Articles about writer's block

Which One of These 5 Deadly Self-Talk Lines Is Killing Your Writing Business?

by Qhubekani Nyathi Apr 06, 2018

What's holding you back from achieving the writing career of your dreams? It just may be yourself.

Getting Started with ProWritingAid’s Google Docs Add-on.

by Lisa Lepki Dec 07, 2017

Have you tried out our Google Docs add-in yet?

We've put together a step-by-step guide to help get you started as soon as possible. Give it a try and let us know what you think.

8 Ways to Kick Out of Your Creative Comfort Zone

by Alice Berg Oct 04, 2017

Comfort zones are cozy, but they hardly ever lead to success or self-improvement. This is particularly true with creative jobs such as writing.

Getting out of your comfort zone increases your chances of achieving positive results. The experience of altering your habitual pace of life multiplies points of view in your writing and brings novel ideas, forms and styles. Stuck with a lack of fresh approaches? Become that risk-taker! Bring new blood into your art! Break your routine with the following steps on the way to the perfect text.

Why You Need to Break Up With Your Muse

by Kathy Edens Sep 21, 2017

Writing isn't magic. There's no fairy godmother called "Muse" who comes to you and waves her magic pen to fill your head with ideas and words. It's hard work, and you must sit in front of the computer or grab pen and paper and get your work done.

A Writer's Biggest Fear: And it's Not Spiders

by Kathy Edens Jul 13, 2017

What is it you fear most as you sit in front of a blank screen? Perhaps the fear of rejection holds you back from putting words on paper. You know your work is likely to get rejected by publishers and agents because the experience of others told you to expect it.

Maybe you fear humiliation. Putting yourself out there on paper opens you up to all kinds of criticism and ridicule. It's really hard to be vulnerable in your writing because the critics' sting hurts that much more.

Why Every Writer Needs A Writing Mentor (And Where To Find One)

by Jesse Barnett Jun 14, 2017

When I began working for Charlie, I knew he was talented. He's the writing partner of a well-known leadership expert and together they've authored over 100 books. Several have become New York Times best sellers.

I embraced the job with a learner's mindset. I determined every day to improve my writing skills. My first professionally edited draft looked like a murder scene. Red letters covered the page with countless words crossed out, rearranged, and rewritten.

When the Words Won't Come: Word Explorer

by ProWritingAid Jun 06, 2017

Use ProWritingAid's Word Explorer to look at any word 14 different ways. Yes, it's true. Here's the list of ways you can check out any given word:

Dictionary
Reverse Dictionary (this shows you words with your given word in their definition)
Thesaurus
Lists (lists of dated terms, ironic terms, often used terms)
Alliteration (adjectives, adverbs, nouns, and verbs with the same letter or sound at the beginning or adjacent to your given word)
Clichés (to help you avoid them)
Spelling (good to know if you write frequently in American, British, and Australian English)
Rhymes
Pronunciation
Collocations (adjectives, adverbs, nouns, and verbs that come before or after your given word)
Common Phrases (2-, 3-, 4-, and 5-word phrases using your given word)
Commonly Possessed By (words that can own your given word)
Anagrams (in case you need help)
Examples (From books and quotes using your given word)

Are You Ignoring Your Best Ideas?

by Hannah Collins May 17, 2017

Bored by your own writing? You could be suffering from the toll of ignoring your best ideas. ‘But why on earth would I ignore an idea if it’s good?’, you’re wondering. The answer is that you probably don’t even know you’re doing it.

Growing The Writing Cooperative

by Stella J. McKenna May 11, 2017

“The Coop” is more than just a Medium publication — it’s a community. And it’s growing.

The motto of The Writing Cooperative is, “Helping each other write better”. This phrase ultimately guides all that we do.

What Margaret Atwood Taught Me About Writing Outside Your Genre

by Kathy Edens Apr 09, 2017

Margaret Atwood recently wrote an essay titled "Margaret Atwood on What The Handmaid's Tale Means in the Age of Trump" that caught my eye. There has been a swarm of interest around the book thanks to the upcoming series on Hulu, but I have to admit that I was curious to see if her political views matched mine.

What I found most compelling in the article, however, is how she talked about stretching herself outside her genre when she wrote The Handmaid's Tale:

"It seemed to me a risky venture. I’d read extensively in science fiction, speculative fiction, utopias and dystopias ever since my high school years in the 1950s, but I’d never written such a book. Was I up to it? The form was strewn with pitfalls, among them a tendency to sermonize, a veering into allegory and a lack of plausibility. If I was to create an imaginary garden I wanted the toads in it to be real."

