How to overcome writer's block

Author : em-admin

Posted : 26 / 04 / 11

Fear is the underlying emotion behind writer’s block. An inability to start writing hours before deadline may trigger the fight or flight response, leaving us in a cold sweat and frowning at a blank screen.

But psychologists have found that the causes of writer’s block are much more complicated than blind panic. The foundations of the problem are laid down by the way we think and our patterns of behaviour.

Avoidance makes it worse

Avoiding writing not only wastes time, but it also makes writer’s block worse, according to behavioural theory.

Psychologist Burrhus Skinner coined the term negative reinforcement: that’s when a particular behaviour (such as turning off an alarm) is rewarded because it makes a bad feeling or unwanted sensation go away. Avoiding writing is also an act that is negatively reinforced because it brings us relief (albeit temporarily). The trouble is, since rewarded behaviour is strengthened, we’re more likely to carry on doing it.

The inner voice

We may have negative expectations about a report we have to write. The pessimistic thoughts might be caused by an overly critical boss, or we might be born worriers. Either way, our inner voice can sometimes say unhelpful things we are barely conscious of, like, ‘The report might not be good enough’ or even ‘People will think I’m stupid’.

Evidence of our shortcomings is unpleasant, so we keep the imagined outcomes at bay by postponing the writing task. But the longer we go without disproving our need to worry, the more likely we are to keep putting it off.

In other words, if we never start the project, we’ll never see that it isn’t going to be a disaster.

Negative thinking

There is a strong association between negative thinking and writer’s block.

One experiment, from researchers at Princeton and Yale, found that combining writing training with strategies from cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) was an effective way to overcome writing anxiety. Participants using this combined approach wrote higher quality documents than a group who were given only writing training.

CBT is a goal-orientated talking therapy that helps people to challenge negative thinking. According to Aaron Beck, the clinical psychologist who developed the approach, human behaviour often stems from the way we think. And rational thinking leads to constructive behaviour.

Reframe your thoughts

In the Princeton/Yale study, participants were asked to identify negative self-statements – those thoughts that inhibited coping behaviour – and update them with more productive ideas.

For example, ‘I’ll never get this work done’ is an example of black-and-white thinking, the tendency to evaluate yourself, people or situations in extreme terms. After looking at evidence for and against the idea that the work would ‘never’ get done, the thought could be reframed into something more positive: ‘I may be very busy, but I am experienced enough to finish the task’.

Catching yourself in the act of avoidance and negative thinking can be the point where you begin to unblock your writing.

Writing in the blog Psychology Today, business coach Margaret Moore suggests ways to get rid of your inner critic. These include logging your negative thoughts in a notepad, identifying the feelings that lie behind the thoughts to get to the root of the block, and even telling your inner voice to ‘shut up!’. We can think of a few stronger words you might want to use.

For techniques on how to beat the block, see our article Tips for breaking through the barrier.

Reference: The efficacy of cognitive-behavior therapy and writing process training for alleviating writing anxiety by Peter Salovey and Matthew Haar was originally published in Cognitive Therapy And Research Vol 14, Number 5 (1990).