I used to have writer's block.
Bad.
I couldn't write anything at all.
I'd stare at the white screen for what seemed like hours and then I'd quit in defeat.
One moment I wrote works of staggering beauty and genius, the next moment I was paralyzed with fear.
“Oh good golly, what if the writing isn't good enough?!”
What happened? How did I go from the greatest to the weakest in a blink of an eye?
Fear happened.
Fear is the killer of creativity.
It isn't that we actually run out of things to say, it's that we become frightened of saying anything.
In my own case two things contributed to this fear.
- I felt I had written a complete work of art and that anything else I wrote would take away from it
- I was making a lot of money and I was scared of changing anything and messing up the gravy train
So how did I overcome these fears?
It took a long time, actually.
And even when I did start writing again it was sporadic.
I languished in “writer's block” for what seems like an eternity.
Publishing here and there, but never producing the quantity of work I wanted to.
I let myself be controlled by the fear.
It wasn't until I understood the fear that I learned to control it.
We have to understand that fear is mental, and the mental can be controlled.
Like the Buddha said, “The mind is everything. What you think, you become.”
I decided to become great again. I decided to be in control of my own mind.
I committed to writing an article every day for 30 days.
In the process I learned that writing an article isn't hard at all… it's easy.
It's easier than easy. It's a breeze.
The hard part is committing to actually writing the article.
Once you have committed to writing the article, it becomes easier than easy.
But what happens before commitment?
I have ideas for articles all the time - constantly! I always have something I want to say.
But something seemed to always stop me…
I would sit down to write down the title and a few notes but then the mind would say, “That's enough for now, you can quit writing right now and finish this later.”
This voice is the voice of self-sabotage.
There is no later. Committing to writing later is like committing to never writing it.
This is what the writer has to overcome, this liar voice that says you can do it later.
No!
If you want to do the work you must do it right now when it is fresh in your mind.
It will never happen “later.”
The hard part is not writing, and there is no writer's block.
The hard part is simply sitting down and committing to writing the words.
DO THE WORK!
I'll do the work step by step. I'll write down the title and I'll write down some bullet-points.
The mind will say “this is enough” but I will force myself to continue. I will flesh out some more bullet points.
Again the mind will say “this is enough” but I will continue to flesh out more bullet points.
At this point the article is garbage and it's easy to want to quit.
But I keep going.
I flesh out more of the article, bit by bit.
Eventually the article that was garbage starts to become good.
I become glad I did not quit but again the mind will say “this is enough for now, finish it later” but I do not listen.
This is the voice of self-sabotage!
Don't listen to that liar voice. Keep writing.
Eventually you will have started from nothing and ended up with a completed piece of work.
This work did not exist two hours ago and the mind told you to quit, but you didn't listen.
You continued writing in spite of the voice telling you to quit and in two hours you made magic happen.
You created something out of nothing, like an alchemist or a wizard.
DON'T LISTEN TO THE LIES OF THE MIND
Buddhists have long known that the mind is a liar.
Just because we think something doesn't mean it is true.
This voice of the mind is not the voice of intuition.
Intuition comes from the gut, not from the mind.
Often, what we think is the opposite of what is true and good. The mind is the saboteur.
Writer's always think “that's good enough, Ill finish it later” but this is a lie - it is almost never finished later.
The work has to be done right now when it's fresh in your mind. The longer you wait, the less you will ever get done.
I often say that friends and family will try to get you to quit and live a normal life and not be creative…
…but the reality is that friends and family are hardly the barrier to success.
The harsh reality is that YOU are the #1 barrier to your own success.
If you cannot break past this barrier you will never achieve success in any field.
The mind will always try to get you to quit.
Quitting cannot be blamed on friends and family, quitting rests firmly on your own shoulders.
CONTROL YOUR MIND USING MIND CONTROL
The mind will try to poison you at every turn.
This is why we respect successful entrepreneurs so much…
Not because they are such wonderful inventors or businessmen, but because they have the ultimate power of will over the mind.
