{"id":180,"date":"2008-11-28T18:04:35","date_gmt":"2008-11-28T23:04:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lisatener.com\/blog\/?p=180"},"modified":"2024-09-30T09:01:02","modified_gmt":"2024-09-30T13:01:02","slug":"writers-block","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jodieburdette.net\/lisatener\/2008\/11\/writers-block\/","title":{"rendered":"Writer&#8217;s Block"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I just ready <a href=\"http:\/\/www.idealady.com\/writers-block-is-it-real\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Cathy Stucker&#8217;s blog<\/a> on Writer&#8217;s block and she brought up a good point about fear being a common cause of writer&#8217;s block. And, of course, the thing to do to get rid of fear is to do it anyway.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_182\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-182\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-182\" title=\"Opening up to Nature\" src=\"http:\/\/lisatener.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/11\/img_38401-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"Opening up to nature can transform writer's block.\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/jodieburdette.net\/lisatener\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/11\/img_38401-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/jodieburdette.net\/lisatener\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/11\/img_38401-150x113.jpg 150w, https:\/\/jodieburdette.net\/lisatener\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/11\/img_38401-100x75.jpg 100w, https:\/\/jodieburdette.net\/lisatener\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/11\/img_38401.jpg 480w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-182\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Opening up to nature can transform writer&#8217;s block.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>However, As a writer and writing coach, I find that stress and depletion are two very big reasons that my writing clients and students experience writer&#8217;s block. When you come to your writing refreshed and in an open frame of mind, the writing can often flow with ease. But if you&#8217;re still breathing shallowly, thinking of the 10,000 things on your to-do list, you&#8217;re not very present.<\/p>\n<p>Writing is about being present. When you&#8217;re present, you make your writing come alive for your reader. You paint a picture. You make it real. Which, oh-my-gosh, I&#8217;m not actually doing right now. I&#8217;m generalizing, pontificating, but I&#8217;m not showing (I&#8217;m telling). So I might not be blocked, but I&#8217;m not knocking your socks off, either.<\/p>\n<p>Truth is, I just finished packing for a trip to my parent&#8217;s house in Sag Harbor early tomorrow morning. My husband loaded the boys into his Toyota Corolla for a quick trip to Home Depot. We&#8217;re due to go to a party in about a half our and I need a shower, a wardrobe adjustment, and time to turn my hair into something other than Medusa on a bad day. So I think I fell into category two&#8211;not blocked but not much fun either.<\/p>\n<p>By now, I hope I&#8217;ve painted a picture and that brings me to some of the cures for writer&#8217;s block due to stress or fatigue.<\/p>\n<p>1.\u00a0 Take a walk in nature and allow the autumn smells and cool, crisp air to replenish you. Breathe deeply.<\/p>\n<p>2.\u00a0 Listen to your favorite music. You can lie down and take it in, dance or sing out loud&#8211;whatever it takes to energize you.<\/p>\n<p>3. Bust through it by sheer will&#8211;write a bunch of blah until it turns into something else.<\/p>\n<p>4. Do a few yoga postures, chi gong or even jumping jacks.<\/p>\n<p>5. Meditate for a few minutes. You can even close your eyes and just picture yourself as the stress melts away. Then picture yourself writing with ease and feeling the exhilaration of inspired writing.<\/p>\n<p>The challenge with my third suggestion is that sometimes it doesn&#8217;t turn into something else. In that case, those rejuvenating exercises are a whole lot better. Have fun with my suggestions and see if they get rid of writer&#8217;s block. I bet they will.<\/p>\n<p>I also have a visualization I often take my writing coaching clients and students through. At my clients&#8217;\u00a0request, I&#8217;ve made a <a href=\"https:\/\/jodieburdette.net\/lisatener\/meet-your-muse\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">free\u00a0recording<\/a> of the guided visualization&#8211;so you never have to suffer from writer&#8217;s block again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I just ready Cathy Stucker&#8217;s blog on Writer&#8217;s block and she brought up a good point about fear being a common cause of writer&#8217;s block. And, of course, the thing to do to get rid of fear is to do it anyway. However, As a writer and writing coach, I find that stress and depletion&#8230;<a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/jodieburdette.net\/lisatener\/2008\/11\/writers-block\/\"><em>&nbsp; Read more<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1678,18,23,24,25,27,28],"tags":[851,852,853,194,854,855,136,556,78,1681,856,118,857],"class_list":{"0":"post-180","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-how-to-write-a-book","7":"category-secrets-of-good-writing","8":"category-writers-block","9":"category-writing","10":"category-writing-blocks","11":"category-writing-challenges","12":"category-writing-coach","13":"tag-being-present","14":"tag-cathy-stucker","15":"tag-chi-gong","16":"tag-good-writing","17":"tag-jumping-jacks","18":"tag-meditate","19":"tag-show-vs-tell","20":"tag-stress","21":"tag-visualization-for-writing","22":"tag-writers-block","23":"tag-writers-bock","24":"tag-writing-blocks-2","25":"tag-yoga","26":"entry"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jodieburdette.net\/lisatener\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jodieburdette.net\/lisatener\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jodieburdette.net\/lisatener\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jodieburdette.net\/lisatener\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jodieburdette.net\/lisatener\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jodieburdette.net\/lisatener\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":279492,"href":"https:\/\/jodieburdette.net\/lisatener\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180\/revisions\/279492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jodieburdette.net\/lisatener\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jodieburdette.net\/lisatener\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jodieburdette.net\/lisatener\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}