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Have no fear, Fair Reader, seeing as this is my first blog entry of the week, the irony of a post on writer’s block is not lost on me.

While this week it was a series of rush jobs that forced the delay of my blog, in my time I have spent days anguishing over copy. Staring at the computer screen as if that would magically help. Writing a lametastic line or two, only to pitch it in the bin and start over again.

It’s happened to every writer at some point. Being stuck is a feeling, a state of mind. Never the reality. So, it’s just a matter of shifting your perspective.

Wikipedia has several solutions, including the mandatory “take a walk”, but here are 10 hacks that have, from time to time, worked for me.

Get over yourself – Understand that the first draft isn’t going to be perfect, and yes, it might take eight more drafts before you get close to something that makes you remotely proud… but just get it down instead of staring at the screen. Build your raw working materials.

Say hi to lo-fi – Still have a tape recorder around? Talk out what you want to say and transcribe later.

Be inspired – There isn’t a subject that someone hasn’t written something about. See what other people have to say. Use that as a starting point. Do you agree? Disagree? How would you say it differently? (Plagiarism is strictly verboten!) As well, read something completely different. Read voraciously. Be inspired by different writing styles.

Go Luddite – Get away from your computer completely. Grab a pad of paper and a pen, and head out to the nearest park. (Local pubs not recommended.)

Break it down before it breaks you down – Ah, chunking, the writer’s best friend. Take your unwieldy piece, the one that you just don’t even know where to begin, and break it down into more manageable sections.

Stay off the grid – Turn. Twitter. Off. You will not spontaneously blow-up, I promise. If it’s not Twitter, perhaps it’s the email you check compulsively every 3 minutes. (That can’t just be me, can it?) Get rid of the white noise that distracts you and offers an easy procrastination out.

Throw out the rules – Go ahead, if it makes it easier, start in the middle.

Stop taking it all so seriously – Creative juices never flow when you are stressed out. Call a friend; drag them out for a coffee and a laugh or two. Shift your mental state to positive. Get rid of the gremlins in your head telling you that you’ll never make the deadline, the client is going to hate you for life, you’ll never work again, might as well go for a drink... you’re going to end up alcoholic and homeless anyway. Maybe your gremlins aren’t mine, but you get the idea. There’s a lot of self-inflicted limitations. Figure out which ones are true and which ones aren’t.

Curiosity never killed anyone – Okay, it did in a few calamitous “I wonder what this does…” instances. But, from the safety of your office, home, den, etc., get curious about your topic. What’s interesting about it? How can you reframe it and see it in a different light?

When in doubt, sleep on it – Your subconscious gets up to strange and mysterious stuff at night, rifling through the endless file folders of your brain pulling out completely disconnected thoughts, ideas and concepts. It’s not very logical, but it often works.

Have you got some tips for getting out of your stuck rut? Share them in the comments!

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