View source for Writer's block

{{Short description|Condition in which an author experiences creative slowdown}}
{{Other uses}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2021}}
[[File:Leonid Pasternak - The Passion of creation.jpg|243px|thumb|right|A representation of writer's block by [[Leonid Pasternak]] (1862–1945)]]
'''Writer's block''' is a non-medical condition, primarily associated with [[writing]], in which an author is either unable to produce new work or experiences a creative slowdown.

Writer's block has various degrees of severity, from difficulty in coming up with original ideas to being unable to produce work for years. This condition is not solely measured by time passing without writing, it is measured by time passing without productivity in the task at hand.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Rose |first=Mike |title=Writer's Block: The Cognitive Dimension |date=1984 |others=Foreword by Marilyn S. Sternglass |publisher=Published for Conference on College Composition and Communication by [[Southern Illinois University Press]] |isbn=0-8093-1141-0 |location=Carbondale |oclc=9392424 |url=https://archive.org/details/writersblockcogn0000rose |url-access=registration}}</ref> Writer's block has been an acknowledged problem throughout recorded history and many experience it.<ref name="Clark" />

However, not until 1947 was the term {{em|writer's block}} coined by the Austrian psychiatrist [[Edmund Bergler]]. All types of writers, including full-time professionals, academics, workers of creative projects, and those trying to finish written assignments, can experience writer's block.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Symptoms and Cures for Writer's Block - Purdue OWL® - Purdue University |url=https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/the_writing_process/writers_block/index.html |access-date=2023-03-18 |website=owl.purdue.edu}}</ref> The condition has many causes, some that are even unrelated to writing. The majority of writer's block researchers agree that most causes of writer's block have an affective/physiological, motivational, and cognitive component.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ahmed |first=Sarah |date=2019-01-01 |title=An Analysis of Writer's Block: Causes, Characteristics, and Solutions |url=https://digitalcommons.unf.edu/etd/903 |journal=UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations}}</ref>

Studies have found effective coping strategies to deal with writer's block. These strategies aim to remove the [[anxiety]] about writing and range from ideas such as [[free writing]] and [[brainstorming]] to talking to a professional.<ref name=Huston/>

==History==
{{expand section|date=November 2024}}
{{Quote box
 | quote  = "[[Sentimental Education|My novel]] is going very badly for the moment. That fact added to the deaths of which I have heard; of [[Louis Marie de la Haye, Vicomte de Cormenin|Cormenin]] (a friend of twenty-five years' standing), of [[Paul Gavarni|Gavarni]], and then all the rest, but that will pass. You don't know what it is to stay a whole day with your head in your hands trying to squeeze your unfortunate brain so as to find a word. Ideas come very easily to you, incessantly, like a stream. With me it is a tiny thread of water. Hard labor at art is necessary for me before obtaining a waterfall. Ah! I certainly know ''the agonies of style''."
 | source = —[[Gustave Flaubert]] to [[George Sand]] ({{circa}} 1868).<ref>"[https://books.google.com/books?id=bHZBAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA29 Letter XXXII]". ''The George Sand–Gustave Flaubert Letters'' (1922), p. 29. Trans. Aimee L. McKenzie.</ref>
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The affliction now known as writer's block has been recognized throughout history.<ref name="Clark">{{cite book |last=Clark |first=Irene |chapter=Invention |title=Concepts in Composition: Theory and Practice in the Teaching of Writing |edition=2nd |location=New York |publisher=Routledge |date=2012 |isbn=9780415885164 |oclc=703871383}}{{Page needed|date=March 2023}}</ref> Writers who are known to have struggled with it include authors [[F. Scott Fitzgerald]]<ref>{{cite journal|last=Rienzi|first=Greg|title=Great Scott: Fitzgerald's Baltimore|journal=The JHU Gazette|publisher=Johns F Kennedy University|date=28 September 2009}}{{verify source|date=July 2022}}</ref> and [[Joseph Mitchell (writer)|Joseph Mitchell]],<ref>{{cite AV media |last=Maher |first=Michael |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-32602862 |title=The ''New Yorker'' writer who didn't publish for 30 years |website=BBC News |date=7 May 2015 |type=Video}}</ref> composer [[Sergei Rachmaninoff]],<ref>{{cite web |last=Winston |first=Robert |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-10766308 |title=How great artists have fought creative block |website=BBC News |date=2010-07-27}}</ref> and songwriter [[Adele]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://shows.huffingtonpost.com/video/saturday-s-showbiz-news-adele-opens-up-about-writer-s-block-519185000?context=PC:homepage:PL6394:1445588705245 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151120085136/http://shows.huffingtonpost.com/video/saturday-s-showbiz-news-adele-opens-up-about-writer-s-block-519185000?context=PC:homepage:PL6394:1445588705245 |archive-date=2015-11-20 |title=Adele Opens Up About Writer's Block |website=[[Sky News]] UK via [[Huffington Post]] |date=2015-10-24}}</ref> Another example is [[Herman Melville]]{{dubious|date=August 2023}}, who stopped writing novels a few years after writing ''[[Moby-Dick]]''.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Miller |first=John J. |title=Wordsmiths Without Words |magazine=[[National Review]] |volume=68 |issue=9 |date=2016-05-23 |pages=23–24 |url=https://www.nationalreview.com/magazine/2016/05/23/writers-block-curing-authors-cant-write/ |url-access=subscription}}</ref>

