Overcoming Sermon Writer's Block: 5 Proven Strategies for Pastors

That little vertical bar on the white screen at the beginning of the blank line just keeps blinking. It flashes over and over. Is it mocking you, or is the late hour finally getting to you? 

Chances are, this experience is familiar. We all get writer’s block. And if you preach weekly, it can be a real problem and can eat a lot of your time and peace of mind. 

Whether writer’s block is a frequent companion of your sermon prep or just an occasional frustration, understanding what’s going on and having some tools to deal with it on hand may put a bit of pep back in your sermon prep. I think this post will help.

This is the first post in a series intended to help you craft better sermons with less hassle by leveraging strategies from the world of writing.

My background: I taught first-year writing and argument to undergrads for seven years and have been freelance editing since, including helping out behind the scenes at TPW for the last three years. If you’ve followed the blog, you’ve seen a lot of my work, even if my name’s not attached. I have some background in preaching, too, as I spend some time in the pulpit at my local church. 

(If the memory of your first-year writing course gives you the hives and you’re about to click away, hold on for a moment. My approach is probably different from your prof’s. While we’re not going to stand on the desks and read poetry, this isn't your doctrinaire approach to writing. My approach is entirely practical. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.)

Here’s the plan for this series: this post is going to be about writer’s block, what it is and how to deal with it; next, we’re going to talk process, busting some myths about the writing process and offering tips for drafting and organization; we’ll follow that with avoiding some common pitfalls with targeted revision; and finally, we’ll tackle AI — what role (if any) should it play in your writing process?

Writer's Block Explained

Let’s get back to what writer’s block is and what you can do about it.

I’ve surveyed a lot of blog posts on writer’s block for preachers. There are quite a few and they often offer some decent advice. But here’s the critical thing: almost nobody bothers talking about what it is or why you have it and those who do often miss something critical. Let’s talk about it.

Let’s be practical. Sometimes, you sit down and the words just come out. What you’ve been thinking of forms itself into words that you can write or type out in mostly-intelligible English. We say you’re “inspired.” But sometimes you aren’t inspired. What then? Most of the time, we go to “Plan B,” which will be some combo or rules or habits that we learned a long time ago. Maybe you make an outline and grind out the sections within it. Or maybe you grimly just keep trying to write. And this can work. Often you’d say it’s not your best work, but if it works, the job gets done. [1]

But sometimes this does not work. 

Without getting technical, let’s try to understand what’s going on. Inspiration is when some cognitive processes in you get rolling and run uninhibited, with sufficient resources to keep working, and in them all the complex tasks of organizing ideas, picking the right words, remembering your resources, even down to getting your fingers to do the right things on the keys — they all are work. Usually, there’s a characteristic feeling about it you’ll recognize. It feels good. It feels smooth or fluid, even if not easy. [2] 

Plan B doesn’t feel that way at all. It feels much more effortful. It probably feels like there are more stops and starts. It is as if something is getting in the way. You are leveraging different processes to try to get the work done, but they are being selected, not because they are the best for the process, but because they’re what you’re used to or they’re what you think you’re supposed to do. (The ghost of a high-school teacher is haunting you, telling you that you must outline.)

In writer’s block, that opposition has ground you to a halt. No matter what you try, your mind is blank, or (perhaps worse) something is in your mind, but no matter how you try to bang out the words, they just don’t work. You keep stopping — perhaps deleting what you wrote — and trying again.

But what if we just think of this as a process problem? That lovely process of “inspiration” has stalled, been starved of resources, or been blocked. 

What Can You Do? The Problem-Solving Approach

The practical solution: think of your sermon as a problem that needs to be solved. Whether you’re building a cabinet or writing a sermon, you can always break down the task into more manageable sub-problems. When you can’t just treat the sermon as one big problem and solve the problem by just writing with inspiration, you need to stop and break it into more manageable sub-problems. 