Because they can conquer their own minds they can conquer anything.
Creation is a triumph of the will over the mind.
We have to remember that it isn't the mind that gives us success.
Success is mindless - it is pure WILL that gives us success.
The mind just gets in the way.
Don't be mindful! Be mindless! Empty your mind like Bruce Lee's water.
Kill the mind and work from the soul only.
The mind is a liar, the soul is eternal.
Let the work flow from somewhere else and shut the mind up.
- This is what the Japanese call Zazen (zen)
- This is what athletes call being in the zone
- This is what modern psychology calls flow state
- Orison Swett Marden called it An Iron Will
- Steven Pressfield says Do the Work
- Jocko Willink calls it Mind Control
Victor Pride says BE MINDLESS.
The mind is a dirty, filthy liar and you must not listen.
How You Can KILL Writer's Block
Do this and make no excuse:
Set aside 2 hours to write.
In this 2 hours you must write.
It does not matter what you write, it only matters that in this 2 hours you do nothing but write.
You will want to quit at first, you will look for any excuse to quit.
But you won't quit. You will be zen.
You will notice the thoughts but give them no mind.
“During zazen, it is normal to have images, thoughts and emotions coming up to the surface, appearing from the unconscious mind. Do not pursue them or fight escape from them. The more you try to get rid of them, the more attention you give them, and the stronger they become. Try not to attach to them. Just let them go without judgement, like clouds in the sky.”
You will not attach feelings of good or bad to the thoughts of quitting.
You will notice them and then let them be. You will have no emotional reaction to them.
Those thoughts will be there but you will not quit. The thoughts will become meaningless. Empty.
In the end, you will win. You will not listen to the liar mind. You will create magic out of thin air.
You will ignore the mind and you will do the work.
Doing the work is easy.
There is no such thing as writer's block.
There is only listening to the liar mind, or not listening to the liar mind.
The liar mind will say “Quit now!”
You will say “Nope!”
This is all that is necessary to kill the fear that is known as writer's block.
The mind will tempt you to quit.
You will use the most powerful word in the English language…
NO.
In 2 hours you will laugh in the face of self-sabotage.
Now you are a man, a mere mortal, but in 2 hours from now…
You.
Are.
A.
Conqueror.
Haha.
Until next time.
Your man,
-Victor Pride
Writing every day In the 30DOD process has provided me with lots of value…
I actually remembered how much I love writing, it comes so easy for me to write.
However, the practice makes it perfect.
Now, I feel something is missing if I don’t write.
Some days, I did not write anything on purpose and I felt worse.
My mind was not clear and it was kind of betrayal to my potential.
It was such a big pleasure of having a new article at the end of the day.
The traffic of Bodmindrev reached to a number I could not imagine.
Moreover, people started to give me positive feedback by messaging or commenting.
These increased my eagerness to write more.
I must say without 30DOD, none of these would even start.
It’s funny but true… 30DOD made me pull the trigger and I have no intention to stop anymore.
Thank you, Victor.
If I spend a day and don’t write, it feels like torture. Great comment.
Just finished writing 5K words in 2 hours with the “MostDangerousWritingApp”.
What I recommend is writing a detailed outline of your post, listen to some Drum and Bass, open MDWA and the script and then HAMMER THAT FUCKING KEYBOARD.
App: https://www.themostdangerouswritingapp.com/
Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBhxtyrhFu8
Cheers
When I use drugs/PEDs my inhibition is off and the words just flow.
I don’t get so much writer’s block as I have this fear that it wouldn’t be perfect.
I struggle hitting the 300 word mark, but if I lay down a plan with detailed headlines and short explanations, then I can easily write down 1500 word articles.
Then my mind starts thinking. Should I use shorter sentences? Am I delivering a good point? How can I link this to other topics? How can I improve this and that?
I have like 10+ drafts and 0 published posts.