[[Romanticism|Early Romantic writers]] tended to attribute writer's block (whether seriously or merely poetically) to [[Muses#In literature|a power that no longer wanted them to write]]. Its interpretation became less mystical during the time of the French [[Symbolism (arts)|Symbolism]]. During this age, renowned poets, would give up writing early into their careers on the ground that they were unable to find the language to convey their messages. Such was the case for [[Arthur Rimbaud]] who after producing the bulk of his literary output during his late teenage years, completely stopped writing at the age of twenty. Though still, during the [[Great American Novel]] period (mid-18th to mid-19th century), the affliction was construed as something that stopped writers and caused them emotional instability.<ref name=":1">{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2004/06/14/blocked|title=Blocked Why do writers stop writing?|last=Acocella|first=J|date=14 June 2004|magazine=The New Yorker|access-date=28 October 2019}}</ref>

The condition was first clinically described in 1947 by Austrian [[Psychoanalysis|psychoanalyst]] [[Edmund Bergler]],<ref name="Akhtar2009">{{cite book|last=Akhtar|first=Salman|title=Comprehensive dictionary of psychoanalysis|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=35HoGo2uF1kC&pg=PA310|access-date=17 October 2011|year=2009|publisher=Karnac Books|isbn=978-1855758605|page=310}}</ref> who identified it as being caused by oral masochism, mothers that bottle fed, and an unstable private love life.<ref name=":1" /> The growing reputation of psychiatry in the United States made the term gain more recognition.<ref name="Castillo 1043–1044">{{Cite journal|last=Castillo|first=M.|date=2013-09-05|title=Writer's Block|journal=American Journal of Neuroradiology|volume=35|issue=6|pages=1043–1044|doi=10.3174/ajnr.a3729 |pmc=7965145|pmid=24008169|issn=0195-6108|doi-access=free}}</ref> Research concerning this topic was done in the late 1970s and 1980s. During this time, researchers were influenced by the Process and Post-Process movements and therefore focused specifically on the writer's processes.{{citation needed|date=November 2024}}

==Causes==
Writer's block may have several causes. Some are [[Creativity|creative]] problems that originate within an author's work itself. A writer may run out of [[Artistic inspiration|inspiration]], or be distracted by other events. The writer [[Elizabeth Gilbert]], reflecting on her post-bestseller prospects, proposed that such a pressure might be released by interpreting creative writers as "having" genius rather than "being" a genius.<ref>[http://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_gilbert_on_genius.html Elizabeth Gilbert on nurturing creativity] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160926024711/http://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_gilbert_on_genius.html |date=26 September 2016 }}, a [[TED (conference)|TED]] talk in 2009</ref>

A fictional example can be found in [[George Orwell]]'s novel ''[[Keep the Aspidistra Flying]]'', in which the protagonist Gordon Comstock struggles in vain to complete an [[epic poem]] describing a day in London: "It was too big for him, that was the truth. It had never really progressed, it had simply fallen apart into a series of fragments."<ref>George Orwell, ''Keep The Aspidistra Flying'', Chapter 2.</ref>

===Physiological and neurological basis===
Physiological and neurological bases of writer's block have been suggested. Under stress, a human brain will  "shift control from the [[cerebral cortex]] to the [[limbic system]]".<ref name="writer's brain">{{cite web|last=Bane|first=Rosanne|url=https://quitwork.club/The-Writers-Brain-Rosanne-Bane41-50_1.pdf|title=The Writer's Brain: What Neurology Tells Us about Teaching Creative Writing|date=February 2010|access-date=4 December 2014|archive-date=June 28, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180628015459/http://quitwork.club/The-Writers-Brain-Rosanne-Bane41-50_1.pdf|s2cid=146850178}}</ref> The limbic system is associated with the instinctual processes, such as "fight or flight" response; and behavior that is based on "deeply engrained training". The limited input from the cerebral cortex hinders a person's creative processes, which is replaced by the behaviors associated with the limbic system. The person is often unaware of the change, which may lead them to believe they are creatively "blocked".<ref name="writer's brain"/> {{Unreliable source?|date=February 2024}}

