Writer's block.

It is not fun. Trust me.

The only reason I am even writing a second article for this platform this week is because, upon getting a major case of writer's block, I came up with the fabulously lazy idea of making it my topic. That being said, here I present to you my take on this brain squelching conundrum and some small tips I have come across to help end it.

For me, and this may or may not be the case for you, but when I get writer’s block, it can debilitate me for hours if not days and can result in the loss of valuable time before a deadline. It almost feels as if my brain has been vacuumed and all relevant information has been displaced by squeaky clean nothingness.

That being said I have found a couple of tricks to ending writer’s block and getting myself back on track.

Listen To Some Music

I am not quite sure why this works so well for me, but if I take a break and listen to some music it really helps to both de-stress me and reorganize my thoughts.

Talk To Someone Who Is Also Writing A Paper For The Same Purpose

Seriously, if you get together with another co-worker or friend in your class and sit and work on writing your papers together, the flow of ideas back and forth can really help both of you organize your thoughts, clarify arguments and write a solid paper.

Re-Read Your Notes And Rough Draft

Going back through the materials can help you to refresh as well as potentially find new angles and arguments for your paper.

Cook Or Bake Something

Again, this may just be me, but cooking or baking lets me step away from the paper and produce something delicious (that you can even eat later when your writer’s block goes away)!

Just Write

OK, I will be honest with you, this one never seems to work for me, but I have had friends who swear by it. For them, if they just start typing whatever comes into their minds, then they are able to eventually organize themselves and work their way back to the paper (this process does require some extra editing to delete weird sentences such as, “The rainbow ostrich and the duck became best friends after that day."