In a recent post I mentioned writer’s block and writer’s overload.  “What Holds You Back From Writing.”

Today I want to cover ways to help you overcome writers block but I also want to raise the question of whether or not one can lead to the other (writers block and writers overload).

I referred to writer’s overload as having too many ideas to write about, which could translate to having so many ideas you can’t find time to write.  I also mentioned that “idea” overload can cause you to feel overwhelmed and not allow you to focus on one topic.  In a sense this can cause writer’s block.

So lets define writer’s block.  Writer’s block can be an inability to choose which points to cover for those writing non-fiction for the web or a magazine.  It can be an inability to move a scene or character forward in fiction writing, or it can mean lack of inspiration or creativity for poets and lyric writers.

Writing, in any form, is basically thinking.  So maybe it’s a “Thinking Problem”.  Thinking is basically analyzing.  To write about any subject, fiction or non-fiction, is to analyze it.  Lets think about how we can analyze our subject and break it down into smaller parts.

Some people call this clustering, some call it mind-mapping.

I’m going to use fiction in this example and mind-map a character.  We have a hero; our central character.  We need to give him a name, like John.  (I know, boring)

We have John and we need to define who he is.  Can you tell who he is just by his name?  Can you visualize John?  Probably not yet.

We need to get some basic information about John; his personality, his strengths, weaknesses and his background.

View Character Mind Map image in new window

If you look at the diagram (I’m not an artist) you can see I’ve placed John in the center rectangle and the things I want to define about him in circles, each with lines connecting them.

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