Inneresting

📝 #286 - Getting words on the page

A collection of links on ways to break out of the writing doldrums and go back to putting words on the page.

Chris Csont

19 Mar 2026 — 3 min read

In one version or another, you've likely heard the phrase "A writer is someone who writes." It's meant as encouragement, but when your words aren't traveling from your brain to the page, it can feel like one more cudgel Imposter Syndrome gets to wield against you.

This week's roundup focuses on some of the barriers that can keep your pages blank, and how to bust through.

Writing requires energy, both mental and physical. But if you’re fond of food and shelter, you likely need to use some of that energy at work. What do you do when writing isn’t what pays the bills, but it still needs to get done? Mason Currey on writers who balanced writing with their day jobs, like Octavia Butler, Jorge Luis Borges, and Philip Larkin.

Your issue might be a lack of planning, but trying to be a "plotter" can be its own pitfall:

Erin Fulmer gives a full-throated defense of pantsing your way through drafts, and calls out the myth that planning is a cure-all for writer’s block. Rob from LitReactor slices the Gordian Knot with a set of suggestions for models in-between plotting and pantsing. These include Flashlight Outlining (staying just a few steps ahead of your characters), and the expanding Snowflake model.

Changing up your writing tools can also get the words flowing freely. Among other benefits, Screencraft suggests writing by hand is a way to shut down your inner editor and keep moving forward. Ran Walker shares an ode to notebooks while also pointing out ways that handwriting and typing aren’t mutually exclusive, but that each can complement the other.

Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer dispels myths about dictating fiction, and offers some pointers on how to get comfortable speaking instead of typing. You can find further tips on dictation from Christopher Downing and Monica Leonelle.

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