I have a lot of friends who suffer from writer’s block. I won’t lie and say I’ve never experienced it, but I have some strategies I’ve been using for a long time that have made it pretty rare for me. The best book I ever read that delved into this subject was called Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig. The advice there was “Look Closer” break things down into smaller bites and if it’s not small enough, then go smaller and closer.

This is the first thing way I avoid blockage, but I also sidestep it by avoiding the desire or inclination to create anything of any quality. Fear of not living up to one’s own expectations or the expectations of others is a huge mental block.

So this is what I’ve come up with so far, usually, blockage is caused by one of avery few causes.

1. You want to create something amazing and you’re afraid of creating something crappy.
2. Your mind is all over the place and you can’t figure out specifically what you want to do.
3. Nothing ‘feels’ interesting or worth the time to create. aka “a lack of inspiration”
4. Completely focused one on project and stuck with it.

Fear is difficult to overcome, but in that case, creating ANYTHING is better than nothing. So if you feel like you’re trying to create soemthing AWESOME, but everything is coming out crap, then create MORE. Much more.  The frustration of creating nothing is much greater than the frustration of creating something average or sub-par. Also, the sub-par materials you create can be edited and used later.

Now, if you feel scattered, the best solution is simply to be more specific. When you start to write about ‘love’ and you’ve got nothing, write about romantic love. When you can’t write about Romantic love, write about your worst romantic love, when you can’t write about your worst romantic love, write about your worst romantic love’s bad breath. Eventually, you’ll find that a thousand words are written, and it’s hard to claim that your’e blocked once you’ve produced like that.

Now the last problem, that one is probably the one that  tough. But if that’s where you are, if you don’t “Feel” anything. Try to pick one thing, any one thing, and look at it through a prism of experience and emotion. For example… take a duck. Look at it first as a chinese meal, then as a duckling in a pond, then as a collection of feathers, then as a verb.. find 20 ways to look at it. Sketch each, write a haiku about each, do anything you can imagine with each and then see how they relate together. Don’t worry what you feel, complete it like an intellectual exercise.  Sometimes, you have to do an end-round the emotion to find the way back to it.

Now the last one, the over-focused on a single project that you’re stuck on. That one is interesting. I get that way a bit, but I usually just set things aside. The problem with doing that is that projects languish. I’m not sure I can recommend constantly setting them aside.  I think maybe, a more productive approach might be to allow yourself to digress. If your’e working on a project, a poem, – anything – and you find yourself at an impasse, just let go. Don’t worry if the next thing you write ‘fits’ just roll with it. Expand on something that requires no expansion, give yourself permission to play with it. See if you can find the joy in what you’re doing.

Finally, the other thing you can do when you get ‘stuck’ is talk about it with smart people. NO offense intended to stupid people, but they won’t be as helpful. Explain what you’re doing to a really smart person, tell them what you’re thinking about when you do it. And when they start to ask you questions, answer them as in depth as you can.

This can really help you find ways around the obstacles.

I have many other strategies around blocks in creativity, feel free to ask me for more details.