In her 2004 book ''The Midnight Disease: The Drive to Write, Writer's Block, and the Creative Brain'', the writer and [[neurology|neurologist]] [[Alice Weaver Flaherty|Alice W. Flaherty]] has argued that literary creativity is a function of specific [[List of regions in the human brain|areas of the brain]], and that block may be the result of brain activity being disrupted in those areas.<ref name=":0">{{cite magazine|url=http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2004/06/14/040614fa_fact|first=Joan|last=Acolella|title=Blocked: why do writers stop writing?|magazine=The New Yorker|date=14 June 2004}}</ref> Flaherty suggested in her writing that there are many diseases that may impact one's ability to write. One of which she refers to is [[hypergraphia]], or the intensive desire to write. She points out that in this condition, the patient's temporal lobe is afflicted, usually by damage, and it may be the same changes in this area of the brain that can contribute to writer's-blocking behaviors.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Midnight Disease: The Drive to Write, Writer's Block, and the Creative Brain|last=Flaherty, Alice Weaver|isbn=978-0547525099|oclc=1037196899|year= 2015|publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt }}</ref> Not to be confused with writer's block, [[agraphia]] is a neurological disorder caused by trauma or stroke causing difficulty in communicating through writing. Agraphia cannot be treated directly, but it is possible to relearn certain writing abilities.<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal|last=Oppenheim|first=Lois|date=June 2005|title=Book Reviews: The midnight disease: The drive to write, writer's block, and the creative brain. By Alice W. Flaherty. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2004, 320 pp.|journal=Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association|volume=53|issue=2|pages=630–634|doi=10.1177/00030651050530022401|s2cid=143529086|issn=0003-0651}}</ref>

===Brain trauma===
Other research identifies neurological malfunctions as a cause. Malcolm T. Cunningham showed how these malfunctions can be linked to trauma both mental and physical.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Cunningham|first=Malcolm T.|date=2007-04-17|title=Writer's block: failures of the neurological network and comparisons with business networks|journal=Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing|volume=22|issue=3|pages=154–160|doi=10.1108/08858620710741850|issn=0885-8624}}</ref>

Physical damage can produce writer's block. If a person experiences tissue damage in the brain, i.e. a stroke, it is likely to lead to other complications apart from the [[lesion]] itself. This damage causes an extreme form of writer's block known as agraphia.<ref name="Castillo 1043–1044"/> With agraphia, the inability to write is due to issues with the cerebral cortex; this disables the brain's process of translating thoughts into writing. Brain injuries are an example of a physical illness that can cause a writer to be blocked. Other brain-related disorders and neurological disorders such as epilepsy have been known to cause the problem of writer's block and hypergraphia, the strong urge to write.<ref name=":2" />

===Writer anxiety and inhibition===
Another cause of writer's block has been due to writer's anxiety. Writer's anxiety is defined as being worried about one's words or thought, thus experiencing writer's block.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/psychology-of-creative-writing/FF64818A31E9EA809C8607DB1F1290B4|title=The Psychology of Creative Writing edited by Scott Barry Kaufman|year=2009|publisher=Cambridge Core|doi=10.1017/CBO9780511627101|isbn=978-0511627101|access-date=2019-10-28|editor1-last=Kaufman|editor1-first=Scott Barry|editor2-first=James C|editor2-last=Kaufman}}</ref>

From a composition perspective, Lawrence Oliver said in his article "Helping Students Overcome Writer's Block": "Students receive little or no advice on how to generate ideas or explore their thoughts, and they usually must proceed through the writing process without guidance or corrective feedback from the teacher, who withholds comments and criticism until grading the final product."<ref name=Oliver>{{cite journal |last=Oliver Jr. |first=Lawrence J. |title=Helping Students Overcome Writer's Block |journal=Journal of Reading |volume=26 |issue=2 |date=1982 |pages=162–168 |jstor=40029248}}{{verify source|date=July 2022}}</ref> He said that students "learn to write by writing", and often they are insecure or paralyzed by rules.<ref name=Oliver />

Phyllis Koestenbaum wrote in her article "The Secret Climate the Year I Stopped Writing" about her trepidation toward writing, claiming it was tied directly to her instructor's response.<ref name=Koestenbaum>{{cite journal |last=Koestenbaum |first=Phyllis |title=The Secret Climate the Year I Stopped Writing |journal=[[The Massachusetts Review]] |volume=48 |issue=2 |date=Summer 2007 |pages=278–308 |jstor=25091203}}</ref> She said, "I needed to write to feel, but without feeling I couldn't write."<ref name=Koestenbaum /> In contrast to Koestenbaum's experience, Nancy Sommers stated that papers do not end when students finish writing and that neither should instructors' comments.<ref name=Sommers>{{cite book |last=Somers |first=Nancy |chapter=Across the Drafts |title=Concepts in Composition: Theory and Practice in the Teaching of Writing |edition=2nd |location=New York |publisher=Routledge |date=2012 |isbn=9780415885164 |oclc=703871383}}{{Page needed|date=March 2023}}</ref> She urges a "partnership" between writers and instructors so that responses become a conversation.<ref name=Sommers />

