Writer's block is the most intimidating experience a writer may encounter. You sit at your computer for your assigned time to craft an article with a strict deadline, or a white paper your CEO wants on her desk tomorrow morning, or even a long overdue message to your mother. You stare blankly into the void. You start to tap your feet. Your head begins to rock in unison with the blinking cursor. Not a word appears. Then come the judgments: You've lost your spark. The muse is hiding out on you. You just don't have what it takes. You convince yourself you can't be blamed because moments ago you put your rowdy, exhausting children to bed. Or those long work hours are taking their toll on you. Maybe you shouldn't have had that drink. That big meal is giving you heartburn. Damn that buzz from the refrigerator. You can't get out of your head that person who has nothing to do with what you're trying to write. Twenty minutes have passed. Nothing.
Luckily, writers have numerous tricks to break writer's block. Whether you're a novelist crafting a thousand-page saga, a technical writer composing specifications and instructions, or an administrative staffer responding to hundreds of emails daily, you can employ one or more of the dozen tips I listed in a 12-part series on this blog five years ago. The series, "Breaking Writer's Block," leads off with my number 1 suggestion, which I have turned to countless times with invariable success: read. Besides being an indispensable means of self-educating, reading can also inspire, triggering a writing urge.
And here's a thirteenth recommendation, courtesy of Natalie Proulx writing for the New York Times in an article "310 Prompts for Argumentative Writing." Proulx's point is that responding to the 310 questions posed in the article on topics ranging from sports and the arts to parenting and school can get students from middle school to college started on writing assignments. While you may think that the questions listed in the article are irrelevant to the writing you do, I ask you to think again. Many of those questions are relevant to all of us, and you can modify those that do not suit you. The key is this: Anything that can get your fingers moving as a writer is worth examining.
