Overcoming writer’s block: using a diversion to restart writing your book

By Dennis Mellersh

You have read a great deal about learning how to write a book; you have written a number of pages; but now on this day, you just can’t write – your mind is a blank.

In short, you are suffering an attack of writer’s block.

This can happen to book writers of all experience levels, from beginner writers to best-selling authors.

The good news is that this impasse can be overcome with a variety of techniques.

As suggested by Karin Mack and Eric Skjei, in their book, Overcoming Writing Blocks*, the inability to write when you have previously been able to write, is sometimes the result of sheer mental fatigue caused by your relentless focus on the task at end – doing the tough work of writing your book.

Their suggestion is to set up a diversionary activity to refresh your mind and give it a chance to rejuvenate your creative juices.

Their suggestion: “Switch to some other kind of activity, one that engages different parts of your mind and body for a while. Go out for a bite to eat. Make a phone call…Go for a walk. Run up and down the stairs…Anything that has the potential to offer you an engrossing break from your frustration as you sit there stuck in the web of words…”

* Overcoming Writing Blocks, J.P Tarcher, Inc., Los Angeles, 1979

Note: This book was available used on Amazon.com at the time this article was written