===Student motivation===
Herman A. Estrin in his article "Motivation in Composition Writing" writes: "When freshmen are assigned such topics for a research paper as&nbsp;... they have no real background of the subject for an in-depth paper&nbsp;... they prepare a mechanical, lifeless paper with no creativity, imagination, or originality".<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Estrin |first=Herman A. |date=1973 |title=Motivation in Composition Writing |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/27564516 |journal=Improving College and University Teaching |volume=21 |issue=2 |pages=132–134 |doi=10.1080/00193089.1973.10533389 |jstor=27564516 |issn=0019-3089|url-access=subscription }}</ref> According to him, freshman students write well about topics they are passionate about. Moore, Marshall in his article “Articulate Walls: Writer’s Block and the Academic Creative.” thinks similarly by writing: "...his or her practice is paralysingly out of sync with the syllabus; and teaching from a state of creative depletion may engender a cascade of self-doubt. This paper will look at the process by which these practitioners attempt to navigate this zone of creative disconnect.". Saying having assigned, planned out, and required papers is contributing to loss of motivation.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Moore |first=Marshall |date=2018-07-03 |title=Articulate walls: writer's block and the academic creative |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14790726.2017.1384025 |journal=New Writing |language=en |volume=15 |issue=3 |pages=348–359 |doi=10.1080/14790726.2017.1384025 |issn=1479-0726|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

Aline Alves-Wold, in her article "Assessing Writing Motivation: a Systematic Review of K-5 Students' Self-Reports" states that there is a general lack of research on the motivation of students to write in the first few years of education, which is problematic when one considers how important initial experiences are in motivating students to write. Success generally enhances one's belief in their efficacy, whereas failure weakens them. "These mechanisms are particularly evident in early phases of skill development where failure typically occurs before a sense of efficacy has been firmly established. This implies that children in their first years in school have writer self-beliefs that are particularly malleable and dynamic".<ref name=":3" /> Writing development is therefore both enhanced and endangered during the first years in school.<ref name=":3">{{Cite journal |last1=Alves-Wold |first1=Aline |last2=Walgermo |first2=Bente Rigmor |last3=McTigue |first3=Erin |last4=Uppstad |first4=Per Henning |date=2023 |title=Assessing Writing Motivation: a Systematic Review of K-5 Students' Self-Reports |journal=Educational Psychology Review |volume=35 |issue=1 |pages=24 |doi=10.1007/s10648-023-09732-6 |issn=1040-726X |pmc=9947433 |pmid=36852261}}</ref>

===Negative self-beliefs and feeling of incompetence===
[[Mike Rose (educator)|Mike Rose]] stated that writer's block can be caused by a writer's history in writing, rules and restrictions from the past. Writers can be hesitant of what they write based on how it will be perceived by the audience.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Rose |first=Mike |date=1980 |title=Rigid Rules, Inflexible Plans, and the Stifling of Language: A Cognitivist Analysis of Writer's Block |journal=College Composition and Communication |volume=31 |issue=4 |pages=389–401 |doi=10.2307/356589 |issn=0010-096X |jstor=356589 |s2cid=26780594}}</ref> Guangming Ling states that there is a negative correlation between self-efficacy and avoidance goals in studies on writing apprehension and writer's block, which suggests that having hesitations about writing may lead to less effort and thus less success.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Ling |first1=Guangming |last2=Elliot |first2=Norbert |last3=Burstein |first3=Jill C. |last4=McCaffrey |first4=Daniel F. |last5=MacArthur |first5=Charles A. |last6=Holtzman |first6=Steven |date=2021-04-01 |title=Writing motivation: A validation study of self-judgment and performance |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1075293520300702 |journal=Assessing Writing |language=en |volume=48 |pages=100509 |doi=10.1016/j.asw.2020.100509 |s2cid=233567231 |issn=1075-2935|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

Similarly to Ling, Dana Driscoll and Jennifer Wells explain writing dispositions in their essay "Beyond Knowledge and Skills". Driscoll and Wells argue that dispositions toward writing play crucial roles in determining whether writers are able to transfer their knowledge of writing into other contexts of life.<ref name=":22">{{Cite web |title=CF 26: Beyond Knowledge and Skills by Dana Lynn Driscoll and Jennifer Wells |url=https://compositionforum.com/issue/26/beyond-knowledge-skills.php |access-date=2024-02-28 |website=compositionforum.com |language=en}}</ref> Related to self-efficacy, Driscoll and Wells suggest that writers who have a positive self-belief are more likely to produce work than some with a negative self-belief.<ref name=":22" /> Self-efficacy is especially important for a writer when it comes to an unfamiliar learning or writing setting because it may seem overwhelming.

