The Great Unplug: Breaking Through the Bleh

Writer's block is not the worst occurrence in the writing life. If you don’t write anything, at least you don’t say anything stupid.

Writing bleh, on the other hand…

Writing bleh occurs when everything you write is verbal mucous. Brain phlegm, if you will. 

And you want to fix it. You really do. You simply can’t. 

What frustrates you the most is you should know how. You’ve taken all the writing classes. You know all the rules. You’ve learned the techniques of revision. Your numerous thesauri lie next to the keyboard, anxious to give you direction.

It should be easy.

So you highlight what your congested mind coughed up before, take a deep breath, and...hack up a lung!

In frustration, you search your bookshelves for a helpful writer’s guide. You slog through the Internet for worthwhile exercises. You search for the inspirational quote from the world’s greatest authors. 

You try to write and again nothing.

Do not worry. There’s a far more efficient way to stimulate the mind.

Walk away.

Notice that I did not say, “Throw away.” No, leave what you have on the screen and WALK away. To another room. To another house. To another county.

Before you throw up your hands and lunch in disgust, think of this solution as resetting your computer when the only thing you can do to make the darned thing work is to unplug it, count to 30, and start over.

What happens is miraculous. All the programs that mucked up the system before, now work flawlessly, and you’re back in business.

When I ask techies why unplugging works to re-establish a working computer, none of them can tell me. “It just does,” they say.

Just as your computer gets clogged by trying to do too much with too much, so your writing also gets clogged with critical-analytical overload where all the creative writing/editing “programs” you’ve learned over the years try to kick into gear at once, clogging up your brain until NOTHING works. 

The only thing you can do is unplug.

Unlike the 30-second computer model, however, to unplug your brain, take at least 30 minutes and do something else. 

Wash the dishes. Build a snowman. Take a walk to McDonald’s and have a Shamrock Shake. (Unless you’re on Weight Watchers and the 660 calories doesn’t fit into your daily point total. Then I suggest coffee, tea, or diet soda.)

After your McDonald’s Moment, go back to the computer, bring up what you wrote earlier, and see how much easier the process is. 

With all your “programs” reset, everything you already know simply works without prodding or cajoling. Like the computer geeks who recommend the Great Unplug, I can’t tell you why walking away from your writing rejuvenates your work. It just does.

No more brain phlegm. No more anxiety. No more bleh.

When exasperation and anxiety mount, remember the old commercial and smile. "You deserve a break today."

Just unplug.