Let’s just focus on two main problems: coming up with ideas and expanding/organizing them. If you can get just one idea, you can find ways to “push or play” with the idea and put it into relation to other ideas. And along the way, you’ll need more ideas, which you can then expand on or organize. The process repeats, adding and subtracting to what you’ve created until you’re satisfied (enough) with the sermon. 

This, in a nutshell, is my whole approach to the process of writing. It is a series of small problems that solving will contribute to solving the bigger problem of creative production. Book, blog post, or sermon, it all bottoms out in solving a series of problems. That means writer's block isn't a character flaw or spiritual failure. It's a process breakdown—and that means it's solvable. [3]

You can always step back and treat your sermon as a problem to solve: whether you’ve been blocked from the get-go or if you’re just struggling with a final application for your sermon. Just switch into problem-solving mode.

5 Strategies to Beat Writer's Block

But how are you going to solve the problem of coming up with ideas and expanding/organizing them? That’s what the rest of this post is about.

Instead of giving you “15 strategies that will blow your mind,” I’m going to offer just five strategies that you can adjust to your particular needs. (For a Writer’s Block Toolkit with a longer list of methods, read to the end.)

Strategy 1. The Gut Check

See if this resonates with you. You’re “banging your head against the keyboard” and have been doing so for hours: you’ve been writing, reading, deleting, tearing your hair, sobbing… the whole shebang. Then you realize… I’m super-hungry. 

For many of us, we can be so absorbed in a problem we just don’t pay attention to the fact that we’re a whole person with physical, emotional, cognitive, and spiritual dimensions. That means STEP ONE when you have writer’s block should always be a gut-check. 

Pause. Breathe. Stand up. Stretch. Introspect. How are things inside and out? Are there any barriers to writing that can immediately be addressed? If so, do it right now. 

But what about barriers your gut-check uncovers that can’t be solved right now? Take those issues to God and leave them with him: “God, here are some things I’m dealing with, and I need your help.” 

And you still have work to do, so consider one of the other strategies.

(For more insights on the role of self-awareness in writing sermons, see Paul Koptak's review of Some of the Words are Theirs.)

Strategy 2: Tell Your Inner Editor to Beat It

If your computer’s CPU is overloaded, close some programs. That’s what freewriting is for. Let’s shut down your “inner editor” and see if that frees up the resources so that your ideas flow. 

That’s the principle behind freewriting. In its purest form, you write for a designated period without stopping to correct yourself. Background editorial monitoring is actually pretty complex and takes effort. Set it aside and discipline yourself to allow your train of thought to shape itself. You can either start “cold” without any target in mind and let the words flow, or you can set a topic in front of you and just start writing. 

Freewriting is a mainstay of composition classes because it works.

Freewriting isn’t the only way to free up resources for creativity, but it’s especially adaptable and easy to work into your workflow. 

Question: Isn't freewriting just a "pre-writing tip"?

Answer: Freewriting (and some of my other suggestions) are commonly found in lists of "pre-writing" techniques. However, they are not limited to the beginning of your writing process. Their use is much broader. They are useful any time you are stuck in your writing and need to come up with new ideas or explore them.

(Shifting from frustration to curiosity is powerful, and freewriting helps with that. For more on curiosity's role in preaching, see Dave Peterson's post on "holy curiosity.")

Strategy 3. Read, Pray, Freewrite

Perhaps thinking of sermon writing as problem-solving seems a little mechanical. Maybe thinking of it this way smacks of doing everything “in our own strength.” I don’t think it has to be that way. In the best case, our techniques are about getting ourselves out of the way, creating space to listen to what God has to say. 

Let me suggest a way of using freewriting specifically to that end.

Practiced this way, freewriting is an exercise in humility. Not only are you freeing up cognitive resources, but you are putting those resources at God’s disposal. 

Strategy 4. Dialogue: Real or Imagined

If your car breaks down, ride your bicycle. In other words, if your normal writing process breaks down, stop writing. Try a different “vehicle.”

