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7 ways to beat writer’s block and get over creative slumps

Updated on 29 September 2015

A video starts with a script. A script starts with a blank page. A scriptwriter usually starts with no idea where to actually… start. Here’s how I get my brain to turn over at half past lunchtime on a wet Wednesday:

 
Quick, easy, no commitment!

Your eyes are always open

Nearly always. Unless you’re asleep. The point is, everything you see could inspire creative genius, so pay attention and take things in. We live in a visually busy world so look around, think, remember and let things percolate in the back of your brain.

writers-block

Pipedrive logo The CRM platform to grow your business
  • Great for entrepreneurs
  • Powerful data analytics
  • Manage sales and data
Rippling logo Manage all your employee data
  • Run in 90 seconds
  • 100% error-free
  • Automatic tx filing
Wix logo Powerful web builder and advanced business tools
  • Great for startups
  • Powerful web page builder
  • E-commerce available
Planable logo Supercharged content planning
  • Great for marketing
  • Better than lists or sheets
  • Manage social media
Webador logo Create a new website in 10 minutes. Easy.
  • Launch your website fast
  • Powerful data intuitive
  • No coding skills needed

Do the research

You know you’re a writer when your browser history has already covered Pink Floyd, improvised explosive devices and German sewage processors before midday. You’ll be looking things up and finding things out once you’ve started, so stop procrastinating and get on with it. If you’re working to a brief, Google your title and see what comes back. Click around. Be interested. Find things out and fit them together.

Check out the competition

While you’re scouring the search engines, be sure to notice what other creative types are putting out. You’re not going to imitate them, you’re definitely not going to steal from them, but you’re going to learn from them, be different from them and be better than them, which means you need to know what they’re up to. You can’t go against the flow until you’ve found the river.

Think cinematically

Always, always, have your technology in mind; think about what it can do and watch how other people are doing it. Every time you watch a video, ask yourself “how’s that shot? why that cut? why that font? why’s that in black and white?”, and every time you script a video, think about how it’s going to look. Even if you’re stating the obvious, keep your craft techniques in mind.

Multitask

No, that doesn’t mean “faff around on Facebook for an hour, waiting for the Muse to grace you with her presence”. It means get up, away from the desk, and be in a different space, doing something different for a while. You’re not giving up on your writing, you’re just putting it on the back burner and seeing what boils away. Chances are you’ll have the idea you’re looking for once you’ve stopped frantically looking for it, which is usually when you’re in the middle of something else…

Start in the middle

I’ll level with you – I did it when I was writing this very piece. It’s not easy, writing a face-slamming introduction before you even have a clue what you’re actually going to say. Start in the middle, riff off some ideas, then go back and write the introduction and pretend you planned it that way all along.

Remember the plan

Nobody’s content is created in a vacuum. Whatever you’re doing, it’s part of a strategy, it has a target audience and a goal to achieve. Go back to the marketing plan, bone up on the brand identity and put your eyes back on the prize.

Reviewed by , Managing Director

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