Have you ever had a day when you sit in front of a blank paper and keep wondering what to write, or are you in that phase where you feel stuck, and you cannot express what you want on paper and find it challenging to find appropriate words? This is known as writer’s block, and let me be honest with you, most writers struggle with this phenomenon. It is an overwhelming feeling of being stuck while writing and not writing anything new and moving forward.
Causes Why A Writer Experiences Writer’s Block
Research conducted by Yale University in 1970 by researchers Jerome Singer and Michael Barrios. They exclusively study a group of blocked professional writers from a variety of disciplines. The results were astonishing; they discovered that there are four main reasons why a writer might face writer’s block:
- The first and foremost being apathy, as specific rules and restrictions of writing, constrain the writers. The writer finds it difficult to find originality.
- The writers were often arrogant and would get disappointed or angry when others noticed and appreciated their work.
- These writers always thought that they weren’t good enough and were not confident in themselves, leading to anxiety while writing as this made it difficult for them to enjoy what they do.
- They didn’t want their creative work to be in comparison with others, resulting in their writing.
Freewriting is a writing technique developed in 1973 by Peter Elbow. It is a creative exercise similar to brainstorming but in written format. In this technique, you sit down for a determined amount of time for about ten to fifteen minutes and write without stopping till you reach a specific word count. This helps you think creatively and increase the flow of ideas, which also benefits you as you won’t censor any good ideas. In addition, it’s constructive for second language learners as it helps them increase their fluency.