Sitting by yourself and writing is very different from having a conversation. A conversation is more natural and easier than writing alone. That’s what our language skills are for, after all. 

The ideal technique here is to actually chat with someone. Someone with expertise is great, but that’s not really the point. Often, a great idea will come up mid-conversation, just in the ordinary give and take of conversation. 

But having a chat with someone isn’t always possible. What then? 

Side note: What about AI? Should you have a discussion with a bot? Hold on to that. I’ll come back to that in a future post.

(Dialogue can help you explore different ways of engaging your audience. For the roles of tears, laughter, and sighs in your sermons, see this post from Dave Peterson.)

Strategy 5. The Pause

The last thing you will want to do when you are stressed out and wrestling with writer’s block is to stop. But, if time allows, it can be your best choice. There are a lot of benefits to pausing, and a lot of ways you can do it (more than I have space for here).

I think of three main things a pause can do. You can pick your pause (and what you do during it) based on what you need it to do.

1. Restore energy. If your writing difficulties come from hunger or fatigue, address the need. If you are hungry, go for real food over candy. If you’re tired, caffeine isn’t a substitute for sleep. With sleep, four hours of work at night might be possible in two hours in the morning. 

2. Change your mental state. Frustration and anxiety kill creativity. If you’re feeling panicky or seem to keep writing in loops, get away from the desk. Take a walk, a shower, or do some simple chores. Doing something else in a different space, especially exercise, can change your frame of mind significantly. The cost is usually low: 20–30 min.

3. Use background cognition. Your mind is still working when you aren’t. The catch: it’s not fast. You might get lucky and get an insight in an hour, but in my experience, I usually only see much effect after several hours (and maybe a night’s sleep). If you can, plan time for this in your workflow in advance. Your future self with thank you.

Pro-tip: When you pause your work, take 30 seconds to identify one specific question you want to answer when you return. Write it down. Not only will this help you with continuity, but it makes it more likely that some background cognition will offer insights when you get back. 

(Want a breakdown of pausing options? See the free toolkit at the end of this post.)

What Not to Do

On my pragmatic approach to writing, there is only one hard rule: if you’re going nowhere, don’t “go nowhere harder.” Staring at that screen is not going to conjure a sermon from the ether.

Instead, take a moment. What is your goal right now? What is the next thing you need in this sermon? Is it a new idea? Is it to expand on or organize what you have? Is the real problem hunger or fatigue? What is the best use of your time right now? Is it a good time to switch problems (maybe jump into the middle of the sermon if the beginning is a problem)?

Pick a strategy that seems promising and give it a shot. If it doesn’t work, try something else. (It will almost certainly work better than despondently staring at the screen.) 

Wrapping Up and Next Steps

Here’s the main takeaways:

• Writer’s block is a process failure, not a personal failure.

• Break your sermon-writing problem into smaller parts: generating and organizing ideas.

• There are many ways to attack writer’s block—not just one solution. Experiment with different methods to find what works.

• Don’t keep doing what isn’t working.

Here’s one final tip: Experiment before you get stuck. Try something this week. Never tried freewriting before? Take 5 minutes while you’re writing to see what it unearths. Want to use the Meditative Freewrite? It’s a valuable spiritual practice whether or not you have writer’s block. Got a quiet study? Try a dialogue with your inner skeptic.

Next Month: The second post in this series will tackle drafting and organization — and we’ll debunk the grade school writing process (and offer a better replacement).

Notes  

[1] The big picture here is borrowed from Linda S. Flower and John R. Hayes, “Problem-Solving Strategies and the Writing Process,” College English 39.4.

[2] I’m trying to stay away from technical terminology in this post. A lot of what I’m talking about would be best termed heuristics - effectively cognitive short-cuts that suffice (most of the time) to complete a cognitive task. They tend to be less effortful than full discursive reasoning, but they don’t work for every scenario.

[3] This is not to say my approach is unique. I learned it from some amazing folks I trained with and worked with at the University of Rochester.