In a study comparing 40 blocked to 20 unblocked academicians, psychologist Robert Boice found "psych up" statements were seven times more frequent in the unblocked group and maladaptive, negative thoughts were twice as common in the blocked group (Written Communication 1985;2:91-104). Boice identified seven categories of maladaptive or negative thoughts in the blocked group:
• Work apprehension: writing hurts; it is "difficult, demanding, complicated."
• Procrastination: I will be able to write after I first do something else more pressing.
• Dysphoria: anxiety, depression, groundless worries.
• Impatience: I cannot achieve enough in the time I have to write.
• Perfectionism: the internal critic.
• Evaluation anxiety: fear of the work being judged as poor by others.
• Rules: maladaptive formulas for writing that constrain the writing effort.
Although work apprehension was the most common category, it did not differ between blocked and unblocked writers. Both groups recognized and articulated the aversive aspects of writing. Categories that were more common in the blocked group included procrastination, dysphoria, impatience, and perfectionism.
Proceeding from these findings, Boice suggested four strategies to overcome writer’s block (Behav. Res. Ther. 1992;30:107-116):
• Automaticity: writing whatever comes to mind regardless of how imperfect it may be, so as to reduce the threshold for artistic expression.
• Regimen: forcing oneself to write, or perform, on a schedule regardless of whether one feels like it or not. Tennessee Williams was said to write every morning regardless of how he felt; like the Nike advertisement, "Just do it."
• Cognitive self-management: essentially, this means making it comfortable mentally, and perhaps physically, to write or perform. Screen out negative commentaries, self-doubt, or other behaviorally inhibiting stimuli.
• Social management: work with, and take advantage of, a larger group. Others can instruct, motivate, and challenge, and so facilitate and stimulate productivity.
Writer’s block affects not only novelists and poets, but scientists and scholars (and neurologists!) whose academic careers depend on their writing productivity. The psychologist B.F. Skinner identified within himself factors that promoted writing and factors that hindered it (Behav. Anal. 1981;4:1-7), many of which were similar to Boice’s descriptions.