Gail, you're one of my idols. Thank you for doing your thing. I was wondering: do you have any quick advice for fighting a writing funk?

My usual advice is to have more than one project. It helps me a lot to be able to switch to something completely different in tone, even if it’s just for yourself. This is still my best advice, assuming things are going okay otherwise.

But I have a new thought to add. 

Last year, we had a bunch of very rough personal problems (house broken into and trashed, both pets dying, son was attacked by a thug, and more) and I thought I was able to write through it. 

I was not being honest with myself. I believe now I was struggling with depression and was not facing up to it. I was still spending the same number of hours in front of the computer, but each page of script was taking far, far longer, and I wasn’t feeling the same joy in finishing that I always have. 

I always give other people the advice to get help if they need it, but I didn’t take that advice myself, and it made work much harder and slower, and I didn’t seem to realize how off it had gotten. 

Slowly, things turned around, through the help and support of family and co-workers, and I am my happy self again, even though I have catching up to do.

My point here is to give some consideration to the possibility that maybe your writing isn’t the problem, it may be something in your life that is affecting your joy, passion, drive, ambition, and/or creativity. Some people can be creative in a destructive spiral, and others can’t. 

So, I would say a decent self-inventory might be worth a shot, look and see if something is affecting how you approach your work, and see if there’s any way you can work on that, as well.

Good luck.