It’s been three hours, and the page is still blank. The little black cursor is mocking you with its incessant blinking. Everything you want to flow onto that page is locked inside your mind and the words have completely escaped you. The sound of frustrated tapping of your foot against the floor is slowly edging towards deafening.

All writers find themselves in this position at one time or another, and it could be a few minutes-or a few months-before the words begin to find their way onto the page. What causes this phenomenon? Does the creative flow dwindle to a trickle when your soul isn’t in the writing, or is it purely psychological in the face of stress?

The answer is both. Depending on the writer and his or her personal situation, writer’s block can be caused by the mind, the soul-or maybe even both at the same time.

Writer’s block can generally be summarized as simple lack of focus on a piece of work. This mental haze then prohibits the creation of a composition, or else fosters the tendency to constantly edit existing work instead of successfully completing the task at hand: to produce new writing. Scientifically, these two methods of unwanted procrastination can be explained now that neuropsychologists have linked writer’s block to Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD).

This is all well and good in terms of a scientific answer, but what does that do for the millions of students with term papers, the professional novelists, and the hobby writers who suffer daily from this mysterious condition? Do we medicate the masses for something as common as writer’s block? Of course we don’t; for science is neither the sole rationale behind writer’s block, nor is it the solution. Stress and a busy schedule are two major contributors to a block in the writing process.

Stress can be loosely defined as a feeling of anxiety or pressure. Stress is the monster that makes you wonder why you are wasting time with this, makes you exaggerate your schedule to Herculean proportions, and makes you doubt your very existence. The easiest solution when dealing with stress is to step away from the paper or keyboard, and simply relax for a few minutes. Stretch, make a cup of tea, scratch behind your dog’s ear or rub your cat’s stomach. Do anything; anything to take your mind off of the project for five or ten minutes before sitting back down and re-attempting the writing process. As a major contributor to stress, a busy schedule not only creates new stress, but it also limits the amount of time a writer has to produce content. Many writers take to carrying a small notepad to jot down ideas for projects they are working on so as not to forget when they finally get back to… well, writing!

Most writers have heard all of the unoriginal ideas of de-stressing and pointers for remembering the sudden inspiration you had in the produce section; and the if the originals didn’t work, a reiteration of those concepts won’t take a sledgehammer to your rapidly growing writer’s block. So, rip up that page of infuriatingly horrible text you’ve been staring at and take a look at these lesser known ideas.

1.    To vent not only frustration, but to also actually get some ink on the page, write an entire page of angry monologue-and yes, it can consist entirely of four letter words-dedicated to the lack of a functioning story.

2.    Doodle with your non-dominant hand. This essentially jump-starts the other side of your brain into forming creative thoughts which you can then channel into your work.

3.    I know it may seem like a desperate option, but call your mother. As help in venting frustration or in providing some form of dialogue or story idea, mom can always lend a hand.

4.    Play a word association game. This can be done via free writing or with a group of friends, but write down the entire list of word associations and reap the benefits of whatever word combination sparks your inspiration.

5.    Although this may not work for everyone, try eating something. Writing on an empty stomach may be your problem! Also, to get some ideas or just alter your perception, try eating sugary or highly caffeinated foods and write from a different point of view.

6.    Picture prompts. Yes, it may provide flashbacks to grade school writing assignments, but visual stimulation can unlock writers block and provide many story models. So choose a word and type it into Google Images or a similar engine.

7.    Watch a silent movie, or a movie you haven’t seen before with the sound off. Press your mind to make up the dialogue or try to figure out what is going to happen next. If worse comes to worse with this tactic, at least you got a break from worrying over your writing … plus some tasty popcorn.

8.    Try downloading Fifteen Thousand Useful Phrases from Gutenberg Press, a free book website. Flipping aimlessly through this book can not only start you off with your first sentence, but perhaps also remind you of why you enjoy writing in the first place.

The common nature of writer’s block is an experience that binds writers together across time and around the globe; yet there is no objective reason for its existence, nor one concrete solution to the problem. In fact, starting to write this very article triggered a severe block that required using my research on writer’s block to its full extent to be able to work through my own writing. But there is a pot of gold at the end of this rainbow: you can take a breath in relief, because the suggested methods do in fact work quite well-no medication for ADD required.

Kathryn Gardner is a Sophomore at Drexel University in an Architecture/General Studies dual major.