James Adams noted in his book ''Conceptual Blockbusting'' that various reasons blocks occur include fear of taking a risk, "chaos" in the pre-writing stage, judging versus generating ideas, an inability to incubate ideas, or a lack of motivation.<ref name="Adams">{{cite book |last=Adams |first=James L. |date=2019 |orig-year=1974 |title=Conceptual Blockbusting: A Guide to Better Ideas |edition=5th |location=New York |publisher=Basic Books |isbn=978-1-5416-7404-2 |oclc=1084631918 |pages=25–133}}</ref>

In "Motivation in the Writing Centre: A Peer Tutor's Experience", Leonie Kirchoff states that "The concept of 'amotivation' describes a lack of motivation due to an individual's feeling of incompetence and helplessness."<ref name=":4" /> Demotivation is the process of reducing or diminishing motivational basis for behavior or ongoing actions through external influences. An external factor such as feedback may affect demotivation, whereas an internal factor, such as pessimistic expectations, may cause amotivation. Even so, both concepts have similar effects on writers.<ref name=":4">{{Cite journal |date=2022-01-24 |title=Motivation in the Writing Centre: A Peer Tutor's Experience |journal=Journal of Academic Writing |volume=6 |issue=1 |pages=31–40 |doi=10.18552/joaw.v6i1.282 |url=https://publications.coventry.ac.uk/index.php/joaw/article/view/282 |language=en-US |last1=Kirchhoff |first1=Leonie |doi-access=free }}</ref>

For tutors to provide students with the most appropriate feedback, scholars like Jared Featherstone from James Madison University suggest that tutors should be well educated in mindfulness strategies to combat a student's fixed mindset.<ref name=":32">{{Cite web |last=Featherstone |first=Jared |date=2018 |title=The Mindful Tutor |url=https://wac.colostate.edu/docs/wln/dec1/Featherstoneetal.html }}</ref> He argues that tutors or instructors should be mindful enough to be grounded and focused solely on their student so they can pick up on the feelings, stress, or fixed mindsets their student might have.<ref name=":32" /> An unmindful tutor might accidentally reinforce a student's negative thinking patterns.

==Coping strategies==
Irene Clark describes the following strategies for coping with writer's block: class and group discussion, [[Journal therapy|journaling]], [[free writing]] and [[brainstorming]], clustering, list making, and engaging with the text.<ref name="Clark"/> To overcome writing blocks, Oliver suggests asking writers questions to uncover their writing process.<ref name=Oliver /> He then recommends solutions such as systematic questioning, free writing, and encouragement.<ref name=Oliver /> A recent study of 2,500 writers aimed to find techniques that writers themselves use to overcome writer's block.{{Citation needed|date=March 2023}} The research discovered a range of solutions from altering the time of day to write and setting deadlines to lowering expectations and using [[mindfulness meditation]].

Mindfulness meditation has proved to increase awareness and improve writing skills. Kate Chaterdon, an English professor at Marist College, suggests mindfulness not only improves writing skills but also allows writers to transfer their knowledge of writing into other contexts of life.<ref name=":12">{{Cite web |title=CF 50: Mindful Practice & Metacognitive Awareness by Kate Chaterdon |url=https://compositionforum.com/issue/50/mindful-practice.php |access-date=2024-02-28 |website=compositionforum.com |language=en}}</ref> Chaterdon recommends meditation as a grounding exercise to help people becoming more metacognitavely aware. Chaterdon had conducted a study in her two writing classes at Marist College and concluded that practicing mindfulness at least once a week is essential in developing higher levels of metacognition.<ref name=":12" />

