For the first time in my short blogging career I am not sure what to write about and do not really have the inspiration to write. Quite surprising since it is the ‘summer’ so my student status must mean I have oodles of time; plus, there is plenty to be chatting about (cough women’s football cough), alas, nothing.

Is it okay?

I think an underappreciated skill of writing, in my view, is knowing when to take a break, take a few steps back and be okay about having writer’s block.

So, this month instead of blogging about anything in particular. I am going to comb through the internet for useful guides, posts and shared thoughts on the old writer’s block. Here are my top 5:

• Time tracking – mytomatoes.com is the best website that is free and easy to create an account. It times, tracks and logs 25 minutes of work and 5 minute breaks.
• Helpful articles with hints and tips – The Guardian­ ­here describes some real gems, such as, social writing or setting realistic goals. Although obvious, I like reading about writer’s block every so often.
• Grammar websites – grammar is by far one of my biggest weaknesses and often messes up my flow and confidence of writing. Grammatology, amongst other, websites and tools give kind reminders of, for example, where the bloody hell to use a comma.
• Pintrest – I think often sharing with friends and family about writer’s block can be futile as they cannot relate or attempt to solve rather than listen; so pintrest acts as virtual and never ending community of sharing thoughts.
• British Library EThOS – the BL is great. The function here allows you to search all public PhD thesis’ and read for free. I like reading these as this kindly reminds me that everyone starts somewhere…

Finally, an extra sneaky one, that is the killer idea of, exercise. Incredibly appropriate for this blog, but, I do think that exercise and, in particular, exercise where you can ‘switch off’ helps a lot.

Alas, even with: timing tools, shared articles, virtual communities, grammar tips, reading other thesis’ and going for the occasional run… this month of August has not been the one. I still need to work on when to take a break, steps back or realising that other things can impact on my writing and it is okay to be blocked. Maybe this will come with age and maturity, but to be honest, I think my writing alter ego is illustrated quite wonderfully by this fantastic Marilyn Monroe quote…

Back to it for September, obviously.

VPos