{"id":3605,"date":"2014-09-30T07:49:44","date_gmt":"2014-09-30T13:49:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/?p=3605"},"modified":"2014-09-30T08:07:18","modified_gmt":"2014-09-30T14:07:18","slug":"ten-ways-to-beat-writers-block","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2014\/09\/ten-ways-to-beat-writers-block.html","title":{"rendered":"Ten Ways to Beat Writer’s Block"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

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\u201cWe have all been there, and it feels like the end of the world. It\u2019s like a chickadee being hit by and H-Bomb. Here\u2019s the thing, though. I no longer think of it as block. I think that is looking at the problem from the wrong angle. If your wife locks you out of the house, you don\u2019t have a problem with your door.\u201d \u00a0\u2013Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird<\/em><\/p>\n

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What do you do when your inner-writer goes on coffee break, you know, for days on end? It\u2019s not a rhetorical question. Seriously, I\u2019m looking for ideas, people\u2026 because some days it seems like I just don\u2019t have it.<\/p>\n

Anne Lamott says the first thing to remember is acceptance. You can\u2019t force it when it\u2019s not there, you\u2019ll hurt yourself, or others.\u00a0She writers, \u201cIf you accept the reality that you have been given- that you are not in a productive creative period\u2013you free yourself to begin filling up again.\u201d (p.178)<\/p>\n

There is a sense in which writer\u2019s block isn\u2019t really block at all. You can\u2019t birth a child before it\u2019s ready to be born. You are earlier on in the process than you want to be, that\u2019s all.<\/p>\n

However, there are those times when the deadline is looming and you simply have to get it done. For me, I have to write a short chapter\u2019s worth of long-form essay material almost every week of the year (called a sermon). I don\u2019t have the option of putting off Sunday until next week. Nothing stresses me out more than when I\u2019m up against a deadline and, in the words of Toby Ziegler, there\u2019s no blood going to it.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s an interesting article up at LifeHacker<\/em> listing six ways to beat writer\u2019s block. You can read the article here<\/a>. It\u00a0seems pretty smart to me, but I have a few additions and subtractions of my own. First, here\u2019s their list:<\/p>\n