I know that feeling. I’ve written well over 200 drafts since I registered my site in December of last year. I could give the excuse that I was working on other things but I was writing everyday with every article about 80% complete. All I had to do was put a bit of polish on them and hit publish but I never did that. I would probably be a much better writer at this point with the feedback I’d have by now but here we are.
I still wouldn’t have published anything it the Thot audit thing hadn’t gotten me in a mood to write.
We both have to accept that our articles won’t be perfect for a while and that’s okay.
The upside to my current situation is that I don’t have to worry about running out of topics to write about. I’ve got a huge backlog waiting to be published.
Stop chasing perfection and just publish!
Practice makes perfect and worrying just holds you back.
Fantasizing about being a great blogger and teaching a lot of people is just mental masturbation. And as we all know, masturbation holds us back.
Just do it.
I know it all, yet I procrastinate.
Like I keep watching videos that I know won’t make any significant change in either motivation or education. I just keep consuming, instead of creating.
Think I’m gonna take a few days off the Internet and it will probably set me back on track.
Thanks for the comment beard bro.
It’s been seven days since you posted this comment.
How has your writing been?
Have you published anything?
Keep us updated, we want to see you succeed.
This is the exact same problem I’ve been facing.
It’s all in your head…
You read that a million times and think you understand it everytime you see it. But you don’t really. Not until you slow down and actually think about it, actually KNOW it.
And also you can IGNORE the voices in your head. Who fucking knew.
I don’t think I realized how much fear I’ve been living with until I read this article.
Fear of fucking what, success?? Who could be afraid of money, honeys and the body of a god?
Fear of judgement more like.
Anyways…
This has been an eye opener.
Thank you Victor.
Please do me a favour…
Mr. Pride this article is amazing. I want video for the same. It has pure motivation and I want to listen it everyday.
P.S. : If not video then atleast audio narration would be fine.
Do you plan on writing everyday for now on or just for the month.
This idea of regular writing works for any creative field, it’s awesome.
I’m doing 30 days of blogging for November (and will keep going afterwards). I have never written this much.
I set my alarm every morning, literally jump out of bed, eat, coffee then grab the laptop and write for a couple of hours - blog posts are flying out every day.
Then I sit with my guitar and write my next album for an hour or two… and new songs and arrangements just flow.
You can almost think of creativity as a muscle… the more you train it, the stronger and easier to use it gets.
Thanks Vic.
Thanks for the insight on writer’s block, Vic.
I have a related question I would like to get your advice on.
Having been writing on and off on my blog for about two years, I am far from where I want to be. The problem is not directly writer’s block. If I start writing, I have to heavily edit quite a lot because I wrote too much. But I overthink in another way, by being filled with doubt.
I continuously question myself:
* “Do I really have anything interesting to say that people want to read?”
* “Why bother? Who is ever going to read this?”
Any tips on how to overcome this type of doubt and tackle it head-on?
Thanks in advance.
“Any tips on how to overcome this type of doubt and tackle it head-on?”
Stop being a retarded pussy and just do it.
Ha! Fair enough. Should have expected that answer.
But thanks nonetheless.
Once you find the topic you want to talk about try to organize it as best you can, into sections. Maybe try an outline before you write the article. Check out my post on critical thinking maybe that might help. Best of luck.
Thanks for the tips. Will have a look at your article, Jack.
My problem is more finding and deciding what to write about, than actually writing the article itself.
After all, much of what I want to write about, has already been discussed by others - and often far more eloquently and by well-known individuals. In those cases it is easy to question whether your contribution would actually provide added value.
In retrospect, I’m likely overthinking - which was a major point of this article in the first place. So I suppose I just have to - like Vic said - stop being a retarded pussy and just do it.
Message received!
Great article, you hit the nail on the head. That how I stay in the zone. I pick what I want to write about (intuitively) and write everyday to complete it. I don’t publish every day on my blog but I write EVERYDAY until the article is complete. Then its onto the next one.
“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”
-Frank Herbert, Dune
Tim S. Grover calls it The Zone (yes this Tim Grover, trainer of Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Dwayne Wade). In his great book Relentless.