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Analysis of Writer’s Block: Ways to overcome

Suman Limbu

Presidential Business School

BUS 600- Managerial Communication

Mr. MeghaRaj Adhikary

November 15, 2021

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Abstract

Writer’s block is common phenomena in the writing field. Majority of people may feel

blockings while writing something. In addition, writer’s block is the condition in which writer

cannot write something like normal condition they become vacant to write and think. To

overcome writing problem, we need to analyze causes and remedy of such problem. Here we

provide guidelines and idea about overcoming writer’s block. This paper explores and discusses

step by step guidelines about how to overcome writer’s block for the staff as well as authors.
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General introduction of writer’s block:

Most of the authors and writers have already felt such condition that leads them

unthinkable. In that situation they are blocked and cannot write on something intended.

Writer's block is a situation, in which authors and writers become unable to write

something they actually want to write and want to provide something towards their audiences. In

this condition writers become less productive as compared to their normal condition due to

various causes. Furthermore, writer’s block is authors’ personal issue that is experienced very

subjective depending on personal question that sensing creates slowdown while creating process

of thinking new and original idea. (Crosby, 2003).

Writer’s block is an unintentional a temporary or lasting failure and blockage to put

words on paper. It can serve and hit every writer in any stage of writing, if only for a few

minutes or a day or two, but they feel it as problem when they realize of being incapable of doing

in time and in target content. In addition to writer’s block, it is a depressive and irritated feeling

that to write something feels like a painful thought and one questions why one is even bothering,

irking and invading. It may come out of fear of failure leading to emptiness and loneliness that

surrounds the mind, and one even fails to begin. Thus, starts a downward spiral and writing looks

like a task taken up that would never be completed and lengthy. (Chintamani, 2014).

As we know every problem has its causes and such problem starts with that. Causes of

writer’s block can be several. We can categorize them as personal and interpersonal factors,

environmental factors, and skill development factors. To illustrate causes of writer’s block

broadly let discuss about personal factors of such problem. Personal factors remain inside the

individual so they are self-causes of their problem own. It includes fear of success, lack of

motivation, anxiety, depression, feeling of overwhelmed, perfectionism, perfectionism, issues of

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future, procrastination, feeling of low self-esteem, and fear of achievement. Similarly,

interpersonal causes of writer’s block are outside the writer that includes fear of criticism, sense

of responsibility, competition with peers, and loneliness. In addition, environmental factors also

affect the writers such as poor sleep, diet, exercise, headache, poor goal, and poor writing

content. Lastly, skill development causes consist focusing in output rather than process, not

knowing learning style, poor time management, and inexperienced in writing. (Bastug, 2017).

To overcome such problem of writer’s block is challenging. As being manger, I would

recommend following idea to overcome writer’s block to my staff:

General Stress Management

Many organizational staff feel stress and work overloaded on their duty time. Because of

these problems they cannot perform their work properly that lead them to writer’s block. So, to

overcome from this I advise them to rest, change line duty, mange timetable and visit in fresh

environment. Sometimes it happens because of issues of organizational problem including not

achieving goals and objective, failure of pre-plan etc. In this situation Focused Group program

may be helpful to trace out from writer’s block. Brainstorming is the process of collecting ideas

from peers on given situation and problem then finding best ides to solve the problem. (Bastung

et al., 2017). Otherwise, it would be better if they take a stress management conference for

getting idea about controlling stress. There are several ways to reduce stress management. For

example, effective communication about the duties and responsibilities. In addition that pre plan

also can about work reduce stress in the staff.

Doing Some Research

Business crises for instance excessive decline in the demand of product, shifting of

customers’ preferences, raising the price of raw materials, economic imbalance etc. affect the
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business directly. To avoid and minimize such crises early research is necessary. Sometimes

writer’s block strikes because you don’t know enough about the particular issues. In this case,

the best way to work past it is by doing additional research and prediction about probable

events. Talking with expert respective field may be helpful. They can offer tips about how to

approach the problem and resources to check out.

Avoid the Perfectionism

Most of people feels that they must have perfection on their job. This may occur because

those staffs who have already contributed best work in their task. Similarly, this creates pressure

on them to do the perfect piece of work as they have already set some standards in their previous

task. The fear of rejection creates stress in on the staff. As s result it produces writer’s block.

Skill Development

Writer’s block may our sometimes lack of skill. Technique for developing skill can be

exploring of meaning, change of focus, dialogue with work, finding weakness, visualizing the

condition, regular writing etc. By the way computer software and chips also may become a

reliable source of overcoming the writer’s block. (Schuman, 1996).

Staying Active and Goal Oriented

As being manager, I primarily want to suggest them the importance of organizational goals

and objectives to make them alert and active. It will help them to be more focused on their task.

Probably helpful for overcoming the writer’s block.

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Building Attitude

Attitude is the mix of beliefs, culture and experiences owned by a person. It can be

achieved over a certain time period. My recommendation to my staff is to create your characters

beforehand either it can be positive or negative to others. When you start getting into your story,

you don’t want to get stuck figuring out your characters’ appearances or who they are. Start out

with a complete list of your characters, what they look like, and what their basic personalities are

to make a cheat sheet for yourself. This makes the process of writing easier, which can keep you

from getting hung up on details that could derail your writing process and lead to frustration.

Conclusion

Writer’s block is a major issue that most of the authors feels about. It is the situation in

which the writer’s and authors fail to put words into paper. It has various causes most notably

lack of confidence, lack of experience, lack of knowledge about the topic, environmental factors.

Despite this causes, the writer’s block can be overcome. The writers can overcome from this

crisis situation by practicing free writing and regular writing which helps to gain confidence

while dealing with any topic, maintaining right mindset and attitude while writing, skill

development, remaining active and skill oriented.

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References

Bastug, M., Ertem, I. S., & Hasan, K. K. (2017). A phenomenological research study on writer’s

block: causes, processes, and results. Education & Training, 59(6), 605-618.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/ET-11-2016-0169

Bastung, M., Ertem, I. S. & Keskin, H. K. (2017). A phenomenological research study on

writer’s block: causes, processes, and results. Education + Training, 59(6), 605–618.

https://doi.org/10.1108/ET-11-2016-0169

Chintamani. (2014). "Challenges in Writing"--The Writer's Block? Indian Journal of Surgery,

76(1), 3-4. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12262-014-1058-x

Crosby, C. (2003). Writer's block, merit, and the market: Working in the university of

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https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/writers-block-merit-market-working-

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Schuman, S. H. (1996). The Latest Antidote for Writer's Block. Journal of Agromedicine, 3(4),

1–5. https://doi.org/10.1300/J096v03n04_01

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