Author Insights #1: Writer's block (Patreon)

Howdy guys! New series time! This will just be something I do every once and a while, and will cover stuff from my writing process to tips and tricks for writing (in case any of you also happen to be writers).

Let me know what you think!

Tips for New or Struggling Authors #1: Writers Block

Howdy all!

This is a new series of posts that I’ll be trying out, as it’s been requested by a few people. I’ve noticed these questions pop up all over the place over and over again. I’ve asked quite a few of them myself. Now that I’ve figured out a solution that works for me, I’m back to share my learnings with all of you.

So, right off the bat: If you don’t want to read the whole post, here’s the incredibly boring yet 100% effective key to beating writer’s block: Set a daily writing requirement. The number does not matter. 100 words, 1000 words, whatever you want. Just keep it at 1,000 words or below. Make it something you can reasonably do, and viola.

Now, before I get into the questions that this might have raised, I’d like to introduce myself. I’m AJ Nadir, and I go by the penname Actus for my webnovels. I’ve been writing fantasy novels for around 12 years. I’ve had some success (particularly on RoyalRoad) and some books that, well, are still waiting for their readers to find them.

I’ve written and published around 350,000 words in the past two years. I have consistently written 55,000 words within 2 weeks, and I write 1,000 words every day at a bare minimum. By the end of this year, I’ll have written at least 200,000 more words.

The funny thing is – until about 6 months ago, I was barely writing 1,000 words a week. I had a severe case of writer’s block, and while I wanted to write, I ended up doing just about anything else. In fact, I would probably still be loafing around if I hadn’t made a spur of the moment decision about three days before Christmas.

I decided to write a webnovel. I was, like many of you are, desperate to get some readers for my work. Of course, webnovels are… finnicky, at best. You need to pump out a constant stream of content or risk losing your readers. And so, I decided to write 1,000 words a day.

I won’t lie to you. It sucked. The initial excitement, like it always does when starting a new story, propelled me through the first 15,000 words no problem. And then it faded. New story ideas came up, and I wanted to slack off and make excuses.

However, I couldn’t do that. There were people reading my story, and I couldn’t just drop it. Thus, I wrote. After a month or so, it wasn’t as much of a struggle as it had once been. Don’t get me wrong – there were still days where I wished I could take a day off, but I didn’t.

I realized that it’s okay if your writing isn’t the best thing you’ve ever made. Just keep working. You can come back and fix it later.

At its very core, writer’s block is a very fancy term for procrastination. Writing is difficult and often unrewarding. It’s hard to tell if you’ve made something good, or if it’s just garbage that nobody will ever like. That can be incredibly demotivating, and that leads to what we call Writer’s Block. It’s so much easier to say, ‘I’ll write it later’, and think up cool ideas for stories or scenes that will never make it to a reader.

Now, that’s not to say that exceptions can’t be made. Your own life needs to take priority, so if something serious happens, sometimes you just have to take a break. In addition, you need to be careful not to burn yourself out.

Burnout is VERY serious, and it should not be mistaken for writer’s block. The two are very different, and Burnout can lead to depression and more difficulties. If you feel yourself seriously burning out / suffering from depression, you need to stop and assess the situation. Your mind is your greatest tool, and your writing can wait.

To wrap things up, I’m absolutely certain that some of you are either thinking or already in the process of typing out, “But AJ, you’re just telling me that writer’s block is procrastinating.”

Yep. There are going to be cases where this isn’t true, as everyone is different. However, I can quite confidently say that the majority of writer’s block is 100% procrastination or being lazy. It’s not fun, and it’s not what you want to hear. It’s still the truth. (Probably. I don’t know your personal situation.)

This advice isn’t anything groundbreaking, but it’s what worked for me. I hope it can help at least one of you as well.

Onwards and Upwards,

Actus.