You’re sitting in a dark room. The coffee that fuels your mind sits to the slight left of your computer. Maybe it’s because of your lack of sleep but there is nothing flowing in that mind of yours. An idea will come for a fleeting second than vanish like another cup of tea. Sounds to me like the bane of a writer’s existence: writer’s block. Whether it’s writing a paper, a blog post, a short story, or even an article, writer’s block makes its undesirable appearance in any situation. I recently encountered this while writing my seventeen page Extended Essay. 17 very long pages on Cat’s Cradle. When I was on about my sixth page I really hit writer’s block. More of a writer’s wall. After a period of recovery I decided to reflect on this time period in order to help you and my future self.

So before we get to solve this phenomenon, we have to take a look at the scientific part of writer’s block – yes there is a scientific part of everything. So in simple terms, scientists have evaluated that the frontal lobe has less activity going on while the temporal lobe is hyper active. This results in not solely a mental block but also a physical block. So… how are we supposed to overcome this paralyzing block that always seizes you at the most unfortunate times? This is when we turn it over to the smart people.

The solution is called ‘cognitive complexity’ and as much as I wish there was a simpler answer – there isn’t. This strategy excites the frontal lobe. There are networks in our brain that are similar to our freeways; signals go up and down these networks, some more frequently than others. They direct ideas and creativity in our mind. In order to avoid writer’s block, we have to activate all of these networks in order to have equal reception from both our right and left sides of our brain.

The nice thing about science is that you don’t need to memorize the ‘why’ behind the problem in order to fix it. The simple solution to writer’s block is to imagine ridiculous stories and events in your head. Think of the craziest image you can and make a story with it. It’s called getting ‘mentally physical’. Neat, eh? So while this is a simple solution, it’s absolutely necessary to know how to deal with this. Let your brain run as free and as imaginative as possible and soon your block will be no longer.

And that concludes my advice for us writers. Now go run along and write all of the papers and articles you need with your ‘cognitive complexity’.