I have always advocated writing, as one of the best therapeutic treatments available to us, for curing the “ills” of our lives and adding more meaning and value to it.
I sincerely believe that, writing is the food for our soul and the balm for our stressed senses. We should all strive to write (in whatever way we can !!!) every single day, every single weekend.
But What if we are unable to write?
What if we get stuck, into the dreaded writer’s block?
The writer’s block, is no doubt every writer’s worst nightmare. It numbs his senses, plays havoc on his creativity and makes him as helpless as a fish out of water.
Can we overcome this disease, once and for all?
Can we continue getting the flow of ideas unabated?
The Answer is “YES”. Here is how it can be done.
Spend a lot of time with Children Everyday
Childhood is an age of wonder, splendor and innocence. Children have the inherent ability to be insanely curious about everything or everybody. Just Observe them carefully and you can get all the ideas you want for writing. Along with the ideas, you also get to know, new perspectives and amazing new ways of doing simple things.
No one is a better teacher than a child!! They teach us lessons which are perennial, hard hitting and never forgotten!!!
Delve Deep into your Life experiences
We all have survived life in myriad ways. We have experienced successes, failures,disappointments and heartbreaks at multiple points in our lives. All these experiences have given us valuable life lessons which can surely help others in making their lives better. Introspect yourself, identify stories about yourself, in which you came out of the dumps with flying colors. We are all living encyclopedias of stories, we just need to put that on paper.
Rework Religiously on every REJECTED story.
REJECTIONS are every writer’s worst nightmare. You put in all the effort and craft a great masterpiece and then when its gets rejected, you feel as if you have lost a new born baby! Don’t let rejections dishearten you and never throw the rejected story in the dustbin. By doing that you are doing grave injustice to yourself. Improve on the story, eliminate the flaws and polish it like GOLD so that any Publisher is forced to ACCEPT it.
Remember GREAT writers are simply GREAT because they NEVER GIVE up and proactively improve themselves at every opportunity.
Use your Commuting Time Effectively
On an average, most of us spend one-sixth of our lives commuting to various destinations every day. Adding to this, we also waste time in getting stuck in traffic jams on a routine basis. Why not use this time to be more creative? Instead of cursing, shouting and venting our frustrations at others, we can use this time effectively to observe others, analyze situations and examine ourselves and come up with great storytelling ideas.
Always remember, you are surrounded by ideas and you just need to have the eyes and ears of a connoisseur to use those ideas effectively and powerfully.
Befriend your friendly neighborhood Barber
Yes, I am not joking!! Your friendly neighborhood barber can be a rich source of information for everything and anything that is happening in your area. Patrons who frequently him, mostly let their guards down, and will end up in discussing about, their personal problems, their challenges and also the “spicy” events which are expected to happen in the near future. The barber lends a sympathetic ear to all their problems and they feel better confiding to someone whom they can trust. Befriend this barber, he is a minefield of information.
Remember, some of the best ideas come from the unlikeliest of sources.
Bringing It All Together
Writer’s block is crap and nothing more than that. All that is required is a “change of mindset” from “I am BLOCKED” to “I am ABOUNDING with ideas. “Our mind power is limitless and the world around us is brimming with unique situations and astounding events. We just need to harness the power of our minds and ink the world around us with our creative juices. And VOILA!!! Our Story is Ready!!