One of the most common expressions in the writer’s glossary is “The Writer’s Block.”

I don’t know why it exists or who invented it, but as far as I’m concerned, I couldn’t care less. All I care about is that it’s a freakin’ block and that you have to bypass it as if you want to arrive to where you’re going.

Now the question immediately becomes, what is the nature of the block?

Well, I don’t the exact composition but I’m guessing it’s made of doubts, fears, or maybe stupid worries that your post isn’t good enough..Etc. At least in my case.

Now that we’ve got that figured out, we can start finding solutions.

Personally, I start all my stories from the middle. Fuck the beginning!

The beginning is always the last thing that I write. I only start to write the beginning of the story when I’m satisfied with the process, when I already have some small bits of confidence filling my pocket and inspiration feeling my heart.

That’s the best way to deal with problems in general.

So what happens to that block? Well, it’s still there really, still laying on the road, next to that fork everybody keeps talking about.

I just took another route, that’s all. The road less traveled, there is less traffic in there.

Now I don’t have writer’s block anymore. That’s what worked for me and I hope it works for you too.

Draw the Outline

Before you start writing, before you sit on that chair even, it’s important sometimes to have a structure already set in place.

The first thing you do is to build the outline upon the which your story is going to revolve. It’s like the home that hosts your thoughts. Whatever you do, you have to start with the blueprint.

The being said, there are many great writers that skip this particular step, but what you don’t know is that they also spend a substantial amount of time thinking about the story than actually writing it.

That story has already been played thousands of times in their mysterious heads, long before it came into being.

Less is More

It sounds like a slogan from Desperate Housewives, I know! You can learn this crap from bumper stickers? You bet. But it doesn’t mean it’s not true.

The other day I was reading a book called “Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions” from 1841. What shocked me is to realize how certain paragraphs were running 17 lines deep.

And there’s a reason behind that. It’s because it’s from 1841.

In case you haven’t noticed already, people’s attention span is diminishing as the years go by. They say that you have to write at a 9th grade level if you’re expecting any degree of mass adoption.

On top of that you have to realize that there are 24 different open tabs on your reader’s browser. All of them competing for attention.

You have to understand people’s needs.

I’ve said it before and I will say it again, attention is easily the most overlooked quality we clueless bastards neglect the most on this planet. You have to take into consideration people’s needs.

After all, they are giving you their attention, and it’s the least that you can do.

So you have to write accordingly and in shorter paragraphs, all the best and brightest writers in the world have changed their style. And it’s because they don’t write only for themselves, but for you the readers as well.

Especially the readers.

So if the most brilliant minds are all writing in shorter paragraphs now, why should it be beneath me and you?

Think about it as if you were a new chef in an already established restaurant… Only that the restaurant serves Kosher food and that you’re in Israel.

Now I know, you make some killer pork loins with cherry vinaigrette, and you just want people to realize how great your dish is. Here’s the thing, it’s never going to happen. Because you can’t force your strengths into people, sometimes you have to adapt.

And that’s why “know your audience” is one of the most valuable advices you can get in media today.

Let me give you another example, this one is from Gary Vee, the man who trades in human attention. In one of his conferences there was once a guy that was insisting that he had a great app idea for weed smokers, but that he wanted to do it in Austin, TX.

Gary was trying to make him see that things don’t work that way, that you have to consider people’s needs first not force them onto yours, and that his best shot was to move to Colorado.

But the guy just kept insisting that he wanted to know how to shape things and make people love his app and use it in Austin.

So Gary had this brilliant quote to say:

“Look, either move the fuck to Colorado, or enjoy 15 to 20 years in prison.”.

Bottom line, people’s attention is precious, so act accordingly.

Small groomed paragraphs, because you can’t change their attention span, and more importantly, because they deserve that you take their needs into their consideration.

Either that, or you better start typing in Google: “People who love incredibly long paragraphs” and begin your quest to find your uncharted niche.

Now that we have that covered, it will be even easier to implement the next phase, which is to take the post by parts, and decide which part can you separately boost and improve. Some call it Polishing.

Disassemble your Story

Think of it it as if the story was your house, and now the walls are built and the rooms are separated, you can finally start painting the rooms.

Many comedians in fact use this technique, more so than writers. Let me give you a small example, this particular one is from Stanhope:

“I lost more friends to AA than Liberace did to the virus”

It makes you chuckle, right? As opposed to “my friends don’t drink anymore”, do you see the contrast?

You see, that’s the beauty of this amazing process, you read your post three or four times and see if there is some loose sentence or two that could’ve been framed differently for a better outcome.

Trust me, your readers will enjoy it too.

The Power of the Open Loop

The open loops are a true gift to storytellers. The process goes like this, you open a story with a loop and then you subtly start shifting gears to distract the reader, and then when they least expect it, you bring the first one back in the most unpredictable ways.

Let me give you an example from one of my previous posts from 2 months ago, How To Raise a Million Dollars with 200 Bucks and A whole Lot of Grit

I opened the story with this:

“What if I told you that you could raise over a million dollars while spending only $200 upfront? Would you believe me?”

And then I sensitively started shifting gears towards a totally different direction (different but also essential to the story as a whole) and I tried to captivate you the reader and bring you with me to embark on a nice little roller-coaster.

And then when the ride was at its highest point, I pulled the rug so to speak and hit the story with this:

Now, dear reader, if you are not asking yourself: When the hell is the million Dollar part is gonna come in?! Then there is something seriously wrong with you!

You laugh, I laugh but it’s a good way to close the loop and go back to our story.

Now, I’m not saying I master these skills, I’m saying it’s a very useful way to add some punch to your stories.

And by the way, this is not exclusive to story arcs, you can use it in lone sentences as well.

For example, in my one of my very first posts here on steemit, there was a part of the story that had to do with sending a 90 year old man to prison for feeding the homeless.

So what I wrote down was this: “They really exaggerate”.

To which I polished into this: “Bad judgment my ass! That’s a missing chromosome.”

So later I took that phrase and used it in a loop later on in the story. Out of nowhere, this part came in: “Why do they do that? Incompetence? Boredom? Maybe that chromosome we just mentioned?”

These are just a few examples on how to use these open loop techniques, but you use them as you prefer, season to taste.

And last but not least

Music

Up until recently, I used to listen exclusively Blues, and Classical music. The reason I choose those twon genres is because of the absence of words you can hear in the melodies.

But it wasn’t always like that.

You see, I used to listen to Hip Hop when I write. But then one day I started realizing that there were some words intruding themselves into my text.

At first it was nothing but a small inconvenience.

But it’s only when you spell ‘Hormones’ into ‘Whore Moans’ that you discover that there’s a whole new side to dyslexia.

So I stopped listening to Hip Hop while I write. It took me two years to switch back to listening regular music.

This is the current playlist that I listen to when I write, I play it on repeat, and change the songs every month. Many of the songs, I chose because of the poetic lyrical factor. Here it is, in case you find a song that you like:

The Only Thing Worth Fighting For by Lera Lynn

The Angry River by The Hat

Jolene by The Common Linnets (remix form the old version)

You Don’t Own Me by Grace (also remix)

You Know I’m No Good by Amy Winehouse

Dream On by Aerosmith

To the Moon and Back by Savage Garden

On addition to that, I also use some mood enhancers on occasions, like an Argentinean Malbec or a Chilean Carménère, but not necessary in any way.

Anyways, I hope that you found these small tips helpful, and if you like to know the rest of the tips, or if you like to read more of these things, you can follow me and it'll appear on your feed.

Happy weekend steemit family!