Writer's Block, Just Cut it Out!

Do you ever feel as if your brain jumps from one topic to the next so rapidly you can hardly keep up? The bad news is that it can be difficult to focus for long enough to decide what to write about in your journal. The good news is that your mind has no shortage of thoughts, ideas and memories you can channel for inspiration.

Sometimes all you need to overcome writer’s block and fill up a blank page is some paper, a pen and a pair of scissors.

1. Take out a few sheets of blank paper and start writing down the first words that come to mind. Don’t overanalyze what you jot down— it doesn’t matter how scattered or random they seem (in fact, that makes it even more fun). Write words in columns, leaving white space all around each one. You will want a good mix of nouns, verbs and adjectives.

For example:

Nouns
• Ocean
• Autumn
• Coffee
• Friendship
• Money
• School

Verbs
• Love
• Dance
• Cry
• Work
• Run
• Cook

Adjectives
• Beautiful
• Hilarious
• Stressed
• Cranky
• Silly
• Crazy

2. Grab your scissors and cut out each word into individual slips of paper. Mix them all up on the desk in front of you and see which combinations jump out at you. Arrange at least three different sentence fragments and add other words to make a complete sentence out of each. Write down the sentences on a blank page in your journal.

For example:

Fragment: Work crazy autumn ocean dance silly

Sentence: Work is going to be crazy this autumn, so I want to escape to the ocean for the weekend and dance myself silly. 
 
3. Use each of the three sentences you created as the first sentence in a paragraph several paragraphs. You can write anything you like, as long as you are writing (take that, writer’s block)! Scrawl a fictional short story, an account of a real-life memory or a prediction for the future. If you start to stray from your original sentence, that’s OK. See where your inspiration takes you.

4. If you are on a roll and want to keep writing, add a few more words and mix up the slips of paper again for another round.

What is your favorite trick to cut out writer’s block from your life?