Nerd Church - The Writer Diaries: A Magical Solution To the Terrors of the Blank Page

 

My dearest nerdlets, there are some topics which appear in the bookish/writerly/bloggerly interwebs again and again — and one of the most common of these is writer’s block.

(Which, yes, I’ve talked about before too.)

Now — we don’t always mean the same thing when it comes to writer’s block.

• Some people mean: ‘I don’t know what to write about.’

• Some people mean: ‘I know what I wanna write about but I can’t word’.

• And others mean: ‘I can’t word at all about anything, what even is word?’

…I’m sure there are more, but you get what I’m saying.

Anyhow, I thought for this month’s Nerd Church, I’d give you all my super-secret solution to the well-known ‘terrors of the blank page.’

Now, this method might sound silly, (and that’s OK,) and it might not work for you (and that’s OK too,)

— always know that there is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to writing and creativity.

You do you, and eff anyone who tells you otherwise, m’k? ;)

So, what you do is this:

you take your blank page (or screen or whatever,) and you write ‘words words words’ at the top.

Yes, I’m serious.

Try it: write ‘words words words.’

…Abracadabra and voila — you’ve oiled the gears and got the machine moving, and you can now (hopefully) write whatever you want.

Variations on this trick include writing ‘I don’t know what to write’ or, if you want to write about a specific topic, writing a word relating to that topic.

— So if, for example, I’m trying to write a post about cats, and I can’t get started, I write ‘cats cats cats’ at the top of the page.

It sounds like it shouldn’t work — but, for me at least, it does.

I find it also helps if you write your little three-word invocation to the universe slowly and purposefully —

like some kind of woo-woo ritual between you and the page 😅

— but your mileage may vary.

Once again: you do you.

So, yeah — it’s that simple. It’s that magical.

Do it with as much or as little seriousness as you want, or don’t do it all.

Good luck, and keep writing.

The next Nerd Church will be on Sunday 7th June 2026 - hope to see you there!

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More from me:

• Nerd Church - The Writerly Urge To Face-Plant the Laptop

• Nerd Church - On Updating Old Blogposts, and The Beauty of Blogging