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I don’t get writer’s block, it’s a failure of confidence and that’s not my gig, but I do have moments when the words don’t come, when the negative thoughts crowd in so thick that my muse gets pushed out. It’s the closest I get to the dreaded block. I Tweeted about it, but I get so many writers asking me how to avoid the block, that I thought I’d share what I do to push past it.

This morning it was nearly noon and I had no pages, and no desire to write any. I was really stuck.

I finally gave in and wrote in my meditation journal about the dreams I had last night, then I meditated for insight and guidiance. Still stuck. I went over to the other side of the house and got a yogurt. If I don’t have enough fuel in my body the brain starts getting fuzzy. Yogurt helped, but didn’t unstick me. Carri and I had a cup of green tea and conversation. That helped, because somewhere in there I realized that I had gone to bed thinking negative thoughts, it had haunted my dreams all night, and stayed with me to ride to work this morning. Once I realized that it was my own thoughts and emotions getting in the way of the writing I could begin to work through it. (And let’s face it, that’s usually what’s getting in the way.)

I’ll give you two phrases that I use on days like this. Phrase 1: "It is not what happens but your attitude towards what happens that determines how you feel."

We all know people who are unflaggingly optimistic in the face of bad things, and people who are unflaggingly pessimistic in the face similar things. The only change is the attitude of the person involved, the events don’t change at all, just the attitude, and that you can control.

Phrase 2: "Let go of the day you had planned and enjoy the day you’ve been given." This phrase works with different problems like, "Let go of the relationship you had planned and enjoy the relationship you’ve been given." "Let go of the job you had planned and enjoy the job you’ve been given." See, it works with almost anything.

Let go of trying to control everything and truly embrace the gifts you’ve actually been given, to do anything else is like being a kid on Christmas morning and you’ve got a lot of really cool toys, but you didn’t get the one Captain Atom Smash-Up Space Ship, and because you didn’t get this one toy you don’t want to play with any of your other cool stuff. You just sit and sulk about not getting the Captain Atom Smash-Up Space Ship, while totally ignoring the Captain Atom Space Station.

It’s the old attitude that if I can’t have exactly what I want, I don’t want anything. I have a tendency towards this so I speak from experience when I say, let it go, because to do anything else just makes you miserable and it doesn’t get you any closer to what you really want, it just stops you from enjoying your other wonderful presents.

I find that most "writer’s block" is actually anxiety or fear. Fear that you’ll never live up to expectations, or you’ll never be able to finish the book, or that nothing you will write down is interesting enough so everyone will hate it, so why bother. You feel anxious get up and brush your teeth, or comb your hair, put on makeup, wash the dishes, anything that is fairly automatic and doesn’t require a lot of thinking, and it must be a quick task. Do it, then notice how much calmer you feel. First, it’s something you know you can actually do, second it’s visible and solid. You brush your teeth, you taste that minty freshness. It’s not like writing where you aren’t sure how to start a scene, or if you’ve gotten distracted, those are too intangible, brushing your teeth is about as concerte and mundane as it gets. But whatever task you choose I find that it short circuits the panic and I can often go back to work and I am unblocked.

Someday’s just making hot tea is enough to break the cycle of anxiety. Meditation or prayer on a regular basis helps keep most stress lower, and for me exercise on a regular basis really helps me manage my stress. If I’m eating properly, getting enough sleep, exercising, meditating regularly, all this seems to help me avoid mornings like today. Also a few select friends that just seem to help refresh you and help you laugh are wonderful preventatives of black moods of all kinds. I’m blessed with several people in my life that seem to feed my soul and my muse. I’m lucky enough to be married to one of them. So, I meditated, had green tea, talked with Carri, had my aha moment and when I sat down back down to just get a few sentences started so I wouldn’t come back to a blank start of the new chapter this afternoon lo and behold I had 5 good pages in about an hour. I was unblocked. Yay!

May your own writing be muse-driven, and brilliant.