We’ve explored writer’s block in previous posts (Part 1 is here and Part 2 is here). Put simply, writer’s block is a constellation of feelings and experiences that is driven by cultural scripts and expectations about writing. The more we buy into some of these scripts, the more likely we are to get stuck when things don’t go according to plan. And the stuckness can really wallop us!
Today we’ll focus on a small piece of this stuckness: overwhelm. This is the “ugh” factor—and it can be quite subtle. You can recognize it as a state of heightened indecisiveness, irritability, and distractibility. Overwhelm keeps us stuck, keeps us distracted by things that are normally easy to tune out, and may push us to seek distractions. These pieces feed off of each other: we might get stuck with writing, and five minutes later we’re doing something else without being sure of how we got there.
Fight, Flight, and Freeze
How do we come out of overwhelm? Here we’ll use some language that comes from psychotherapy; make sure to take it with a grain of salt. Overwhelm is best thought of as a defense mechanism. When we perceive danger, we instinctively go into the “fight or flight” response. This much is well-known. Less well-known is another mode of this response: “freeze”. This happens when there’s perceived danger but where there is no obvious action to be performed in the situation. So the nervous system freezes—it basically shuts down all non-essential function.
Now, writing is (hopefully) neither a matter of life and death nor of obvious danger. But when we hit on hard patches while writing, we become more aware of the stakes of our writing project. And sometimes we just freeze: we shut down, and we lose the capacity to decide how to move forward.
This really sucks. But the good news is that these states typically don’t last very long. And we can learn ways to move through them.
Psychotherapy literature has one simple recommendation for moving through freeze states: just decide something. You don’t have to solve the problem. You just have to decide to do the next thing. Step back from the plan. Find the next, tiny decision. You’ll find that at some level you can still work. And getting in touch with that un-frozen part of yourself will make all the difference.
The Two-Minute Rule
Another insight from psychotherapy says that intense emotional states are actually quite fleeting. Even rage and terror start dissipating after about ninety seconds, provided we are not actively working ourselves up (which is all too natural sometimes). Overwhelm in writer’s block is nowhere near as intense as rage or terror, so our recommendation is: when blocked, try to find something to do for the next two minutes. You might find yourself much less stuck on the other end. Write a sentence. Talk to yourself about what you’re writing. Write a comment to yourself. Scribble on a piece of paper. Doodle. We have some suggestions in our fact sheet about getting unstuck. But what works for you will probably be pretty personal, and you’ll already have a good sense of what to try the next time you’re feeling overwhelmed and having trouble writing.
So, to summarize: overwhelm is subtle and hard to catch, but it doesn’t last, so long as you don’t play into it. Give yourself two minutes and try to stay in the game in whatever tiny way makes sense for you. You will probably find the stuckness breaking up.