3 tips to quieten the mental chatter (and write)

Getting swept away by lots of ideas and finding it hard to locate a central focus? Or are you not quite sure what it is you want to say?

When we have big ideas or too many ideas it can be really hard to reign them in and create a 800 word legible article. So how do you wade through the ideas to find the gem? How do you narrow down the message and the crux of what you want to say? 

I’m here to help you get clear on what you want to say. 

When our minds get cluttered with ideas, worries and we feel overwhelmed then it’s impossible to access our creative mind. One way to clear our minds is to quieten the chatter. Here’s how:

Time away from writing

This may seem couterproductive but if you’re feeling too much pressure to write, then it’s time to step away and alleviate the tension. Do something that doesn’t take too much mental energy like going for a walk, washing the dishes or digging up weeds in the garden. When you distract one part of your mind, it can clear the path for creativity. And no doubt, you’ll find as you’re walking or weeding or cleaning, that solutions will become available to you. Whether it be another way to say what you want to say, a new angle for a blog post, or the flow will finally come to you. 

While I advocate for a writing routine and sitting at the desk to write whether you feel like it or not, there’s no point sitting there, feeling stressed and confused.

Take some time away and come back to it with fresh eyes. 

Journaling

Sometimes we can’t get to the root of what we want to say because we’re distracted by our thoughts and emotions that arise throughout the day. These may be worries about what has to be done or feeling tired or perhaps you just don’t feel like writing today. 

Journaling can be a great way to get the thoughts at the forefront of your mind down on paper so that you can set them aside, freeing up your mind to follow your creative ideas. Even if you’re writing a whole page about how much you don’t feel like writing! If you voice the things that may be holding you back from writing, then it can unblock the whole creative process. 

There’s a whole movement about the Morning Pages, a writing exercise where upon waking you write three pages of whatever is on your mind. It’s like a brain dump, for your eyes only. It goes on the page and then you get on with your day.

If you’d like to learn more about Morning Pages, visit author Julia Cameron’s website.

Free writing

This one is my favourite. Free writing is simply writing without censure. It’s similar to journaling, I suppose, but I like to use free writing exercises specific to a writing project. Say you want to write an article on mental health reform but you don’t know where to start. When you free-write you let go of judgement, you write as if no one will read it and you simply get words on the page. 

You may not finish a sentence before moving to another idea, you may have one paragraph completely unrelated to the former and latter, but that’s okay. The aim is to get down everything you know or want to say about the topic at hand. 

One of the main barriers, I see, to writing is perfectionism. It’s one of the first things that comes up when I’m working with coaching clients. The need to get things right, say it right, can be paralysing. It means you’re more likely to fixate on one word or sentence and not be able to move forward with the piece. When you free-write you’re not focussed on the finished product. The exercise is process-driven. Once you have words on the page, you have something to work with. 

As Jodi Picoult says, “You can always edit a bad page. You can’t edit a blank page.”

Be kind to yourself

Above all else, be kind to yourself. There’s no such thing as a perfect writer. We all have something to say and with a little guidance and self-compassion you can get to the crux of what you want to say without torturing yourself. 

If you’d like help with your writing process, finding your writing voice and being clear on your messaging, get in touch for a free 15 minute discovery call to see whether coaching is for you. Simply fill in this briefing form.