Writer’s Block during the Revision Process

It comes like lightning­—first you can write, then you can’t. Whether you’re writing an academic paper or a passion project, it doesn’t discriminate. No stage of the writing process is exempt. Writer’s block is a well-known killer of goals, dreams, and even worse, grades. In her article, “Resolving Writer’s Block,” Dr. Patricia Huston compares it to a person who desperately wants to drive somewhere but can’t, because their anxiety is causing them to engage the emergency brake even as their foot is pressed firmly on the gas pedal (93). Even if a creative idea comes, their analytical side will kick in and find all of its drawbacks. Soon, the conflict will reach a point where ideas just stop coming.

In response to this mental conflict, many writers (me included) will seek out advice on the internet. The problem is that a lot of the popular advice about writer’s block tends to assume that you are on your first draft, staring at a blank page. In my experience, advice of this sort is helpful because it encourages you to forget about your audience and focus on getting your ideas out. However, it doesn’t account for the revision phase, where writers must anticipate how audiences might react to their words. Writers need a different set of strategies to get unstuck during this phase. With this in mind, here are 4 strategies to deal with writer’s block specifically during the revision process.

I. Manage your Expectations

According to Huston, writer’s block can stem from high expectations: either you overestimate how much you can finish in a single sitting, or you feel that you need to write a perfect draft on your first attempt (93). In the context of the revision process, high expectations can manifest as feeling pressured to make the draft conform to the standards that you think your intended audience will hold your finished work to. Sometimes, high expectations can run in the background and make you anxious. It’s important to consciously reflect on what your expectations at the moment are. Ask yourself whether your expectations for this editing session are realistic. Is your subconscious mind gearing up to send the second draft straight to publication? If so, that might not be a realistic expectation.

The DePaul University Writing Center’s practice of setting an agenda for your revisions may help you in this situation. Rather than trying to improve every possible aspect of work at once, pick a single concern and work on that. I once made the mistake of trying to flesh out character relationships and write improved dialogue in the same draft. I thought those concerns were interrelated—better character relationships lead to better dialogue, right? Yes, but it would have been more productive to devote my energy to establishing the characters’ relationships first, building a solid foundation. If you have decided to focus on high-level concerns like plot or characterization, don’t expect refinement just yet. Instead, expect exploration.

II. Take Another Perspective

Sometimes, high expectations can cause a writer to experience impostor syndrome, where they feel like they don’t live up to their own perception of what a good writer should be. There are a couple of strategies that can help you get past this while you’re revising. One is to approach your work as if you were someone else, such as a writer you admire. This allows you to “sidestep your preoccupation with the writing block and start thinking directly about the subject again” (Huston 95). Sometimes, I read books and spontaneously slip into an editing mindset, thinking things such as “This emotional beat would have hit harder if they showed it rather than telling it!” and “This character’s motivations could use more explanation!” Funnily enough, when I read my own work, these wonderful insights don’t come to me so easily. This suggests that it’s important to immerse yourself in a different perspective to gauge whether your ideas are being translated into the actual writing in the way you intended.

A strategy used at the Writing Center that can assist with untethering you from your perspective as the writer is reading your work aloud. This forces you to focus on the actual content of your project, not just the thoughts and biases in your mind. This is particularly helpful when you want to look at grammar, sentence structure, and flow. You might get ideas for what to change when you realize that a particular sentence sounds unnatural when spoken. One time, this strategy alerted me to several run-on sentences in my draft that I would not have caught otherwise! Sometimes, how you think your work will sound and how it actually sounds are two different things.

Having someone else read your work aloud is also helpful, since it allows you to more easily immerse yourself into the role of your audience. I also find that hearing my work being read to me makes it feel more tangible and real, which can help increase my excitement to work on it.

III. Reward Yourself

In Huston’s article, she asserts that it is important to give yourself positive feedback, even for minor progress. One way you can do this is by giving yourself covert reinforcement, which Huston describes as conjuring mental images that keep you motivated (94). Why do you want to complete this project, and what result do you hope to achieve? Whatever it is, try to imagine yourself achieving the intended result. If you’re working on an academic paper, consider imagining yourself getting a good grade, or imagining all the good things your professor might have to say about it. If you’re working on a story, try thinking about plot events that you’re excited to write. Think about the scenes that play out in your imagination. Something that gets me going like nothing else is imagining my story’s characters doing cool things or being funny. If you can access it, imagination is something that can inspire you to trust yourself or show you possibilities that you haven’t seen before.

Another type of feedback you can give yourself is overt reinforcement, which involves planning a reward for the completion of a task (Huston 94). They don’t necessarily have to be related to the work you’re doing. For example, you can reward yourself for editing a section of your draft by, let’s say, watching a fun video. Anticipating a reward can both distract you from the fear of judgment and push you to execute ideas that you would have discarded because of the fear of judgment. But use this strategy carefully. If you’re overwhelmed by a project, stepping away to distract yourself will only make you even more overwhelmed when you come back to it and realize that you now have less time to work on it—time that you just spent binging YouTube. In cases like this, this last strategy might be more helpful.

IV. Get an Audience Anyway

It’s important to remember that writing isn’t a solitary process. There’s no need to wait until your draft has reached a certain level of completeness before you seek feedback. Sometimes, voicing your ideas in front of somebody can provide you with much-needed reassurance. Or it can let you know whether you’re being too harsh on yourself, which will help you stop picking apart your work. Even better, you can gain new ideas that are based on how an actual reader reacted to your work- you don’t have to worry about trying to predict how your work will be read. In the past, I’ve benefited from having written feedback appointments with my fellow writing tutors. Written feedback appointments are my go-to because they are so easy to fit into my schedule and I can read the tutor’s comments over and over. However, synchronous appointments are better if you want to brainstorm or explain your intentions more thoroughly. In my experience, receiving feedback from a peer can help you manage expectations and see your work from a different perspective!

In Conclusion

Writer’s block during the revision process is a unique challenge that is sometimes more difficult than starting a new draft. When inspiration refuses to come fast enough, a well-written finished product can seem out of reach. However, reflection and collaboration are far more important to the revision process than simple bursts of inspiration, because they help you ensure that your ideas are executed well. So even if you’re not making visible progress, you can still lay the groundwork for a better draft.

References

Huston, Patricia. “Resolving writer’s block.” Canadian Family Physician, vol 44, 1998, pp. 92-97, https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2277565/.