Most of us believe in the Writing Block, just as we believe in the Santa Claus, or the Tooth Fairy. I have always believed that writing block is nothing but the writer getting lazy. It can’t, however, be denied that most of us, at one point of time or another, go through phases where writing anything becomes difficult – almost impossible.
There are many ways to set yourself free if you get stuck with the Writer’s block, and in the age of the World Wide Web most of these solutions are just a mouse-click away. Many of these solutions are individual specific, and might work for some while being completely ineffective for others.
There is, however, one solution that I feel can work for almost everyone.
The solution is using writing prompts. The world prompt literally means, “to move or induce to action” and a writing prompt can be defined as, “a statement or group of statements about a specific topic, constructed to motivate thoughts and elicit good writing.”
Using a prompt is like turning the ignition in a car. Your mind refuses to come up with a thought of its own, so you provided it with an external thought to work with. The simplest prompt can be anything lying on your table. Let’s say it is a pen. You can start writing about the first time you used a pen, your favourite pen, any funny incident you were involved in that also included a pen, and the possibilities are endless.
I have usually found prompts to be quite helpful. I use the idea for one of my blogs, and that provides me with a constant stream of ideas to write about on that blog.
If, for some reason, you find it difficult to come up with writing prompts for yourself, there are a few sites that can help you with that too. Here are a few that you might find useful:
Do you use writing prompts to help you write regularly?
Happy to see you’ve overcome the writer’s block 🙂 Welcome back and happy scribbling!
I’m sorry to say that this article is quite disappointing. You google “writers block” and click on any link, and their fantastic insight is to use a prompt. The problem? I want to continue my story, not waste time on someone else’s! The prompts are childlike, as well… “Write about a blue schoolbus” “Write about your teacher going to mars” “Write about a cat and a dog getting along”. Sorry, but no. If I wanted to go back to kindergarten, I would have. I’m trying to write about a labyrinthine forest of fantasy and terror, not how special colours effect us. Thanks, but I’ll find another article.