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Cognitive Dissonance Causes Writer's Block

When your real goals are in conflict with the goals you've imposed on yourself, this can cause uneasiness and creative blocks. Psychologists call this "cognitive dissonance"--when one of your beliefs is in conflict with another one. On the surface, you may believe that you're only writing for money. Deep down, your goal may be to change the world through your writing. Or you may think you're writing to share a story with the world when your real goal is to be changed by the experience of writing or to prove to yourself that you're a good writer. Cognitive dissonance causes tension, and tension just makes writer's block worse. The block may know full well what your true intentions are, even if you don't. It may be stomping its feet and crossing its arms in an attempt to bring you back to your honest goals. Turn on your ears and listen to what your block is telling you.

What can you learn from your block to help you not only overcome it right now, but avoid it the next time it comes knocking? What can your block tell you? What part of your writing psyche can it illuminate to show you what you've never seen before?

Writer's block can be a good thing when it shakes up your writing routine. It can make you look at your career, your goals, your current project, your whole identity from an entirely different perspective. It can show you that you're not done growing yet, not by a long shot.

Writer's block can say to you, "Look, pal. I know you think you know it all, but, guess what? You don't. Writing is a long and winding road to enjoy, not a destination to rush toward. You've come so far, but now you're at a crossroad and it's up to you to decide which way to go. Toward knowledge and enlightenment, or to stay on this path and keep yourself blocked up nice and tight. I've got things to show you, if you'll let me. And, oh, the places you'll go."

Some writers find themselves in a different situation. They tell themselves they're just writing for themselves, when they really harbor secret desires to be published. This is a means of self-preservation; by pretending they don't care about publication, they're saving themselves from rejection. After all, your work can't be rejected if you never send it out (unless your dog chews up your manuscript and then regurgitates it).

Do you really want to write or do you just want to have a finished product to show off? Many new writers need to admit to themselves that they have no desire to put in the hours, months, and years that it takes to master their craft; they just want to see their byline in print. They talk about the novels they'll never actually write--those blockbuster ideas that they're sure would make millions if only they could find the time to write. Eventually they'll take up fishing so they can bore people senseless about "the one that got away."

Read on! http://www.absolutewrite.com/outwitting.htm