===Right-brain involvement===
{{Main article|Lateralization of brain function}}
Garbriele Lusser Rico's concern with the mind links to [[Lateralization of brain function|brain lateralisation]], also explored by Rose and Linda Flowers and John R.&nbsp;Hayes, among others. Rico's book ''Writing the Natural Way'' looks into invention strategies, such as clustering, which has been noted to be an invention strategy used to help writers overcome their blocks,<ref name=Rico>{{cite book |last=Rico |first=Gabriele Lusser |date=2000 |orig-year=1987 |title=Writing the Natural Way: Using Right-Brain Techniques to Release Your Expressive Powers |edition=Revised |location=New York |publisher=Tarcher/Putnam |isbn=0874779618 |oclc=42592844}}</ref> and further emphasizes the solutions presented in works by Rose, Oliver, and Clark. Similar to Rico, James Adams discusses "[[right-brain]]" involvement in writing.<ref name=Adams /> While Bill Downey proposes that he is basing his approach in practical concerns,<ref name="Downey">{{cite book |last=Downey |first=Bill |title=Right Brain – Write ON!: Overcoming Writer's Block and Achieving Your Creative Potential |location=Englewood Cliffs, NJ |publisher=Prentice-Hall |date=1984 |isbn= |url=https://archive.org/details/rightbrainwriteo0000down |url-access=registration}}</ref> his concentration on "right-brain" techniques speaks to cognitive theory approach similar to Rico's and a more practical advice for writers to approach their writer's block.<ref name="Downey"/> Mike Rose mentions that [[peer tutors]] provide supportive feedback so that blocked writers can feel secure in sharing their problems and experimenting with new ideas about writing.<ref name=":6">{{Cite journal |last=Rose |first=Mike |date=1980 |title=Rigid Rules, Inflexible Plans, and the Stifling of Language: A Cognitivist Analysis of Writer's Block |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/356589 |journal=College Composition and Communication |volume=31 |issue=4 |pages=389–401 |doi=10.2307/356589 |jstor=356589 |issn=0010-096X|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

===Writing environment===
It is also important to evaluate the environment in which the writing is being produced to determine what is the best condition to work in. One must look into these different factors to determine whether it is a good or bad environment to work in.<ref name="Huston">{{Cite journal |last=Huston |first=Patricia |date=January 1998 |title=Resolving writer's block |journal=Canadian Family Physician |volume=44 |pages=92–96 |pmc=2277565 |pmid=9481467}}</ref> Psychologists who have studied writer's block have concluded that it is a treatable condition once the writer finds a way to remove anxiety and build confidence in themselves.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Huston |first=Patricia |date=September 2001 |title=Taking the Helm; Combining Responsibilities |journal=Canadian Journal of Public Health |volume=92 |issue=5 |pages=325–327 | pmc=6979793| doi=10.1007/bf03404972 |pmid=11702481 |issn=0008-4263 |doi-access=free}}</ref> Sarah Ahmed and Dominik Güss state that solutions for coping with writer's block include using more efficient writing strategies during the composing process, more effective goal-setting strategies, and even brainstorming ideas with others.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Ahmed |first1=Sarah J. |last2=Güss |first2=C. Dominik |date=2022-07-03 |title=An Analysis of Writer's Block: Causes and Solutions |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10400419.2022.2031436 |journal=Creativity Research Journal |language=en |volume=34 |issue=3 |pages=339–354 |doi=10.1080/10400419.2022.2031436 |s2cid=246367048 |issn=1040-0419|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

===Splitting the writing into smaller pieces===
Research has also shown that it is highly effective if one breaks their work into pieces rather than doing all of their writing in one sitting, in order to produce good quality work. While it can be helpful to split up the writing process into pieces, Patricia Huston suggests that starting with different sections of a paper, rather than trying to start with an introduction, can be a useful strategy to cope with writer's block. She points out that if a person is stuck on the introduction, they can try moving onto a different section like a body paragraph. Huston states: "There is no need to begin at the beginning and write an article in sequence".<ref name="Huston" />

===Free writing and brainstorming===
{{Main article|Brainstorming}}
[[Free writing]] is a widely accepted technique for overcoming writer's block.<ref>{{Cite journal |date=2016-12-14 |title=Overcome Writer's Block |journal=Nonprofit Communications Report |volume=15 |issue=1 |pages=1 |doi=10.1002/npcr.30569 |issn=1549-778X}}</ref> Taught by [[Peter Elbow]], free writing is similar to [[brainstorming]] but is written in prose form without stopping.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kwame Harrison |first=Anthony |url=https://academic.oup.com/book/6383/chapter/150146250 |title=Writing Up Research Findings |date=2018-05-24 |publisher=Oxford University Press |volume=1 |language=en |doi=10.1093/oso/9780199371785.003.0004|isbn=978-0-19-937178-5 }}</ref> To free-write, one writes without pausing to think or edit, and one pours raw ideas onto paper.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Jackson |first=Michael |chapter=24. Writing in Search of Lost Time |date=2013 |doi=10.1525/9780520954823-025 |title=The Other Shore: Essays on Writers and Writing |pages=150–154 |location=Berkeley |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=9780520275249 |s2cid=226887120 |oclc=808007361}}</ref> Author Benjamin Solomon described the rationale for the technique: "Writer's block is a rut, a ditch, a trap, a swampy mire, and in order to lift yourself out, you need to ''do'' something—anything!—to jog yourself into motion."<ref>{{Cite journal |date=2004-09-01 |title=The midnight disease: the drive to write, writer's block, and the creative brain |journal=Choice Reviews Online |volume=42 |issue=1 |pages=42–0127–42–0127 |doi=10.5860/choice.42-0127 |doi-broken-date=1 February 2025 |issn=0009-4978}}</ref> Cherryl Armstrong, who worked with the South Coast Writing Project, stated that one can free-write about anything, even a completely different subject than one was going to write about: "any writing will do".<ref>{{cite journal |last=Armstrong |first=Cherryl |date=January 1983 |title=There's no such thing as writer's block; (or if there is, some suggestions for dissolving it) |journal=The Quarterly of the National Writing Project |volume=5 |issue=1 |pages=14–15, 18 |url=https://archive.nwp.org/cs/public/print/resource/1826 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231206085741/https://archive.nwp.org/cs/public/print/resource/1826 |archive-date=December 6, 2023}}</ref> 

