How To Overcome Writer's Block With This One Tool
Sage Kay
Writer, reader, outfit repeater.
Writer’s block. The bane of our existence, the common enemy that everyone agrees is the absolute worst. It can put a stop to even the most experienced author’s writing flow and dash any hopes of ever finishing that novel. But you’ve got all these cool ideas, interesting characters, and a compelling plot. It can’t all go to waste! Your novel deserves to be written! Luckily, writer’s block is not an invincible enemy. Everything has its weaknesses and today, I’m going to show you how to pinpoint those weaknesses and break through the dam created by your own mind.
What is writer’s block?
Writer’s block is a phenomenon authors credit for the complete lack of will or inspiration to write. Whether it be a novel, poem, an essay, or this very article I’m writing, writer’s block tends to rear its ugly head right when you’ve finally sat down for a writing session. You sit in front of your computer, fingers hovering over the keyboard, ideas swirling in your mind, and…nothing. You just can’t manage to force the words onto the page, or if you can, you’re completely unsatisfied with them. Just like that, your writing session is a wash and you’re left feeling discouraged and defeated.
Hope is not lost, my friend. We’re going to talk about what might be causing your writer’s block and how you can fix it. Frankly, if you don’t know what writer’s block is, I envy you. Or maybe you just didn’t have a word for it. Sorry to curse-of-knowledge you.
What causes writer’s block?
There is no one answer for what causes writer’s block, but there are several common causes. Not sure what’s causing yours? See if any of these sound familiar:
1. Lack of inspiration
Sometimes, the simple fact of the matter is that you’re just not feeling like writing. You want to, sure, but when you sit down to try, your ideas come to a halt and your brain refuses to make words. This is normal! It happens at some point to all of us. The fix can be as simple as a walk around your neighborhood or as complex as healing your inner child—I'd start with the walk, personally.
2. Perfectionism
Everyone wants their book to be as great as it can be. But this sometimes drives people into a rut as no matter what they do, they always feel like their plot can be stronger, that one description can be just a little bit better. I hate to break it to you, but if you spend all your time making the tiniest adjustments until your book is perfect, you’ll likely never finish it. It’s okay to strive to make your book the best it can reasonably be. That’s your baby, a direct result of all your hard work, of course you want it to be perfect! But don’t lose yourself in making things perfect. Just focus on writing a good book.
3. Fear of what happens…after writing?
Are we even sure anything happens once you finish your book? Like, surely you write it and then get a million dollars.
Unfortunately, this isn't the case. After writing your novel, there is still a lot of work to do in terms of publishing (traditionally or not) and all the lovely things that go along with it. In short, looking ahead to the publishing process can be overwhelming. But you know what I have to say to that? You’ll cross that bridge when you get to it. For now, focus on writing that novel so that when the time comes to start the publishing process, your book is ready and so are you.
4. You need a break
If writers could spend all of their time writing and didn’t need to worry about all the other stressors of life, we would be living in a utopia. But for new writers who aren’t making a living purely off royalties, there is likely a full-time day job that sucks up your time. On top of that, there’s keeping a social life, using time for other hobbies, and just straight up relaxing during your time off. So, by the time you finally sit down to write at the end of the day, you may find yourself exhausted and with no energy to put into your passion project. That’s okay. Take a break. Allow your body and mind to recharge. If you feel too guilty to not write at all, set a small word count that you can easily hit so that you’re still making progress but with less stress from a huge word count goal.
If it’s not your busy life burning you out, maybe it’s your current project! Staring at the same document day in and day out, especially for longer pieces, can be tiring as well. So, set that story on the back burner for a bit, let it simmer. Work on a different, smaller project for a few days or even a few months so that when you return to your main project, you have fresh eyes and a fresh mind. It’s often after I’ve taken a break from a project that, when I come back to it, that scene I just couldn't figure out suddenly clicks.
The tool to fix your writer's block
Okay, full disclosure, there is no "cure" for writer’s block. But there are fixes for most of the problems that create writer's block. One tool with many solutions is NovelPad—a novel planning and writing software developed solely through writer feedback. NovelPad is designed to make the writing process easier, more efficient, and more organized. Here are four NovelPad functions that can help you in your battle against writer’s block:
1. Numerous outlining capabilities
As far as $ outlining $ goes, NovelPad is a planner’s wet dream. Sorry, let me try again. As far as outlining goes, NovelPad is by far the most planner-friendly writing software. From character sheets to $ side-by-side revision$ capabilities, you can easily plan and draft your entire novel in one place.
