Writer’s block plagues every creative mind at some point or another. Moe Berg is a first year music production professor in Fanshawe’s music industry arts program. He also was in a band called the Pursuit of Happiness, which had a very successful recording and touring career. For a year, he struggled with writer’s block, feeling that he didn’t have anything new to say and felt uninspired.
If you’re in a space where you are feeling uninspired Berg encourages you to take sentences you’re struggling with and re-write them in 10 different ways, guaranteeing that if you do that you’ll find at least one way that sounds better. Another idea that he recommended is to write a story. In writing a story about your goals for your piece can help you establish a beginning, middle and end , which will provide some clarity.
He also encourages musicians to write in your own language which allows yourself to be uniquely you. He also encourages people to try something they’re not use to. “If you typically write on a guitar, go to a piano and start writing there or open up a digital audio work station and just start drawing things and find other notes. One of the reasons why people get writer’s block is they get into a rut. They just keep doing the same thing over and over again and that begins to get uninteresting to them.”
Sydney Brooman is Western’s writer in residence. She encourages writers who are struggling to keep on writing. ” You have to write badly and cliche before you can write well. You just have to let yourself write without being afraid of writing well and eventually it’s just going to come naturally.”
A tactic that works for her is to consider going back to old writing in order to find inspiration. ” I really think if you re-write something 6 or 7 times, eventually it’s going to get better. Eventually you’re going to learn and recognize areas in which your writing’s improving.”
