How to Defeat Writer's Block

We all know, as writers, that writer's block is frustrating. It makes us want to set our hair on fire and punch a baby in the face. Especially if we get stuck while in the middle of writing a chaptered story. Panic sets in. Oh no! I've already written so much, and now I'm drowning in writer's block... WTF do I do?!

We must remember that in times like these, writer's block has a weakness, an enemy. That enemy is called inspiration. But before we get into how inspiration is going to defeat writer's block and all that, we've got to look at what caused our writer's block in the first place. It just doesn't come at random moments in your story, nope, there are causes.

Let's look at the most common causes of writer's block.

Cause number oneis that your character(s) have run into a dead end. They're trapped. Maybe not in the actual story, but somewhere in your mind, they are. Maybe they're stuck in this effed-up romance drama... and you don't know how to solve it. Maybe they're supposed to kill an evil monster or save the world or even just walk down the street to their friend's house. How do you do it, how do you get them to move on and keep the story rolling? Inspiration!

Cause number two is that you are afraid to write. But wait... that's silly, right? No. It's not, it happens a lot more than we know it. Maybe we don't know if we can get the information correct. Maybe we're worried about what readers will think of the plot. Maybe we've got this epic idea all planned out ahead of time, but we just don't know where to begin. Or maybe we have absolutely no ideas, and we can't even get our words flowing. How do we get past this fear and actually write? Inspiration!

Cause number three is that you are editing too much. Why yes, there is a difference between editing and writing! Sometimes we look at a paragraph we've just written and we know it doesn't sound too good. Sometimes we keep reading that sentence, changing things and fixing things until it sounds relatively perfect. Don't do this! Save the editing for after you write. When writers get into their writing mode, they're filled with passion and angst and humor and full-out awesomeness. We have to pull back from this writing-flare to edit our work, which means that if you stop to edit each sentence or paragraph before moving on... you've got to switch back and forth from writing phase and editing phase quite often. That's a big no-no. So how do we stop ourselves from doing this? Inspiration!

Now that we know the most common reasons for writer's block, we can start becoming friends with inspiration, so that he can help us defeat our enemy. This is the tricky part for most writers. How do you get inspiration? How?!

Cut the crap. Don't panic, don't worry. Inspiration is easy to get! In fact, it's impossible not to get inspiration from something. Every second of our lives we become more and more knowledgeable and the inspiration rises.

Yet, sometimes this isn't enough. So I'm going to share some methods to boost our relationship with inspiration.

Method number one is auditory inspiration. This means things like music, your mom screaming at you from the other room, that funny sound coming from your closet, a wolf howling, a waterfall roaring, or birds singing. The easiest to come by and the most popular form of auditory inspiration is music. Especially new music! When you're stuck on a chapter, scene, or starting a story, listen to a new song. Old songs are okay, but new songs are even better. New songs are ones you don't know, ones that are fresh and can easily get your mind into writer-mode.

Method number two is visual inspiration. This means watching nature videos, collecting pretty pictures, taking photographs of your cat, or drawing a cool map. Stuff like that. Explore your backyard and bring a camera along to capture each moment for future use. Look for strange, inspiring things in nature! Maybe you see a weird-looking root. Or maybe it's a cloud that looks like a fish. Regardless, exploring new visual surroundings is a one-way path towards inspiration. The easy way to do this is look at images on the web, sites like weheartit.com or tumblr.com work fine.

Method number three is sniffable inspiration. To get this type of inspiration, all you need is your nose! Buy a bunch of candles or sniff them when you go to the store. Inhale that warm pasta and remember its smell. Sniff up the aroma of a flower or the smell of a really old book! This method isn't used too much on purpose, but it really does work.

Method number four is touchable inspiration. This is probably the least-used out of all the methods, but it works wonders, truly. It means feeling the textures of carpet or polished wood, the grainy sand beneath your toes, the veins of a leaf, your boyfriend's skin, a strip of metal, a soft blanket... anything works! Touch, touch, touch. Feel, feel, feel.

Method number five is knowledgeable inspiration. This is boring, and maybe not the best way to get inspiration, but it is definitely needed. You write what you know. The more you know, the more you can write. Spend time looking up random things on google! Read books! Interview interesting people! Yes, these things can be boring, I understand. But they will help you become a better writer, and teach you how to research. Research is important, yo.

These are not all the methods! There can be millions more. Find the ones that work best for you. Explore, read, search, watch, travel, listen, taste, and feel! Become familiar with new things, strange things, and different things. That way you'll have easy access to new inspiration, strange inspiration, and different inspiration.

Once you've done these things, you and inspiration are pretty much BFFS. Don't edit, just write, and save the editing for later. Pour out your heart, pour out your dreams, pour out what you know. Your writing will move forward, and before you know it, writer's block will be long forgotten and long dead.