How to overcome writer’s block

What about writer’s block that you hear so much about?  Well if you know what you have to say, you won’t have writer’s block.  Some writers spend more time staring at a blank computer screen than they spend writing.  Others may freeze after a paragraph or two.  What some people call writer’s block is usually a lack of planning.
Studies show that professional writers spend 40% of their time planning, 25% writing, and 35% editing. If you plan – if you know what you want to say before you start – there is less chance that you will have writer’s block.  Start the article in your mind as you go for your morning walk, take a shower or travel to work.  It’s a similar process to rehearsing a speech or a presentation. That’s the advantage of my daily walk to the coffee shop. The article is almost written in my mind by the time I get there.
If you are still afraid of getting writer’s block, there is another technique that you could try. Before you start writing, have an outline of the article in front of you along with the materials you have accumulated for that article. That’s a common procedure for writing a book, so you could just do it on a smaller scale.
Minimize the opportunity for interruptions.  Have all your working tools in place before you start.  Pick a quiet place to work if possible.  Engage the voice mail.  Close the door if you have one.  Turn of your smartphone or put it on airplane mode.  Ignore e-mail.  Tell yourself it’s only for an hour or two.  Then stick to the task at hand.
Don’t stop to proofread or edit until you have finished the article.  Stopping to edit after every sentence or two is a form of procrastination.  Maintain the momentum once you start.  Scheduling shorter sessions of one or two hours usually result in fewer delays.  Few people can retain a high level of concentration without a break for more than an hour or two.  This could change once you are engrossed in your work but most of us have jobs besides writing and cannot afford marathon sessions anyway.
If you come to a standstill, switch to another writing project for ten minutes or so. Science fiction writer Isaac Asimov said he always had a number of projects going at one time. When he could no longer stand what he was doing, he simply switched to something else. He never stopped. In fact he wrote 460 books.
You might take a brief walk around your desk or table to do a few stretches.  If you just can’t get started again, write anything to start the flow as I described earlier.  Once you start writing, the creative juices will flow and you can edit out any superfluous material later.  Don’t wait for creativity to reveal itself.  If you stare at the computer screen, it will simply stare back at you.
When your time is up and you must stop, write one more sentence but don’t finish it, except in your head.  Reading that partial sentence and finishing it at the next session will help pick up your train of thought and build momentum faster than starting from scratch.  The best way to avoid writer’s block is to keep writing.
Note: The above article was excerpted from my eBook, How to write articles for self-promotion, published by Bookboon.com.