The Key to Bypassing Writer’s Block and Procrastination for Writers and Creatives?

A helpful habit you can use to generate motivation for your projects and get your creativity flowing

💡 If you struggle finding motivation to sit down and work on your creative projects, face writer’s block often, or are prone to procrastination, this one’s for you.

---

Finding Your Most Effective Creative Warm-Up

It’s common for our best ideas come to us when we’re least expecting them, maybe while doing the washing up or standing in the shower.

For this exact reason, I let myself go on long, aimless walks most days, and let my mind wander.

I find this an effective way to make a dent in the kind of tasks that feel so much harder when you have to sit down at your desk to tackle them.

But I understand that’s not practical, or even possible, all the time.

We also need to find ways to get our creativity flowing when we sit down at the desk with the intention to write (or draw, or paint, or whatever else).

I appreciate there are many different ways to work approach this problem.

The one we’re looking at in this article is much like an athlete warming up their legs before running, or a singer warming up their vocal chords before performing.

It sounds simple, because a warm-up is such common practice in those kind of disciplines.

But I’ve worked closely with around 10 fiction writers for the past six years — not to mention the dozens of writers I’ve managed and worked with in my career — and none of them (to my knowledge) do this.

And yet writers, as a group of people, are notorious for complaining about writer’s block, procrastination, and lack of inspiration.

Of course they are. Because, without a warm-up, you’re just sitting there staring at a blank screen hoping for motivation to magically strike from nowhere.

In that situation, you face a high risk of procrastination, distraction, or possibly even giving up altogether.

But motivation and inspiration rarely come before action. Actually, it’s quite the opposite. By simply taking any kind of small action, you’ll feel motivated and inspired as a result.

This is why a creative warm-up is so important for all those times sitting down to do the work feels daunting.

Some creative warm-ups I’ve tried in the past include:

• Playing the piano

• Sketching the scene I’m about to write

• Reading a few pages of a similar story for inspiration

• Listening to songs that evoke the feeling I’m aiming for with my writing.

Of course, each artist will be different, and it’s important to find something that works for you.

But for writing short stories or novels, I’ve found that warming up with haiku poetry is really reliable and highly effective.

** And, if you find this kind of thing useful or interesting, please do subscribe here:

What is Haiku?

Haiku is a form of poetry that originated in Japan in the seventeenth century.

Haiku poems traditionally consist of three lines, composed of 17 phonetic units, in a five, seven, five-syllable pattern.

This kind of poetry is usually intended to capture a fleeting moment in time, or an observation, often from nature or from the writer’s surroundings.

Of course, rules are meant to be broken, so many poets have also experimented and mixed up the formula over the years.

Why is Haiku Such a Good Writing Warm-Up?

These are just my own (probably quite uneducated) opinions of what haiku poetry is, but these are the reasons I enjoy it:

• The poems don’t have to be complex

• They’re short, impactful, and quick to write

• They challenge you to describe ordinary things in beautiful, unusual ways

• Their short form requires you to find creative ways to explain simple things

• They should be based on observations of the things around you, which is another important practice to get used to

• Most importantly, they’re fun.

I think that feeling of fun is the key to feeling motivated and inspired, and overcoming procrastination or writer’s block.

We usually resist the prospect of sitting down to write when it feels too much like work.

It’s also worth noting — in no way am I claiming to be an expert on haiku poems. Far from it.

I understand this is an ancient art form that many believe doesn’t translate well from Japanese to English. I also appreciate that some haiku purists frown upon more modern, experimental forms of haiku.

That’s fine. But the point of this is just finding an effective writing warm-up that works for me.

If you start your session with an exercise that you find effortless and fun, the act of sitting down to work becomes less daunting and you’ll find it much easier to get into a flow state.

The Key to Bypassing Writer’s Block and Procrastination for Writers and Creatives

When you sit down to write and it feels easy straight away, that natural flow allows you to build momentum quickly, killing the temptation to procrastinate.

I think all writers need to find an exercise that gives them this feeling.

Finding a warm-up activity that lights a creative fire inside you, and lets you slip into a flow state before the thought of procrastination has even had a chance to arrive, is crucial.

And, I must add, I think finding a warm-up that you can do by hand is very important for this to work well. It is for me, personally.

Writing on a laptop is obviously convenient, but it comes with such high risk of distraction. Staring at a blank document on a digital screen is also far more painful (and easier to give up on) than sitting over a blank sheet of paper with a pen in your hand.

So, I always try to do some writing by hand before I open the laptop. For others, that could be drawing, playing an instrument, or anything else really.

If you struggle with writer’s block or procrastination when working on your creative projects, I’d recommend at least trying this out.

The Proof is in the Poetry…?

So, as you’ve probably guessed by now, I’ve written a lot of haiku poetry this year.

And since my new year’s resolution — and the whole point of this channel — is to share my writing more openly with everyone…

I’ll be sharing six haiku poems here one Friday per month. And each time, I’ll focus on a different theme.

** If you want to suggest a theme, drop me a message and I’ll write six haiku poems on that theme (within reason).

Haiku Fridays | Vol. 1 – Winter

Here’s the very first set of Haiku Friday poems. This month’s theme is winter (of course):

1

Winter sun flowing

Washing everything in gold

Oceans of twilight

2

An autumn leaf falls

Light rain helps it drift to ground

Now it lies sleeping

3

Grey clouds everywhere

Dead flowers fill the garden

Relentless winter

4

Snow covers the grass

Outside, the pond is frozen

Music keeps us warm

5

Time moves differently

These days have no life in them

Bleak winter darkness

6

Thunder and rainfall

Over this cold, empty town

It’s time to go home

This Week’s Sunset of the Week

And a Song to Accompany This Week’s Theme

Winter, by Joshua Radin

Thanks so much for reading!

If you found this useful or interesting, please do subscribe:

If you’re already subscribed, please consider sharing with anyone else you think might want to read these kind of articles: