Have a Writer's Block? Take a Light White Noise Pill

Writers are special people not because they create something beautiful or can draw clear images in your mind with just words. They are special because they need particular conditions to successfully produce their share of writing. They are special because they can’t sit from 9 to 5 in the office, make quarterly reports for the boss and talk about baseball with colleagues. Every writer needs their personal space with their own flexible “decor” that changes very often due to the weather, taste of morning breakfast or mood.

There have been lots of talking about writer’s block and creativity. There are many ways that can improve your productivity and help overcome this barrier that sometimes makes you stuck in one place. However, they are very individual and what greatly boosts one writer’s work can disturb the concentration of the other. But I bet it’s always good to try new things and then share your experience with others.

Well, recently I’ve made a discovery that really surprised me. You know when you need to write something deep and thought-provoking you always search for silence. You think that a quiet place will definitely let you focus on this difficult stuff. But I’ve started to notice that I work better when there is some white noise on the background and I’ve tried to analyze why’s that so.

When you face with something unknown what do you usually do? That’s right. You google it. And that’s what I did. It appears that, in general, noise is considered to be stressful and causes problems with concentration. But there has been one research that has shown the opposite results. It says that light white noise can boost your creativity only if you are a highly original individual because it encourages abstract thinking and, thus, pushes mind to generate ideas. The findings are quite interesting but they lack enough proofs to be claimed as solid statistical data. I also found some people with ADHD who say they are more productive in noisy coffee shops and sometimes they sneak out from quiet offices to work in the environment of people ordering lattes and music playing in the background.

So, quite curious about that, hah? I suppose it never hurts anybody to try something new and I will definitely take a shot and visit cafés or parks to work on my writing projects.

And, will you?