Stop Researching & Get Writing!

by Lisa Lepki Mar 31, 2017

Researching can be fun. No, seriously. If you're writing about a new topic for a blog post or an interesting subject for a work of fiction, it's the details that help your writing ring true.

Some experts say you can't do too much research if you want your prose to be believable. There is a point, however, that research becomes a way to procrastinate the actual writing itself.

15 Productivity Apps to Help Keep Your Writing Goals on Track

by Wendy Dessler Mar 29, 2017

It doesn’t matter if you’re the most prolific writer in the world, distractions and writer’s block can get the best of all of us at some point or another.

How to Keep the Inner Flame Burning: 7 Tips from Outstanding Writers

by Scott Ragin Feb 13, 2017

Being a writer does not mean sitting and waiting for the inspiration. It's a life of hard work and perseverance, and each writer must find a way to keep their own inner flame burning.

Check out these 7 approaches from 7 authors, each of whom found their own methods that allowed them to keep producing amazing work.

When It’s Time to Swim Against the Flow of Popular Fiction

by Kathy Edens Feb 13, 2017

Many writing experts advise that you consider the current market as you write. If a reader buys one kind of book and likes it, they will look for more of the same. This notion is why you’ll see clone books pop up whenever there’s a breakout novel that runs up the bestseller list. Those writers follow the market.

Can Distractions Actually Boost a Writer's Productivity?

by Tess Pajaron Oct 12, 2016

As a writer, you may dream of a day where you can sit down at your desk and simply write, with no distractions. Instead, you have to deal with phone calls and emails, and people coming over to talk to you. You have the whole of the internet at your fingertips to distract you, as well as the sounds of the outside world. You can even be distracted by your own thoughts.

But what if we are thinking of these distractions in the wrong way? Could they be something that actually improves your productivity?

Let’s take a look at the ways in which this could be true.

Top Resources for Writers to Boost Creativity

by Veronica Hunt Oct 05, 2016

Writing narrative essays, short stories and other creative texts is a meandering path. Creative writing skills do not appear out of nowhere, they require determination and effort. To master them, you need to work not only hard, but also smart.

Creativity is a tricky business. Your notebook is a great place to apply your inspiration, test your skills and boost your energy – or to fail. And this is how you evolve. Failures and mistakes provide valuable lessons. However, to progress faster and to make your creative juices flow better, we have collected some practical and useful resources that will improve your skills. Let’s get started.

Four Writing Myths and Why They Suck the Ink out of Writers

by Eric Roberts Sep 20, 2016

Writing myths have been around as long as we’ve been writing—“real writers don’t get writer’s block”, “the tools maketh the story”, “writing is solitary”, and on and on—and they’re so common we often simply accept them as truth. But just how much weight do they really carry?

These are four of the most common writing myths. From tools to time to mindset, you might be surprised to find there’s less truth to them than you thought.

Write What You Know? Think Bigger

by Kathy Edens Sep 07, 2016

When I decided I wanted to be a writer, the idea of “Write what you know” made me feel like a whole realm of literary possibility was off-limits to me. And yet, my own breadth of experience felt too small to contain a great story. I began to worry that my lack of experiences in life meant that I had nothing important to say. Seriously, who wants to read about my boring life?

I wish someone had explained that the concept of “Write what you know” is much bigger and more nuanced than that.

Why Every Confident but Struggling Writer Needs a Blog

by Jaron Swab May 29, 2016

Considering how easy it is to start blogging, no aspiring writer should be without one. Below, I have listed the four key reasons why you need to set up your own blog asap, and then I have thrown in four important tips that will actually help you get started.

Before You Start Writing: 5-Step Prep to Make Essay Writing As Painless as Possible

by Kristin Fracchia Mar 14, 2016

Many of you are probably familiar with the panic or dread that can accompany the act of having an essay topic dropped in front of you on your desk. Nothing’s been written, nothing’s even been thought of; all you have in front of you is a topic, a blank page, and the instructions to “write.” As a former high school English teacher, I’m convinced the anxiety of not knowing what to write is the reason why so many of my students wait until the last possible minute to write an essay. Under pressure, you have no choice but to get started. But by then, it’s too late to write the best essay you could.

The solution is to start as soon as possible. Check out this 5 step prep process that you can apply to any essay you write.