Admittedly, detailing the ins and outs of the entirety of your book is time-consuming. Especially if you’re a pantser and the thought of outlining just makes you want to quit. But your lack of inspiration could stem from your lack of direction. It’s much easier to keep your writing flow going when you know exactly what character arcs your cast is heading toward, exactly what they’ll be doing and where they’ll be doing it, as well as what major plot points and themes you need to hit in order to make your novel the way you’ve always envisioned it.
If you want to give it a shot, take a look at these specific features that can help you get out of your writing slump:
Chapters Overview
NovelPad's Chapter board houses the $ scene cards$ , so you get a bird's eye view of your novel with tons of information you can take in with a glance. Information like that scene's description, involved plot lines, location, character POV, timeline, word count, and anything else you'd want to track with $ customizable color labels$ .
The chapters and scene cards are easily rearranged with click-and-drag, making it easy to change the order of events.
Track plots separately
There is a page dedicated to detailing your novel’s plot points—big plots, subplots, romance arcs, character changes—whatever benefits you to track.
You simply assign a plot to each scene card, and those scenes appear on your Plots board in chronological order. This makes it easy to isolate each plot line and check for inconsistencies, plot holes, flow, and logic.
Character cards
No story is complete without fleshed out characters, and the character card function ensures that you build your characters to feel like real people. There are boxes to fill out for their name, nicknames, and any biographical information you’d like to include—physical descriptions, backstory, relationships, etc. And after you’ve added a character, NovelPad instantly compiles a list of every scene that character appears in, so you can read their story in order. Much like the Plot board, the Character board helps you understand and control separate facets of the story.
These are only a few of the organizational features you can use to understand and control your story, helping you keep a clear vision of where you've been and where you're headed.
2. Side-by-side outline and manuscript viewing
NovelPad has a feature that allows you to view any of the above outlining functions right alongside your manuscript. This is perfect if you get distracted by constantly switching tabs or windows to refresh yourself on what’s coming next or you simply like having the convenience of accessing every detail of your novel. Or maybe you’re the type of person who enjoys painstakingly searching your outline for that character detail or plot point you’re working toward, but honestly? I don’t believe you.
This feature further helps you actually utilize the work you put into outlining the book, and you'll always know what to do next. Take that, writer’s block.
3. Goal tracking
If you’re the type of writer that thrives off of setting goals and the feeling you get when you accomplish them, this feature is for you. With NovelPad’s goal tracking function, you can set word counts for the day, week, or month, complete with automatic progress updates to really get that goal completion dopamine flowing.
The goals you make are completely up to you, so if you’re really in a writing slump, start with a small goal to get back into the flow of it. Then, once you start consistently crushing your word count goals, up the count! You can even select the word weights for specific days of the week to let NovelPad calculate separate word counts for each.
4. Revisions
If you're blocked in the revision process, I feel you. Revising is the worst. It's so frustrating to rewrite scenes, then decide the first one was better, then write a third Frankenstein scene, then lose track of all of them!
NovelPad brings some peace and order to revisions with a function that allows you to view versions of your scenes side-by-side. Simply select a scene, click "create revision," and NovelPad makes a copy for you. That way, you can edit and rewrite without losing the original scene.
You can create and save INFINITE scene revisions, and they all stay neatly tucked in with the original scene. Swapping which scene is in your live manuscript is as simple as a click.
5. Offline drafting
Often, writer's block can come from feeling trapped, antsy, or unstimulated. You might like to hop to a coffee shop, a park, your front yard, Cuba, etc., to give yourself a refreshing change of scenery. NovelPad lets you write from anywhere, on any device, with offline capability.
This feature is also great if you're one of those writers who follows the inspiration—you never know when inspiration will hit! Having your project available anywhere can help you grab those windows of creativity and get some words in.
Believe it or not, this isn’t even a full list of all the ways NovelPad eases the writing process and helps writers stay inspired. $ Check it out for yourself$ !