"The best way to overcome writer's block is to just keep writing." You've probably heard this a zillion times but does this approach really work?

You're waiting for me to say, 'yes', ain't you? Well, let me surprise you by saying that I only believe 40% of that sentence. And I have 2 good reasons for it. Hear me out...

1. It's too vague an advice

2. How can someone already with writer's block continue writing?

Alright, you might be wondering what happen to the rest of the 60%. It took me quite a while to realize the true meaning behind the sentence and I'm about to share my revelation with you so read on...

Base on my experience, writer's block happens most of the time when I stop and read my article over and over again.

The trouble with it is the more I read my uncompleted article, the more I feel my article is inadequate, the more I get concerned with what I should add into my article next. And boink! My brain hits the writer's block.

My discovery is: Writer's block often appears in my mind when I edit my article in the midst of my writing. After much thinking, I realized the truth...

What the advice, "just keep writing", actually means is to start writing and stop editing in the first place. Okay okay, that's not helping, is it? Here's what I mean exactly...

Challenge yourself to write non-stop for the first 20 minutes. Leave all the editing to later. Have a spelling error or a misplaced punctuation? Wait till you complete writing your articles.

Realize the first step in article writing is to complete writing your articles. Only then do you have something to edit upon.

Discipline yourself to keep your hands on the type pad and continue rattling with ideas. Avoid the vicious writer's block by keeping your hands away from the mouse or the 'back' button on your keyboard.

Sounds simple? It is!

Yet, not many people truly understand the meaning behind the advice, 'just keep writing'. They assume that overcoming writer's block is to keep writing after they meet the mental block. It's not.

The only way to overcoming writer's block is to avoid it in the first place by completing your articles before you take another look at it.

Go ahead and test this approach out. If you follow every single word I say, you too will churn an article this long in just 10 minutes within one sitting (like what I'm doing).

Good luck!