You don’t have “writer’s block.”

What you have instead is a story you are telling yourself because you’re a writer. You’re writing that story. You’re also a human telling yourself a story, subconsciously or not, which is what we humans do. Once you figure out what that story is, you can rewrite it.

Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

You don’t have “writer’s block.”

What you have instead is a story you are telling yourself because you’re a writer and you’re writing that story. Once you figure out what that story is, you can rewrite it.

The way out of “writer’s block” therefore is to rewrite your story.

Yes, you write your way out of it. I’m going to give you examples of the most common excuses below. I’m also going to give you examples of their stories rewritten so you can be a more productive writer.

All you have to do is identify the story that need to be rewritten. So which is it?

The story you are telling yourself about “writer’s block” is likely one of these:

• I suck.
• No one will read this.
• I don’t have time.
• I’ll do it later.
• I’ll do it when I feel like it.
• “I’m blocked creatively.”
• I need the muse.
• I need to be in the mood.

Here’s how each of the above is a lie. Let’s rewrite each one:

You don’t suck, you’re probably great.

But if you do truly suck, you have two choices: suck and quit or keep going until you don’t suck anymore. Don’t be afraid to suck. We all have to get the bad writing out of our systems at some point.

Oh yes, someone always reads it.

Post it online and it will find a home. If it doesn’t, keep trying. Do you think anyone published anything and the world immediately fell at their feet? Who cares. Keep writing. It takes time to build an audience.

If you’re in it for validation, get a dog.