There’s no such thing as writer’s block

~ Distillations.blog

As part of the Blogging 201 course yesterday, I watched a video by Andrea Badgley titled “Publish in 10 minutes per day”. Check it out – it’s full of awesome tips.

She tackles the issue of writer’s block with the suggestion that we set aside a box and fill it with prompts, adding to it anytime we think of a new one. She solves the time issue by setting a timer and writing for just 10 minutes. The idea behind this is to assist those who are time poor but still want to make sure they are posting regularly. She says that the beauty of 10 minutes, is that it takes us away from spending too much time perfecting our text. Andrea says that she learned to live by the creed “perfect is the enemy of done“. So good! How many of us delay or defer publishing because “it’s just not quite right”?

I love the idea of the prompt box because it extends on from the Daily Prompt exercise we did in Blogging 101. I loved the way it challenged me to not just write about the prompt itself but to take it in a different direction. I could feel brain neurons firing and new connections being formed! Loved it! It highlighted for me Seth Godin’s quote “there is no such thing as writer’s block because there is no such thing as talker’s block“.

I was discussing this with my partner who is a photographer and we reckon this practice of taking a prompt and doing something with it could crossover into any creative pursuit. For example with his photography, taking a prompt and giving himself a very short timeframe to shoot – means his desire to do some creative work (outside of his day job) can be achieved without a huge time commitment plus each time he does this as a practice (doing it regularly), he is creating new ideas, learning new skills and producing art.

One of my favourite quotes is from Lucille Ball, “the more you do, the more you can do”.  

Andrea’s tips very much encourage this.

Published by Distillations.blog

16 thoughts on “There’s no such thing as writer’s block”

  1. Hi. I was not able to read the video yet, but thank you for giving a summary of it. The prompt box is a good idea! I would like to share my secret: ideas keep on coming when I jog. But I had to write them as soon as possible or they would slip my mind. hmm…maybe I should bring with me a small voice recorder next time.

    Like

    Reply

  2. wow. there was so much i could take away from this post. I don’t exactly have a box to store the prompts, instead, i note them down. I call it my think tank 😀
    but i am surprised about the part about not making it perfect. Shouldn’t the posts actually be perfect to make sure it ensures a smooth reading experience.
    I loved this quote that you shared – there is no such thing as writer’s block because there is no such thing as talker’s block. Thanks so much 🙂

    Like

    Reply

    1. Thank you. I agree with Andrea that perfect gets in the way of done but I know that I would really struggle to post something unless I was totally happy with it. Having said that I think the idea behind just doing it as opposed to over thinking it is really good – the hard part is finding a balance in the two. I really want to see what I can come up with in 10 mins. I seem to spent hours on my posts, writing, re-writing, tweaking. I would love it if I could do it quicker. I guess that could happen if I practiced with that time constraint.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  3. Hi Jacquie. I personally also like a good prompt (visual, wordy or other) to banish my own writer’s block myself. But I have to disagree with Seth Godin. I often have talker’s block myself, especially around people who are new to me. Or when someone has said something so mind-blowing (whether stupid or profound it has the same impact), that I can’t find words to…
    On another note, I often find that working on more than one story at a time works very well for me in preventing severe writers’ block:)

    Like

    Reply

    1. Oh I can completely relate to being stuck for words in social situations. It takes me lots of deep breaths to speak to new people and I often doubt what I have to say. I have always preferred writing than talking. I like the way I can backspace, delete and tweak it until I am happy. You don’t get to do that in verbal conversation unless there’s a camera rolling. I like your tip on working on more than one story at a time. That is a great idea. Thank you.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      1. Yes, finding the right word and expression, then editing it down to get exactly the message you want to send, is the best thing about writing. I think is what makes letters so special too! I hope my idea helps you 🙂

        Like

  4. So exciting! I can’t wait to try this. I just read Andrea Badgley’s post and feel a bit rejuvenated. I tend to write too much and worry about “perfection”. I think I’m going to try this out this month. Thanks so much for sharing!

    Like

    Reply

    1. Thank you for reading and for your comments. I have yet to write and post something in 10 mins. I still worry about perfection and edit the life out of things before I push publish. I have recently signed up to SkillShare and I am going to do some writing classes to help me, hopefully, speed up the process. Andrea’s ideas are inspirational.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      1. What gets me all the time are the typos. I confuse the most obvious words like “where” vs. “wear”. And it’s not like I don’t know the difference between the two. My hands just decide to type something else. But I’ll give the 10-min writing a shot once I create the prompt jar. Just to see. I’ve never heard of SkillShare but it seems really interesting. How do you like it so far?

        Like

      2. So far I have just subscribed but I have started listening to one that is only 1hr long but has some really interesting exercises which I have yet to try. I will let you know I get on.

        Like

Leave a comment