Word Vomit...Yep, you read that right.

Ever find yourself staring at a piece of paper for such a long period of time that your eyes start to lose focus…and your mind begins to wander…and then after about three minutes have gone by you snap back into reality, only to find that for some odd reason, the words have not manifested themselves on the page yet? That was a rhetorical question, and the answer is yes, at one point or another we have all experienced this. Well, behold ladies and gentlemen, there is a cure (albeit an unconventional one) for this terrible disease commonly known as writer’s block. The cure is… word vomit. A more common and perhaps socially acceptable term for the cure may be “Pre-writing” or “brainstorming,” but this is my blog and after all, who is to tell me which terms to use?

Word vomit is just that; a messy spewing of words and ideas, just to get them out of your system. Sometimes, the reason we can’t seem to write is because we have to think in order to be able to write; and often the reason we just aren’t able to really think is because we are, in fact, overthinking things. Writing the first paragraph of a paper is always the hardest, because your brain hasn’t had a chance to process all of the thoughts in your head enough to be able to produce an understandable and cohesive statement. So, how to pass up this mental roadblock? Start by getting all those thoughts out of the cramped space in your head so they can actually breathe and develop! Stop trying to write the perfect first sentence and instead purposely write with complete freedom and abandon, unafraid to be crude and rough and confusing and for the sake of creativity just write!

In my experience, word vomit is the best form of brainstorming there is. By not caring how awful your writing may sound, or how discombobulated it may be, you are often able to uncover something brilliant, something much more brobdingnagian* than you thought possible! By removing a few small twigs from the dam, the waters can wash the rest of the sticks away and flow freely from them on. So go forth and write with unabashed candor, and I promise something wonderful will come of it!

*a terribly fun synonym for “tremendous"