A writer’s greatest enemy is the blank page.

It’s an intimidating situation. You’re staring at your screen, and the cursor clicks away repeatedly. You type in some words, only to delete them a few seconds later. Each word comes with immense friction, which results in a sense of defeat and a misconception that you have nothing valuable to write about.

You might recognize this feeling because, like most writers, you’ve probably experienced it countless times. I know I have. It took me nearly five years of indecision to finally publish something online. The root cause of the indecision was a fear of facing the blank page.

• What do I write about?

• Who am I writing to?

• Who cares what I have to say?

The answers to those questions seemed impossible to find. Fortunately, I’ve learned this belief is a myth.

To explain why, let me take you back to middle school physics.

An object at rest will stay at rest unless acted upon by an external force — Issac Newton.

There is a real correlation between Newton’s first law and writer’s block.

Starting from a blank page puts you at a disadvantage, either because of perfectionism or because of a past habit.

I think of it as pushing a boulder against a concrete surface. Even if you have all the strength, motivation, and desire to write, both are immovable. The boulder, like your page, will always be at rest without an external force.

You have two choices of external forces. The first involves writing with volume, and the second is writing with abundance. One gets the job done, and the other makes the writing experience effortless.I wrote this article using both systems to test which one was more effective (more on this later). With that in mind, let’s discuss the methods.

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Write with volume

• Does a blank page intimidate you?

• Does it take you long to write a first draft?

• Do you have more unpublished than published work?

If you answered yes to the questions above, you need to write with volume.

First, address your mindset.

Stop viewing a blank page as a restriction and start viewing it as an opportunity.

When starting a new chapter, you must give yourself the time and space you need for growth. That’s exactly how you need to position your mindset on a blank page. It’s a new beginning. It’s your canvas to create something special, and it can be whatever you want it to be as long as you’re willing to put words on a page. Once you get accustomed to this process, putting words on a page becomes much more manageable.

There’s a two-step approach for the writing specifics for this process: start broad, then go deep.

Set a ten-minute timer and put down everything you can think of. Ignore the grammar. Forget about the spelling. Prioritise quantity first and quality second (I touched on this topic in my previous article on writing 1000 words daily).

You can approach this in two different ways. The first involves manually typing or handwriting your thoughts onto the page. The second involves using a transcription tool to turn your speech into words.

If the second approach interests you, I’d recommend using software like Storied. It helps you create a compelling first draft based on what you want to write by simply talking about it.

Here’s what the first draft of this article looked like:

With the words on a page, let’s refine it with the second part of this approach: the rule of one.

1. One person

2. One big idea

3. One captivating story

4. One core emotion

5. One core benefit

It has one purpose — narrowing the focus of your writing and making it as specific as possible.

Think about some of the writing that’s resonated with you in the past or inspired you to take action. You felt the writer understood you. They caught your attention by making you feel like they’ve been in your shoes. Chances are, they clarified their message using the rule of one.

So, when you run through your first draft, go through the pointers above. Keep asking yourself who exactly you’re writing to, what the big idea is, what the story is, and so on. If you’re missing a piece, don’t worry. Just think about how you can incorporate it into different segments of your writing.

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Write with abundance

Believe it or not, some of your best writing can be done away from a screen.

This is the foundation of writing with abundance: Thinking bigger, being creative, documenting the little moments across your day, and then putting them together when it’s time to write.

The mindset shift for this approach is simple: you’re not writing; you’re researching.

The best part is that research begins by observing what you’re already doing from the perspective of a creator. Conversations with friends, books you read, podcasts you listen to, and stories throughout your day. Anything that stimulates your thoughts and makes you think is part of your research.

Subconsciously, your mind collects an armory of ideas during that thinking process to help you fight against the blank page. It’s your responsibility to create a library of those ideas because if you don’t, you will lose them for good.

There are two parts to this process. Collecting the stars and connecting the dots. The stars are the things that make you stop and think. Stars are the ideas that make you say, “damn, I wish I wrote that.” To collect the stars, you need to organize your ideas (anything and everything that stands out to you) through one centralized system.

Note: Stick with one system. I’ve made the mistake of scattering my favorite ideas across countless note-taking apps, and when it was time to connect them, I had no idea where to look.

Here’s what my system on Napkin looked like while writing this article.

Once you’ve collected the stars, connecting them is simple. It’s just about picking something to write about whilst elaborating and refining what you’ve assembled through your centralized system.

Say, for instance, you want to write an article on productivity. Go through your centralized system. Look at the ideas you’ve saved related to the topic. Then list whichever stood out and how you will incorporate its elements into your writing. That’s how you connect the dots and put the focus on the bigger picture of your writing.

It’s a simple, effortless workflow. You don’t have to do much additional research, so you can focus on refining your unique point of view with your words. The legwork is done before you even start writing.

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The Verdict

Earlier, I mentioned I wrote this article using both systems. Here’s what I learned through the process.

Writing with volume gave me context and plenty of words to work with. I had no idea what to write about. I just put down whatever came to mind on the page and refined it with the rule of one. Some of it made it to the final version, and some didn’t.

By writing with abundance, I added more depth to my writing. This time, I knew what I wanted to say. I just had to focus on refining the content by going through some of my notes.

Try both systems and see which one suits you best. My suggestion is to combine the two approaches because not only will it allow you to create your best work, but you’ll also beat the blank page with ease.

Just remember, a blank page is not an obstacle — it’s an opportunity. As soon as you change your mindset and adopt one (or both) of these approaches, you will never run out of things to write about.

Thank you for reading this post. I hope this post gave you a few fresh approaches to tackling writer’s block. If you‘re an entrepreneur curious about writing online, do follow Pranav Gajria on X/Twitter.