Sarah Roberts asked James J. Cudney:

How do you deal with writers block?

James J. Cudney Writers can always write (it may not be very good!), but when they hit a block, they need to figure out what’s causing it. If you can determine the root cause, you can trace a path to success. I write an outline for each chapter. If I attempt to write the words for that chapter, and they won’t come through as I need them to, I ask myself why. If I can’t solve it in 10 to 15 minutes, I switch to a different chapter or start editing earlier chapters. When I go back to write that chapter again, if I still can’t do it, then there’s something wrong in the story, which is a different problem, not writer’s block. Hopefully that makes sense, as I’ve definitely had moments where I don’t like what I’ve written, but I do think you need to find a way to keep moving forward rather than stare at a screen hoping something changes. That’s painful!

flag