There is no such thing as writer’s block. I can’t describe my dread for that phrase. What does it mean, actually? The mind can’t think up the right words? Is it stuck like frozen bowel movement?

The mind is constantly thinking. You can type as much idiotic blabber on the page as you desire, whenever you desire. It is called the first draft. Nobody said it was supposed to be perfect on the first attempt.

I did some research on the bozo who coined that term: Austrian psychiatrist Edmund Bergler. Out of all people, a shrink, because writers need another diagnosis in addition to the never-ending storm happening in our brains.

However, there is such a thing as mental constipation. The mind can spew ideas that come off hardened and dry. This is what’s called “shitty writing,” an accident that happens even to the best of us.

When writers sit down to begin, they have a notion of what they would like to write. Nobody says: “I’m going to see what my muse dictates today.” It doesn’t happen.

Writing consists of remaining seated on your ass for a prolonged amount of time. This is why it’s necessary to have some form of routine, to get comfortable in a chair, and punch those keys.

There is no such thing as inspiration, or a source where we get ideas. Writers write because they have to. We can’t think of doing anything better in life.

If you need inspiration or motivation to write, or accomplish that goal you have in mind, you won’t get far. The most inspired and motivated people are self-motivated and self-inspired. 

If you aren’t, you will waste valuable time browsing self-help information when what you need is a good slap in the face, at best.

Routine is necessary to get things in motion, because it helps organize your life, and your thoughts, to face the dreadful blank page. Everyone should have a routine. The best thing about it is that you are free to develop your own.

Mine are simple: black coffee in the morning, and write for a few hours. Editing and proofreading comes later, when my mind is fresh enough to spot my literary horrorshow. 

Writers write best at separate times of the day, and they should organize their schedule around their high-productivity time slots. By the time you begin your first novel, you will need to know this.

Half of the work requires discipline, which consists of deciding a time and place where to sit, power on the computer, open a word doc, wallop that keyboard like Shakespeare in boxing gloves, and repeat the following day.

Sometimes, one might not have the slightest clue what to write. If this happens to you, and often, it isn’t writer’s block. It is inexperience and insecurity. Even on my worst days, when nothing remotely mediocre spills out, I rarely leave a page blank. 

Yes, I was once inexperienced and insecure a long time ago. Breaking through that wall wasn’t easy, but there are ways to achieve it. How?

Type whatever your mind thinks, and what your heart feels. You can make a list of bullet points to guide you across ideas and paragraphs. Scribe as much mess you can on a page, take a break for the day, and come back to rewrite.

Start over. Research. Cut out repetitive stuff. Don’t be scared of the dictionary or thesaurus. They will be your best guide through language. Read what you wrote out loud, and listen to intuition when it tells you: “This sounds wrong. How can I fix it?”

Don’t be afraid to share your work, and I don’t mean a few bozos who will applaud you after reading just a paragraph. Show it to several people. Don’t force them to give you feedback. Let them do that on their own, and take notice of how they react.

Remember, folks will respond to your writing differently. They might not agree with what you say, some will complain about the structure or style, or they will simply hate what you wrote. Be ready for a bloodbath.

How will you know when your writing works? When nothing interrupts people while they read your work, they finish it, and later say that your words made them think about something they hadn’t considered.

If you don’t read enough books or lengthy material, big mistake! What, and how, you write is a reflection of what you read. Also, if you buy books, only to read the first few chapters, it will also be reflected in your work as someone who opens well but fails to develop deeply into the story or subject matter.

Most importantly, never be satisfied with what you wrote last. Even the most experienced writers know they can do better on their next publication. You can feel proud for having finished something, but never think it is great. Readers will decide that. 

Another helpful undertaking in my writing routine hasn’t to do with writing, but it is absolutely necessary for me: exercise and enjoying the outdoors. That last one is sacred, and the reason is very simple.

I would never compare myself to legends like Charles Dickens or Ernest Hemingway, except for one thing: we love long walks. I have done it since my late teens, and never understood why until recently.

Writers constantly need material. Rarely do we get it by reading books, or taking academic courses, or attending lectures. You might get ideas, but not the drama, or the meat and soul of the story.

No, we get material far from our writing bunker, far from any library or coffee shop. We get it from life, from experience, from discovering, from falling down, from suffering, from surviving.

Sometimes, we get so caught up in daydreaming about our characters and stories, along with the constant overthinking, writers need a moment to reconnect with nature and life itself. 

We somewhat lead double lives: the one in the practical world, and the one in our imagination. Both need to coexist peacefully, but when the subjective, non-practical universe becomes too tempting, we dig ourselves too deep. Then madness takes over.

In long walks, I’m able to crawl out of the abyss of my mind. It is the best mental health therapy affordability can buy. Also, I can exercise, push blood to the brain, have a moment to myself, meditate, and come back to continue the journey.

The process isn’t perfect. Sometimes, we are unable to finish an essay or a story. It happens more often than you think. Perhaps we might resume it later, or exhume it from the depths of oblivion, but it isn’t because the mind is blocked as some hacks like to say.

Ideas aren’t a frivolous, subjective figment of the imagination. An idea may not be concrete in its inception, but it is the start of something that could eventually become part of reality. 

And just like everything in the real world, ideas also need time, they need work, they need to be nourished, shaped, in order for them to grow, like nature and structures. 

Many of us don’t have the patience to allow ideas evolve into a better state than its fetal stage, like company bosses and press editors on a deadline. No surprise why so much media content is junk.

Writing is beyond an urge. It is an artform which uses words to shape an idea, and branched out into something bigger with knowledge or characters that hopefully makes an impact on strangers. 

If you are interested in what language can provide, like ideas, fodder for the imagination, information, or wisdom, told in a unique narrative style that is your voice, you will understand that “writer’s block” is psychiatric horse dung to sell prescribed medication.

Don’t let pseudo-terminologies like that delay you. Nobody said it was easy at the start. Once you get used to the dynamics, the routine, the actual writing and nothing stops you, you will be much farther ahead than you think.

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