I recently received an email from a friend who is retired and writing his memoirs for his grandchildren. He shared what he did to get out of writer’s block and onto what his audience wanted to hear. After reading it, I knew I had to share his thoughts with you. Thanks, Dave, for sending this to me and for allowing me to share it with others.
There was a time about three or four months ago when I had a significant block for about thirty to forty minutes. Maybe that doesn’t qualify as a true block, but for me it was. I was sitting down to write and I could not come up with what was the next thing I wanted to say. I prayed and nothing came.
After that period of time I mentioned (thirty to forty minutes), I suddenly recalled what you had written in your book. I think it was the Spirit reminding me. You said in effect, “Don’t try to figure out what you want to say to your audience, but ask yourself what your audience wants to hear from you.”
As I thought about that, I realized the truth of that statement. I was trying to figure out in my head what I thought I should say rather than listening to the Holy Spirit tell me what to say. In my head there was no way I would know what I should say to my grandkids, but I knew His Spirit would speak to my spirit as to what I should say.
It struck me quite deeply that when I put my head or brain before the Spirit, that is a misalignment. The correct alignment is the Holy Spirit to my spirit to my soul (mind, will, emotion) and then to my body. When I made that correction the words just flowed. It was amazing to me and taught me a big lesson that I’ve applied many times since.
So much of my life has been this way until recent years, and that’s gradually changing. It is part of the Western culture that we live in—to be headstrong and spirit weak.
I like that Dave did two things here:
- He stopped and thought of the perspective of the reader – “What do they want to hear?”
- He listened to the inspiration that God provided. God knows what he wants Dave to write and is willing to share.
If you’ve been running up against writer’s block lately, give these two things a try.
Question: What is something you do to get out of a writer’s block? Leave your comment below.