True story:
Once upon a time, I was on a call with the great Sean D’Souza and I asked him a question about writer’s block.
Sean’s response?
Writer’s block doesn’t exist in the same way that chef’s block doesn’t exist.
When a chef can’t make a certain recipe, he doesn’t call it chef’s block, he just lacks ingredients.
And so it is with writing.
When you can’t start a certain writing project, you just lack ingredients. The good news is that we’ve never lived in a time with more ingredients to inspire your writing.
For example, here are a few places I’ve pulled “ingredients” from:
Books (both fiction and nonfiction)
Local sports media coverage
YouTube Shorts (especially relevant stories I hear from others)
News stories
Basically anything with words can inspire your writing.
Best part?
This applies elsewhere too. In fact, I just saw a hacker turned game developer I follow on YouTube give the same exact advice to a dev with “dev’s block.”
The advice from the hacker turned game developer?
Immerse yourself in the world of whatever it is you’re trying to create.
Trying to write? Read books.
Trying to write music? Listen deeply to music with no distractions.
Trying to develop a game? Spend time immersing yourself in another video game.
Because here’s the secret to creativity:
It doesn’t all have to come from you!
Look no further than George R.R. Martin: It’s obvious he was heavily inspired by Tolkein.
But here’s the twist:
You still have to make it your own.
Otherwise, you just wind up being a Greta Van Fleet in a world where Led Zeppelin already existed.
Of course, there’s an even easier way to get over writer’s block:
Hitting reply, and letting me handle your emails and email marketing strategy.
Winky face.
John
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