Tips to Get Out Of or Avoid a Writer’s Rut

Recently in my own blog I’ve covered the topic of writers block a few times.  Sometimes we don’t suffer writer’s block, but writer’s rut.  Today I want to give some tips on breaking out of a writers rut.  Generally speaking, most web writers write content and it can be fun and adventurous because we learn new things, but sometimes it can start to feel more like work than we want it to. Even topics we love can become overwhelming if it’s the only thing we focus on.

What can we do?  Try something different, get away from content for a day. Not only can these exercises help you overcome a rut in your writing but they also awaken the creative side.

Write poetry.  You’re not a poet?  That’s fine, just grab one of your favorite poems, maybe one by Poe and rewrite it.  It doesn’t have to be a masterpiece, the objective is to use words you wouldn’t normally use in writing and to write something different.  Poetry is a great outlet for expanding your vocabulary too.

Write song lyrics.  You can do this the same way as with poetry.  Most song lyrics are short stories, simply rewrite them and see if you can keep the same meaning in the words, or write the opposite.  If it’s a nice little love song, turn the words around to be a bit mean, or poke fun at the song.

Use word search puzzles.  Do you ever work on those ‘circle the word’ puzzles?  I love them and most come with a general topic so every word in one puzzle relates to the topic.  Take those words and write a short story with them, just like in English class.

Write outside your niche.  Choose a topic that you’d never write about.  I mostly write about writing or heatlh related topics, so a good topic for me to choose outside my niche could be car racing.  I’m not a bit interested in car racing, but focusing on something outside of my topic area and writing about it always teaches me something and breaks the rut. 

No one but you will be reading this material so it doesn’t haven’t to be perfect, it just needs to get your focus on something new for awhile.  More often than not you’ll come back to your favorite topic with renewed interest.

Write a guest post for a blog outside of your niche.  You’ll want this one to be as informative as it can and be well-written.  Taking the focus off your own blog can help break a rut too.

Read a book.  Writers for the web are always reading, looking for information so we can learn more about our topic or how SEO works, but how often do you read a book?  Do you ever just pick up a novel and read for pleasure?  I’m quite amazed at how many web writers never read a book, and a lot of them don’t even own a book. Writers read, at least they’re supposed to.

Step away from the computer.  Okay, don’t fall out of your chair, just go get a pen and some paper, I’m sure you have some laying around.  Take the pen and write some words on the piece of paper, feel the flow of the ink as the words appear.  Kind of nice isn’t it?  Before the days of computers we had to use pen and paper or even an old manual typewriter (tap, tap, tap, ching, tap, tap, tap).  Writing with pen and paper is a bit nostalgic these days, but it’s like going home after being away for years.  It’s almost like getting in touch with your roots.

Doing things the same way every day becomes dull and boring.  A writer’s life doesn’t have to feel like work or something we dread.  I mean, if we wanted a real boring job we’d be clerks at the grocery store.

Schedule time once in awhile outside of your box.  Write a short story, read a short story, or do a puzzle.  If you’re one of those that feel like you need to be productive, read the dictionary.  Start a list of new words and write their definitions.  The key is to not let the job you love feel like, well, a job.  Doing things out of the ordinary  not only keeps you refreshed it keeps your brain active and refreshed too.

Written by Patti Stafford from Patti Stafford
Posted on April 13th, 2009 and filed under Writing
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