I’ve been dealing with writer’s block lately. Since I started writing articles and putting them on the site I’ve been pretty consistent in my output. There have been times when I’ve been busy, both in my personal life and with my day job and I haven’t been able to turn out content as often, but I’ve still been productive. Over the past weeks I’ve turned out nothing. I’ll find myself thinking of a good idea during the day, writing it down, and then getting up the next morning and not being able to write on the subject. I’ll make excuses, push it off until the next day, and then the self-doubt will seep in.

I’ve essentially been dealing with what Stephen Pressfield calls “resistance”.

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My solution? Write about my writers block. LOL.

Dealing with writer’s block is no different than dealing with the resistance we face every single day. That thing that’s stopping us from finding time to exercise during the day, or stopping us from completing that deadline looming project at work, or responding to those emails that are piling up in our inbox.

According to Pressfield these resistance points are based on fear, self-sabotage, procrastination, self-doubt, and a whole host of other demons that everyone faces to varying degrees.

From Pressfield:

“We’re wrong to think we’re the only ones struggling with Resistance. Everyone who has a body experiences Resistance. Henry Fonda was still throwing up before each stage performance, even when he was seventyfive. In other words, fear doesn’t go away. The warrior and the artist live by the same code of necessity, which dictates that the battle must be fought anew every day.”

So how do we overcome the resistance? How do we power through those periods of doubt?

The biggest thing is to remind ourselves that this is all part of the human experience. If you’re staring at a blank page on your laptop, unable to type out the first sentence you have to remember to tell yourself that there are literally thousands of people worldwide doing the exact same thing at the exact same time. Even the most prolific author of the last thirty years, Stephen King, has had moments where he deals with writer’s block— this coming from someone known to turn out 20,000 words every single day- year after year.

From King:

“There may be a stretch of weeks or months when it doesn't come at all; this is called writer's block. Some writers in the throes of writer's block think their muses have died, but I don't think that happens often; I think what happens is that the writers themselves sow the edges of their clearing with poison bait to keep their muses away, often without knowing they are doing it.”

A great writer telling us in a very creative way of saying we need to get out of our own way.

So what’s the answer?

Pressfield believes the key is to “start before you are ready”.

The concept is simple. Everything doesn’t have to be perfect. You don’t really even need to have a plan. In the case of writing, just start writing. Put words on the page. They may be terrible or just a random stream of thought, but they are the start of something. Combine the concept of starting before you are ready with structure. Get up every day and devote sixty minutes to the task.

In my early days in sales I used to make forty to fifty cold calls per day. If someone tells you they love cold calling and they are a “natural”, don’t believe them. It never gets easy. When I first started I would over-prepare, going over scenarios in my head, writing down script after script. I was basically doing everything I could do to not pick up the phone and call someone. At a certain point I realized that I was never going to get better unless I just picked up the phone and called someone. Every single day the first few calls were alway choppy. It was just like an athlete warming up. By the fifth call of the day I was in a rhythm and could go from there.

I was overcoming the resistance by taking action— starting before I was ready.

A famous example of implementing structure and starting before you are ready comes from one of my all-time favorites, Ernest Hemingway:

“When I am working on a book or a story I write every morning as soon after first light as possible. There is no one to disturb you and it is cool or cold and you come to your work and warm as you write. You read what you have written and, as you always stop when you know what is going to happen next, you go on from there.

You write until you come to a place where you still have your juice and know what will happen next and you stop and try to live through until the next day when you hit it again. You have started at six in the morning, say, and may go on until noon or be through before that.

When you stop you are as empty, and at the same time never empty but filling, as when you have made love to someone you love. Nothing can hurt you, nothing can happen, nothing means anything until the next day when you do it again. It is the wait until the next day that is hard to get through.”

Hemingway lived a busy life full of adventure. Through all of that, the fishing trips, the hunting, and the vacations he found the time to write every single day. Like anything, it was hard on some days. But he powered through and found that “juice.”

That’s the lesson. Every day we are going to have tasks that we aren’t particularly excited about but we know we need to complete. It’s human to go through the cycle of fear, self-doubt, procrastination, etc. We can’t let the cycle of doubt stop us in our tracks.

So how do we fight this cycle of doubt? How do we achieve this structure?

Like most every endeavor in life, it’s the basics. Get good rest. Find a quiet place where you can concentrate. Make sure your desk or workspace is organized and orderly. Put your mobile phone in a place where you can’t reach for it and the notifications are off. Finally, repeat the process every day at the same time.

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