How to deal with writer’s block

Welcome to Limitless!

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To be honest, I didn’t know about the term ‘writer’s block’ before I started writing, but sure, the thought of ‘what if I run out of ideas, what if I don’t know what to write anymore’ came. However, I never fully processed or thought it out. I didn’t know it was really a big deal for some people. 

Some people have prolonged writer’s block for as long as ten years or more but it could also be as short as just an hour. So, writer’s block is when someone who writes is stuck with content, unable to think or come up with ideas. 

I think writer’s block can be a metaphor for us being stuck generally. There must have been some points when you have been stuck with your projects, assignments, ideas, contracts. Things like this happen and it’s totally okay. 

The first thing I do when I’m stuck with writing or any assignment generally is that I don’t dwell on it too much. Don’t get me wrong. It’s not like I don’t brainstorm, I do. I just don’t brood over being ‘stuck’. 

Let me give an example. There is a whole backstory😂. After writing the first three articles on this blog, I was like ‘okay, you’ve introduced the blog, it’s about fiction, relationship, and real life experiences. I’ve written the introduction, two parts of a real life experience, and relationship. What about fiction? I don’t even know what part of me was asking this question, whether it was the positive mind or negative mind. I’m saying this because I have never believed in my ability to write stories or fiction specifically. Someone has even said to me before that “writing is a gift”. And I never believed I had the gift. Ooops. That slipped. Spoiler alert. We are gonna talk about that extensively someday. 

Okay. So, I was stuck right. I had never written fiction, how do I go about it? One thing I did was not to dwell on it. I prayed about it though (Jesus is my first love🥺🥰). So, like a normal person, I went on Twitter and was just scrolling casually because I believed it was settled, I didn’t know how but I knew it was. Then, I came across this story while I was scrolling. It was about how someone heard footsteps and his dog was really barking. Very twisted story I must say. You don’t even wanna hear the rest🥴😩. In conclusion, it was a ghost the person was talking about. 

When I read it, I didn’t even think I could write about something like that. I just shared with a friend and we both laughed about being scared. Later that night, while my thoughts were straying, something dropped in my mind, ‘what if I write about Miss Koikoi?’ Where the thought came from, I don’t know.😂 Miss koikoi, how😂😂.

I knew that for me to make it real I had to be the main character. I don’t want to say if it’s real or not, but if you’ve not read it, this is your cue to do so. Femi, my good friend says it’s his best overall story on Limitless. To read, just scroll down the list of titles on the main page and click on older posts, you would find ‘My Scary Experience with Miss koi koi’. Then come back and tell me if you think it’s real or not😉. 

The first part of ‘The Feyinti Series’ too was actually as a result of being stuck and it ended up being a full blown amazing four-part series. Thank God for you my amazing Limitless fam who wanted more! How I started writing it was so funny. If you read the first two paragraphs of the draft, I’m sure you would ask ‘what the heck is this?’ I was just writing anything that came to my mind. I knew I wanted to write a romance story, so I started writing ‘rubbish’ and anything that came to my mind, and it just made sense at the end of the day. Because I’m like oh, this could happen, let me cancel that and this and that. 

So, I had an idea of what I wanted to write and I just started writing and everything flowed. 

Things I learnt from those two experience are: 

~Don’t stress about how you are stuck 

~Be yourself and be open to ideas 

~Start writing anything that comes to mind. Relating that to life- start from somewhere. You might not really know that it’s in you till you start

~Not everyone picks ideas from looking at a wall or an object (like the whole mystical stuff😂), most times I have to read books, watch videos or reflect on experiences. I’m not saying I don’t get experiences from objects too, I just don’t focus on it. 

The second thing I do is ask for suggestions. Trust me this really works too. Since I started this blog, I’ve seen that I have amazing friends who always chip in their suggestions anytime I ask for it. I’m not even kidding. This has helped me a lot. Shoutout to Toyosi, Edna, Waliat and Aremu konkolo🤣. Everyone who reads inspires me and your feedbacks too are such a great motivation to keep writing.  

One thing I’ve noticed about these people who give me suggestions when I ask is they always confirm what’s been at the back of my mind. It’s like, ‘oh, there is nature, I might write about it someday’ but I don’t really see the need and urgency till someone suggests it. Limitless fam is such a blessing really. 

These are ways I deal with being stuck. People have different ways of having circumstances and these are just suggestions on how you can overcome this particular problem. 

Soooo, let’s stop here for today, shall we?☺️

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Thanks for reading guys. Do you have a way of dealing with being stuck or overcoming writer’s block? Let us know in the comment section. Let’s learn from each other. 

Till next Saturday, bye!