeply about? On other days, however, it’s harder.
There are days when all the ideas I come up with are the kind that need significant research to really be done right. On those days I’ll usually file the ideas away with some added notes. There are also days when nothing comes. Days like today.
On days when nothing comes I fall back on a handful of strategies:
I think about something I’ve been reading, listening to, or watching. Each of these works represents enormous effort on the part of its creators. Each of them has a set of embedded messages, intentional and not, which are worth writing about. You can write about re-watching Jurassic Park, if you want.
I think about a conversation I’ve recently had. You won’t be surprised to read that I tend to have weird conversations with friends, family, and others I happen to talk to. Those conversations raise questions which are worth revisiting in writing. They’re also a rich source of offhand expressions that inspire posts.
I think about an idea I’m preoccupied with. My thinking can have a circular quality where I’ll start idly thinking about an idea return over and over for periods of days or weeks. This isn’t focused, directed thinking; rather, it’s diffuse. The idea will come and go throughout the day. This is a good source for posts.
I start with some kind of question. Today’s post is an example of this. “What do you do when nothing comes?” The answer: you write about it. Many of the scraps and drafts I’ve written are in the form of a question. “How do you do X?” is the most common of these. While these prompts tend to be the most research-intensive they also then to be the ones I’m most interested in writing.
There are other strategies for dealing with minor writer’s block: vigorous exercise, short walks, coffee, alcohol, and many others. I don’t fall back on any of these. The implicit agreement I have with myself when I sit down to write is this: I’m going to try to write and I’m not going to stop trying until I’ve finished a post. This has worked really well in terms of post completion, maybe not so much for post quality.
But for now completion is enough. Post quality will come with practice and dedicated work. Getting over the writer’s block is getting easier. Maybe this post will help.