Lawrence J.&nbsp;Oliver claims that after free writing the writer is able to analyze many ideas that might not have been generated before and develop a clearer sense of what theme is trying to be communicated throughout the writing.<ref name="Oliver" /> Oliver suggests that freewriting is an effective method that has helped people deal with writer's block. Freewriting does not focus on grammar or style. There is only one rule for this method, and that is to keep on writing. Educators should also never read students' freewriting unless asked to do so.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Oliver |first=Lawrence J. |date=1982 |title=Helping Students Overcome Writer's Block |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40029248 |journal=Journal of Reading |volume=26 |issue=2 |pages=162–168 |jstor=40029248 |issn=0022-4103}}</ref>

===Mind mapping===
{{Main article|Mind mapping}}
[[Mind mapping]] is suggested as another potential solution to writer's block.<ref name=Huston/> The technique involves writing a stream of consciousness on a horizontal piece of paper and connecting any similar or linked thoughts. This exercise is intended to help a writer suffering from writer's block to bypass the analytical or critical functioning of their brain and access the creative functioning more directly, stimulating the flow of ideas.<ref name=Huston/> Other techniques similar to clustering and mind mapping are the writing of notes on cards in a [[card file]],<ref>{{cite journal |last=Lopeke |first=Linda |date=December 1984 |title=Breaking through writer's block |journal=ACM SIGDOC Asterisk Journal of Computer Documentation |volume=10 |issue=4 |pages=22–24 |doi=10.1145/1111174.1111177 |s2cid=29780705 |doi-access=}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Boice |first=Robert |date=1985 |chapter=Psychotherapies for writing blocks |editor-last=Rose |editor-first=Mike |title=When a Writer Can't Write: Studies in Writer's Block and Other Composing-Process Problems |series=Perspectives in Writing Research |location=New York |publisher=[[Guilford Press]] |pages=182–218 ([https://archive.org/details/whenwritercantwr0000unse/page/202 202]) |isbn=0898622514 |oclc=11211866 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/whenwritercantwr0000unse/page/182 |chapter-url-access=registration}}</ref> and nonlinear electronic writing using [[hypertext]].<ref>{{cite journal |last=Kish |first=Judith Mara |date=Fall 2000 |title=Breaking the block: basic writers in the electronic classroom |journal=Journal of Basic Writing |volume=19 |issue=2 |pages=141–159 (148) |doi=10.37514/JBW-J.2000.19.2.08 |jstor=43741068 |quote=It is through the use of hypertext itself and an understanding of hypertext theories that instructors can begin to help students to use computers to break through writing difficulties such as writer's block. |doi-access=free }}</ref>

===Positive self-beliefs and encouragement===
Camacho, Alves and Boscolo wrote about enhancing students' writing motivation in the classroom. They say that to foster students' positive self-beliefs and beliefs about writing, teachers must nurture their self-beliefs, as well as their beliefs about the writing task.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Camacho |first1=Ana |last2=Alves |first2=Rui A. |last3=Boscolo |first3=Pietro |date=2021-03-01 |title=Writing Motivation in School: a Systematic Review of Empirical Research in the Early Twenty-First Century |url=https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-020-09530-4 |journal=Educational Psychology Review |language=en |volume=33 |issue=1 |pages=213–247 |doi=10.1007/s10648-020-09530-4 |s2cid=254465022 |issn=1573-336X|hdl=10216/131704 |hdl-access=free }}</ref>

