Getting the Creative Juices Flowing: 3 Tips to Jump Start the Muse

This guest post is contributed by Tim Handorf, who writes on the topics of online colleges and universities

Writer's block. The phrase and the paralyzing condition it indicates has been used so much as an excuse for writers to put off work that it has become nothing short of a tired cliche. Still, we writers do know that sitting in front of a blank screen or page, staring for what seems like an eternity is an all-too real and perhaps an all-too often occurrence.

Many who give writing advice often go with a variation of the Nike slogan “Just do it.” But sometimes you can't. When I encounter this problem, I find that it's best to take a different route in which you don't have to wallow in self-loathing before punching out a few limp words on the keyboard. Instead, I take a break and play some games.  Here are a few tips:

1. Read poetry. Out loud.

I'm convinced that what we talk about when we talk about writer's block has a lot to do with the halting of words' fluidity. While it is imperative for every writer to read as much as she can in her chosen genre (i.e. literary novel writers reading literature, or romance writers reading romances), poetry is a surefire antidote to mental blocks by virtue of its very structure.

Poetry is all about rhythm, sound, and the meticulous placement of words. Longer-form novel or non-fiction writing that's forced under the sloth of writer's block is poorly worded and tends to simply sound bad. Reading poetry out loud for a few minutes helps to reverse these getting-the-car-started problems. Wallace Stevens in particular is a great poet to alleviate symptoms of writer's block simply because many of his poems, in addition to their exquisite sound,  discuss the creative writing process itself.

2. Play Scrabble.

Another great way to get the creative juices flowing is to play Scrabble. But I'm not talking about your grandmother's version. Once, when in the company of a few friends and drinks, we tried playing a different version in which players make up words. The words must, however, be constructed using prefixes and suffixes that do exist. In other words, they can't be gibberish. After playing a word on the board, the player must define the word, provide a part of speech, and use the word in a sentence. While this game may seem a little silly, I was astounded by how much it improved the facility and inventiveness of my writing using real words.

3. Write something else that you don't really care about for a few minutes.

Sometimes writer's block arises when we are too focused on “our baby”–the future outcome of our primary project–that we get nervous about goofing up and freeze. In these situations, it helps to write anything that has little to do with your task at hand. Have a memo or a few emails to reply to for your day job? Get those out of the way first. Even if it's something as small as a note to a loved one, even a few text messages, the exercise gets you focused on writing. After that's done, you'll be ready to tackle something more substantive.

These are just a few things I do whenever hit with a crippling, productivity-killing wave of writer's block. They won't necessarily work for everyone, but they are a good way to get you active. By putting you in the writing state-of-mind, they'll help you jump right in and finally get started.

This guest post is contributed by Tim Handorf, who writes on the topics of online colleges and universities. He welcomes your comments at his email Id: tim.handorf.20@googlemail.com.

Image: Flickr CC Patrick Q