Goodreads asked Jen Swann Downey:

How do you deal with writer’s block?

Jen Swann Downey I treat it as a luxury I can't afford. (Three kids to try not to ruin, two business-to-pay-the-bills to run, and that dang partridge to chase out of the pear tree on a daily basis).

I subscribe to the "I've got three hours out of the whole day to be alone with my thoughts and a writing implement. Just write SOMETHING, anything. Is a good deal of the result often dull, disconnected, or even dreadful? Yes!

But it's raw material. And even when none of it turns out to be worthy of being plopped on the potter's wheel for shaping during a later editing session, the act of producing the material seems to almost always kick off interesting cascades (on a fabulous day) or little (but powerful!) frog plops of insights, questions, sudden flashes of character, theme, scene and story structure for current or future writing projects.

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