===Other techniques===
Other ways to cope come from ideas such as The Brand Emotions Scale for Writers (BESW).<ref name=Brand/> Using the framework of the [[Differential Emotions Scale]], the BESW works with grouping emotions into either states or traits and then classifying them as positive, negative passive, or negative active. Researchers can assess subjects, giving writers a chance to get more work done if left in the right emotional state, since data suggests that writers with positive emotions tended to express more than writers with negative passive or negative active.<ref name=Brand>{{Cite journal |last1=Brand |first1=Alice G. |last2=Powell |first2=Jack L. |date=1986-05-01 |title=Emotions and the Writing Process: A Description of Apprentice Writers |journal=The Journal of Educational Research |volume=79 |issue=5 |pages=280–285 |doi=10.1080/00220671.1986.10885692 |issn=0022-0671}}</ref> Scholars and researchers such as Mandy Bamber suggest practicing meditation to reduce negative moods like stress and anxiety. Bamber's team conducted a study on 40 university students who showed signs of anxiety. After practicing mindfulness and mediation exercises, 33 out of the 40 showed significant decreases in stress and anxiety levels.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Bamber |first1=Mandy D. |last2=Kraenzle Schneider |first2=Joanne |date=2016-05-01 |title=Mindfulness-based meditation to decrease stress and anxiety in college students: A narrative synthesis of the research |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1747938X15000676 |journal=Educational Research Review |volume=18 |pages=1–32 |doi=10.1016/j.edurev.2015.12.004 |issn=1747-938X|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

Anne Johnstone suggests a couple of strategies to help with writer's block. When one finds oneself unable to generate content, Johnstone suggests "recopying a well-liked piece" of one's own to help generate ideas.<ref name=Johnstone/> Johnstone states that individuals who are articulate orally but struggle with writing and forming their ideas into sentences on paper should try tape-recording themselves and later transcribing it onto paper.<ref name=Johnstone>{{cite journal |last=Johnstone |first=Anne |date=Fall 1983 |title=The writer's hell: Approaches to writer's block |journal=Journal of Teaching Writing |volume=2 |issue=2 |pages=155–165 |url=https://jtw.iupui.edu/index.php/teachingwriting/article/view/677}}</ref>

== Relation to procrastination ==
{{Main|Procrastination}}
Writer's block and [[procrastination]] are two similar issues that people struggle with when it comes to writing. Writer's block is an issue that can cause people to delay their goals and may prevent them from finishing writing projects. Although writer's block and procrastination are not the exact same issue, they can end up leading up to one another. Writer's block is not continuing to do a task, and procrastination is delaying to start the task. In her 1987 Ph.D. thesis (published in 2012), Karen E.&nbsp;Peterson posited two different scenarios on how procrastination and writer's block can lead up to each other.<ref name="Peterson 1987">{{Cite thesis |type=Ph.D. thesis |last=Peterson |first=Karen Eileen |date=1987 |title=Relationships Among Measures Of Writer's Block, Writing Anxiety, And Procrastination |url=https://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1487329662145357 |location=Columbus, Ohio |publisher=[[Ohio State University]]}}</ref> One scenario is that a person will procrastinate due to having the fear of past experiences of getting writer's block when doing a task. The other scenario is that a person will have writer's block because of the feeling of being overwhelmed about needing to do a task at the last minute after procrastinating for a long period of time.<ref name="Peterson 1987" /> 

According to some scholars like Claire Kervin, procrastination is usually a result of a negative mood and is a "short-term mood regulator". Unlike previous beliefs that procrastination is poor time management, Kervin suggests procrastination is a way individuals cope with negative emotions. <ref name=":02">{{Cite journal |last1=Kervin |first1=Claire E. |last2=Barrett |first2=Heather E. |date=2018-05-01 |title=Emotional Management over Time Management: Using Mindfulness to Address Student Procrastination |url=https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?p=AONE&sw=w&issn=&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CA538859614&sid=googleScholar&linkaccess=abs |journal=WLN: A Journal of Writing Center Scholarship |language=English |volume=42 |issue=9–10 |pages=10–18 |doi=10.37514/WLN-J.2018.42.9.03 |url-access=subscription }}</ref> Kervin's suggestion makes a connection to one of Peterson's scenarios, specifically when someone procrastinates due to fear of past experiences and begins to feel judgmental toward themselves. Kervin recommends taking a mindful approach to combating procrastination in order to become more grounded and improve self-regulation.<ref name=":02" />

==See also==
{{Portal|Writing}}
* [[Analysis paralysis]]
* [[Occupational burnout]]
* [[Process theory of composition]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
{{Wikiquote}}
* {{cite journal | last = Upper | first = Dennis | title = The unsuccessful self-treatment of a case of "writer's block" | journal = [[Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis]] | volume = 7 | issue = 3 | page = 497 | date = Fall 1974 | pmc = 1311997 | issn = 0021-8855 | pmid=16795475 | doi=10.1901/jaba.1974.7-497a | title-link = The Unsuccessful Self-Treatment of a Case of "Writer's Block"}}

{{Literary composition}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Writing]]
[[Category:1947 introductions]]
[[Category:1940s neologisms]]
[[Category:Popular psychology]]