Every writer knows the struggle of writer’s block. From an uninspired week of little-to-no writing to more severe cases of creative drought, it’s no secret that writer’s block is an unfortunate and inevitable part of every writer’s career. Having tested out several remedies in the past, I’ll be sharing three of the solutions I’ve personally found most effective in dealing with the block.

It’s important to figure out the cause of your writer’s block before you try and solve it — not only for the sake of your written work, but also for your mental health. While the inability to write can seemingly strike out of nowhere, more often than not it can be related to one of two larger problems in your working life: stress or fear.

Too much stress can make the simplest of tasks seem overwhelming. Finding the time to write what’s important to you around your professional life can be difficult, and fitting in extra hours of writing around your job can become mentally exhausting without the proper balance. If you’re not careful, those extra hours of writing can turn into more time lost due to writer’s block. Remember that writing is still work, and maintaining a healthy balance between work and relaxation is always more important than hitting your desired word count.

Fear of putting your work out there can sometimes turn into a paralysing case of perfectionism. Let’s be honest, first drafts normally aren’t that great; but the compulsion to edit our work until it’s perfect can become obsessive if we let it get the better of us. The more you redraft your writing, the less it resembles the original piece. A little editing to polish up your prose and address some style and grammar issues is a good thing, but too much can make you lose sight of what you were trying to write in the first place. Recognise that your work won’t ever be perfect and let go of the need for it to be. It’s always better to create something imperfect than nothing at all.

1. Focus on a side project

Does the thought of working on your novel today make you feel overwhelmed? If you're not enjoying writing it, there's a good chance your readers won't enjoy reading it. So set the future-best-seller aside for now and go and write something else. If you’re a business writer suffering from writer’s block, take some time to write creatively and rediscover your enthusiasm for storytelling. Short stories, journal entries, and poetry can be great little diversions from your current predicament and can help you overcome your apathy with writing.

For those of you that don’t feel like committing to anything too lengthy or creative, I suggest trying out the morning papers method, or freewriting. These stream of consciousness techniques aren’t about creating anything publishable, but rather to jot down the distractions buzzing around your brain, or ideas for your work that impede your actual writing. This carefree approach to writing can help tremendously with overcoming self-criticism and the compulsion to endlessly edit your work.

2. Rework your routine

There’s a reason routines are one of the first things we develop when we start to take our writing seriously; they are essential in ensuring we write consistently and achieve the deadlines set by ourselves and others. Haruki Murakami stated in an interview with The Paris Review that he keeps to [his] routine every day without variation: “But to hold to this repetition for so long – six months to a year – requires a good amount of mental and physical strength.” The problem with routines is that they can become difficult or unmanageable as the project grows. Sticking to your writing routine each day can begin to feel like a chore, especially for longer works of fiction like novels. Sometimes changing things up a bit is all you need to get through a case of writer’s block.

You don’t have to completely change your routine to make it feel fresh again. Making small adjustments like working on a different piece of writing each day of the week, or allowing yourself more freedom to write when you feel up to it can make a huge different to your mental state. I find that completing a non-writing related task before sitting down to write can help me feel accomplished and put me in a positive mindset to make progress on my current project. Likewise, doing something enjoyable and productive beforehand (like reading or exercising) can put you in a good mood and help you feel more motivated to write.

3. Take a break

As a writer, you’ll have heard the mantra ‘write every day’ so many times that failing to do so will feel like a cardinal sin. While waiting for the muse might not be the best option for our regular routines, taking a break from writing altogether can take your mind off the cause of your anguish and help banish your writer’s block. Writing every day is certainly something to aspire to, but it’s far more important to look after your mental health than to burn out in pursuit of an abstract word quota.

It’s often tempting to force yourself to write, even when you feel like you can’t. I’ve tried the stubborn approach of sitting down at my laptop and staying there until I have a page filled with words, and I wouldn’t recommend it.  Yes, you can write if you force yourself to (think of those last minute essays you’ve written) but there’s no way I’ve found to “power through” a case of writer’s block. If anything, it makes the situation worse. Take a break, recharge, and after a few days or weeks you’ll find that you miss writing and can’t wait to get your ideas down on paper.

Do you have your own methods of dealing with writer’s block? Leave a comment below with your solutions.