How to Overcome 3 Types of Writing Blocks (or “Why You Should Write When You Don’t Feel Like It”)

Your Writerly Soul Needs to Write

If you’re reading this, then you have experienced the feeling of not wanting to write. Is it important to write when you just don’t want to, or feel up to it? 

You know the feeling: It’s time to write, but you don’t feel like writing. You ask yourself, is it so wrong to just take today off and write tomorrow? From there, you begin activities other than writing. You clean something, watch a TV show, or spend time with friends, but all the while a voice deep inside is beseeching you to write. 

And the voice doesn’t rest until after you loose consciousness in sleep. All the while it says, “You should be writing right now.” You try to ignore the voice, but it never leaves. 

You could say it is the curse of a writer, unable to take time off without overthinking. Or, you could see it as a gift—the writer in you passionately pointing out the need to write something down. 

But should this writer be given a break when they don’t feel like writing? 

It depends on the circumstance. 

Depending on what your block to writing is will decide what is more beneficial—to write, or not to write (that is the question, isn’t it, Shakespeare?). Blocks can come from procrastination, tiredness, or in some cases, despondency. Whatever the cause, each case and each writer must find their own solution. 

Most often, the writer voice inside you will be right—you should write.

What this post will explore is the benefits of writing when you don’t feel like it, so you may decide what is the best path for you to take on your writing journey. 

3 Possible Causes for Your Block

1. Procrastination

Many writers would agree the majority of their blocks are from procrastination. Because the root of procrastination is fear, there is usually something about your writing that is scaring you from starting. 

When procrastination is your block, you need to write. 

The best fix you can employ is to identify what is scaring you, and work through your fear.

2. Exhaustion

Other times in a writer’s life the block is caused by tiredness. It has been a long day, perhaps filled with irregular activities and events, and your mind and body wants a break from working.

When exhaustion is the cause, whether to write will be up to your judgment. If you are exhausted everyday, writing tomorrow will be no better than now, so might as well get some words written. 

Yet if you are worn out physically and mentally more than normal, getting rested to write the next day might be the answer.  

3. Despondency

A third type of block you can have is despondency. This is when you aren’t entirely procrastinating or exhausted, but you can’t bring yourself to write. It’s when you want to write, but you have no energy or passion to get started. 

With this block, I would earnestly recommend pushing through and writing, even thought it will seem impossible when you start. 

When despondency is the problem, sometimes doing what you don’t feel like you can do is a helpful tool to overcoming the despondency. 

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What Should You Write?

This question will be answered by which of the above causes are blocking you. 

If you are procrastinating, it might be good to work on what you fear—overcome and get passed it. 

If you are tired or despondent, it doesn’t really matter what you write, as long as you write. Write some fiction or a journal entry, doesn’t matter—just write what you feel called. 

Why the content doesn’t matter is because the goal is to start. Often when you start, it is easy to keep going. At the least, tomorrow’s writing will come easier if you have written today.

The Benefits of Writing When You Don’t Feel Like It

If you are still unconvinced of the above reasons to write, here is a list of three benefits you will reap when you push through your blocks and write. 

1. Maintaining Habits 

The road to your goals will not be traveled to the end with will-power, but with habits. To make a habit, however, you must be consistent to write everyday for some time. 

If you keep taking days off a habit will never form. Keep writing consistently, and writing will become second nature. 

2. Progress 

Whether you write 100 or 10,000 words, you have made progress in your writing. Each word counts. As long as you keep moving forward, you will finish.

And at the end of the day when you have made progress in your writing, you will feel good and proud.  

3. Fulfilling Your Writerly Needs 

Whether you feel like writing or not, your writerly soul needs to write.

Whenever I come up against a block and believe the solution is to wait till tomorrow, the block often extends with my wait. The times I wrote even when it was hard, I found the block shrunk from a boulder to a pebble, and my whole day became better. 

A writer needs to write, to grow, to practice what they were made to do. When a writer writes, they feel good. 

Words are a part of us, begging to be printed on white pages. 

Do yourself a favor, and write. 

We Can’t Stop

When the voice inside is telling you to write contrary to your immediate feelings, most likely you should write. The voice inside is not often wrong—the benefits of writing at those times will long outweigh the temporary gratification of deciding to wait. 

Writers must write, that is why no matter how much we don’t want to write at times, we will never stop writing in our lives—why we can’t stop writing. 

A happy writer is a healthy writer, and a healthy writer must write often. Once you push back at the block, you will find writing won’t hurt you or be as scary as you thought. When you push forward you will feel better, fulfilled, and  proud of what you accomplished. 

Featured Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash