We’ve all been there—staring at a blank page, fingers poised over the keyboard. And yet, the words refuse to come. Writer’s block is a familiar challenge for many (all?) authors, especially those navigating academic writing. The frustration of feeling stuck can be overwhelming, but I have three ideas that will help.
I recently shared on social media three strategies that have been game-changers in my own writing. The post got a lot of positive feedback, so I decided to expand on the advice here. In this article, we’ll dive in to three creative solutions to break through writer’s block.
1. Journaling: The Power of Free Expression
In academia, where precision often takes center stage and many of us struggle with perfectionism, having the freedom to express your ideas in a journal without feeling the burden of getting the phrasing exactly right can free up your mind and help the words flow.
When you’re trying to crank out a journal article or book chapter, the pressure to get every word right can stifle creativity. Journaling can be a space where your ideas flow freely and take priority over deciding how to phrase each point you’re trying to make. In the pages of a journal—whether digital or paper—the fear of imperfection dissipates, making room for raw, unfiltered thoughts. You can ignore the red lines hovering under misspelled words (or turn this function off in Microsoft Word if it helps!), no one is around to judge your incomplete sentences, and there’s no need for eloquence.
In journaling, it’s not about writing the perfect sentence; it’s about letting the sentences pour out, setting the stage for refining and shaping the text later in the writing process. This frees you up from writer’s block, and you can transfer the ideas from your journal into your academic paper when you find it easier to reshape the language just how you like it.
2. Talk it Out
Here’s a unique idea that I know I heard about from somewhere else, and I apologize that I don’t remember the source (if I find it, I’ll be sure to update this article with the info!). If writer’s block has got you stuck, try talking about your ideas in a talk-to-text app on your smartphone.
As a mom of two young children, I’m always driving around town or waiting at school pick-up, piano lessons, or a doctor appointment. When I’m safely stopped (please don’t text and drive!), I often pull out my phone and use talk-to-text in Notepad to draft an email to my subscribers or even a blog post (like this one!).
It’s often so much easier to talk to someone (or… ahem… Siri) about what we’re thinking than to write it down. You might feel weird about it at first, but trust me, it works! Whenever you have an idea about your research or how to frame your argument in your current work in progress, pull out your phone and start chatting! You can clean up the text and expand on the ideas when you’re back at your desk.
3. “Just Blat”
If you really get desperate and are struggling more than usual, here’s another amazing technique: Just Blat! I learned this from my dissertation advisor (the great Larry Dodd, for all you Congress scholars out there). If you feel like you’re up against a brick wall and you really can’t manage to talk about or write any coherent thoughts, just write down anything. It could be words, phrases, disjointed thoughts, or even doodles! Just take down whatever comes to mind and don’t worry if it doesn’t make sense to anyone else—it makes sense to YOU, and you can clean it up later when you’ve gotten un-stuck.
When you embrace the “just blat” approach, you bypass the perfectionist filter and break through that wall of writer’s block. It can be particularly liberating when you’re grappling with the fear of producing subpar work, or dealing with imposter syndrome. The focus shifts from getting it right to simply getting it out, giving you a pathway to overcome writer’s block and setting you up to clarify and perfect later on.
BONUS: The Editor’s Touch: Streamlining Your Writing Process and SAVING YOU TIME
For scholars awash in the overwhelming demands of academia, time is unbelievably precious. Hiring a skilled editor is a strategic move to make you more efficient and productive—and to help you get published faster, without feeling so overwhelmed.
Hiring an editor to clean up your writing and apply the necessary formatting allows you to concentrate on the essential aspects of your text—content, structure, and argument—without the burden of meticulous proofreading. Just think: If you use the techniques we’ve discussed here to keep your words flowing, and you don’t worry about getting the language exactly right, how quickly can you finish that conference paper, journal article, or—dare I say—book?
Entrusting the final review of your manuscript to an editor ensures a polished final product AND frees you up to tackle other tasks. As a former professor who has published several peer-reviewed journal articles and a book, I know how to shape text into a product that even R2 will support.
So, try out these strategies and let us know how they work! You can join the discussion on Facebook, LinkedIn, or Threads. Remember—you’re not alone in these struggles. There are many solutions, you just have to find the one that works for you.
Happy writing!
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