Habits to Prevent Writer's Block

Not to become obsessive/compulsive, but developing little rituals or habits surrounding starting to write can help prevent, and possibly overcome, the kind of Writer's Block in which you sit down to write and nothing comes. In fact, this very type of block can be considered a habit--a bad one. Fortunately, from self-help psychology we've learned that it takes three weeks to develop a bad habit and three weeks to unlearn it by substituting a good one.

What kind of habit to develop? It doesn't really matter, as long as you practice it consistently, every time you attempt to write. Some people like to light candles or incense, play certain music, clean and arrange a desktop, assure an ergonomically correct posture, even to blog as a way of priming the pump, so to speak. For others the simple procedures of starting their computers, opening a word processing program and finding or setting up the right file can do the trick.

When I write by hand, I MUST have a certain kind of ink pen (black Uni-ball Micropoint, if you're interested), unless I'm writing poetry. Then I need a sharp pencil, with or without a functioning eraser. And I prefer being curled up on my couch with a full-size composition-style notebook. And lots of tea to drink. It's as if these signals tell my mind, "O.K., you're ready to write creatively."

This procedure of developing a set of habits to foster writing works best if first attempted when you aren't suffering from a block. Otherwise, you risk associating them with failure. Start with several elements. When you feel them firmly in place, you can begin to reducing the number gradually, one at a time, until maybe you need only one activity or object to induce the desired result.