I'm sitting at my computer trying to write about creative block but I don't know how to start. This isn't the first line I've written; I've started and deleted a few already. I've got background material about being blocked and I've got various ideas of my own that I want to write about, but it's still hard getting started.

There you go, I've started. That's one of the most important things (as mentioned previously in Brainhack 20) is just to start. One of the fears people have is that what they create won't be good. People have said to me that they can't write. But of course they can write – what they really mean is they feel they can't write well.

The important thing is just to get started and not worry too much about what you're going to write or whether it's going to be any good. You're probably going to have to do some more work on it anyway.

Malcolm Gladwell says, “The solution is never to sit down and imagine that you will achieve something magical and magnificent. I write a little bit, almost every day, and if it results in two or three or (on a good day) four good paragraphs, I consider myself a lucky man. Never try to be the hare. All hail the tortoise.”

Whatever field you're in, you just need to get started and don't let self-doubt get a foothold in your mind. The artist Chuck Close said this: “Inspiration is for amateurs. The rest of us just show up and get to work.” And Tchaikovsky said “A self-respecting artist must not fold his hands on the pretext that he is not in the mood.”

Creating anything is hard, but just because it's a struggle, it doesn't mean you're blocked.

It's easy to read something well written and be intimidated, thinking you could never write something like it. But just because something is effortless to read, it doesn't mean it was effortless to write. Hemingway rewrote the last page of A Farewell to Arms thirty-nine times before he was happy with it. He confided to F. Scott Fitzgerald in 1934, “I write one page of masterpiece to ninety-one pages of shit. I try to put the shit in the wastebasket.”

One of the ways to fight the feeling of being blocked is to think about what you've achieved previously. Say you make a commitment to yourself to write a weekly blog. Once you've written one and it was okay, you will be able to do another one. The trouble is all this self-doubt starts to come in before you even start to write the second one. You begin to think you won't know what to write about.

But rather than think about it, give yourself an hour and sit down and try to work out what you can write about. Write any ideas down even if they seem rubbish. If you do get stuck, read. Read books, magazines or online articles. You're not trying to steal ideas; you're looking for a fire starter.

The most important thing is to stick at the task for an hour. Even if at the end of the hour you feel like you've got nothing, that hour will have been invaluable; you will have fed your unconscious and ideas will come later on.

Blocked Not Block

One of the worst and most damaging things is calling it writer's, or creative, block. If it is a “block” it makes it a thing; it gives it power. Really, it is about feeling blocked and it is something you need to work through.

Also, by calling your mental struggle creative block, it lets you off the hook. It's not about you: it's about the block. It's something that stands in your way like a huge wall. But it's not. It's not a thing and it's not a condition, it's all in your mind and you just have to work through it.

A Walk Round the Block

Feeling blocked can feel very different depending at what stage you are in your project.

At the start

At the start it's about looking for an idea. It's always better to sit down with an idea, and then you don't have to fear the blank sheet of paper and can get started straight away. If you follow Brainhack 25 “Take Notes”, then you should always have a good list of ideas to work on. It also helps if your ideas have been maturing in your head for a little while. It's much easier when the ideas are fighting to get out rather than you having to go in search for them.

The filmmaker Werner Herzog says, “The problem isn't coming up with ideas, it is how to contain the invasion. My ideas are like uninvited guests. They don't knock on the door; they climb in through the windows like burglars who show up in the middle of the night and make a racket in the kitchen as they raid the fridge. I don't sit and ponder which one I should deal with first. The one to be wrestled to the floor before all others is the one coming at me with the most vehemence.”1

Once you've got an idea you need to just dive into getting it down on paper and don't worry about the quality of the writing. If you start writing straight away you'll engage the mind much quicker and it'll get easier and easier as the minutes pass.

The trouble is, if you spend too much time just sitting there staring at the blank piece of paper/screen, your mind will get restless and procrastination will take over. You've got emails to read, pencils to sharpen. If you let your mind distract you from writing, it'll just be harder the next time you try to start writing again.

In the middle

You've got to the middle of whatever project you're doing and you don't know where to go. It's like walking through a forest and suddenly finding yourself back where you were five minutes ago. It can be very dispiriting. The thing is you should be proud of how far you have managed to come.

You will find an answer – you just need to keep thinking and not get too stressed. You need to think about the problem for a while, but then take a break and keep it on the back burner. If your unconscious can see that your conscious mind is really desperate for a solution, it'll put its full processing power behind solving it.

The thing with being blocked is it's all mental. If you fear it, you give it power. You'll feel totally lost and dispirited. Have faith and keep gently persevering and embrace being blocked. Because when your unconscious offers up a solution, it will have been worth waiting for.

When I've been writing these chapters, I'll often move on to a new one before I've finished a previous one. I'll then come back to the first one a day later and it's suddenly a lot clearer what I need to do to finish it.

The main thing to remember is: feeling blocked is all in the mind. If you're about to start something, just dive in and don't give your thoughts room to start to play mind games with you. If you're in the middle and feeling blocked, don't get stressed. Just keep thinking about the problem and your unconscious will eventually come to your rescue.