Goodreads asked Jason R. Richter:

How do you deal with writer’s block?

Jason R. Richter If I get blocked, I have this super, secret writer's trick. I could get thrown out of the guild for this, but here goes:

1. Acknowledge you are blocked, stuck, at an impasse. Or an imp arse if you're English.

2. Employ an infrequently used bit of punctuation around some words. I'm a fan of these "{{{ WORDS}}}".

3. Go the hell around.

For example, your main character is stuck in a well that you have described as impossible to get out of, but they have to get out of the well, because you are not writing a story about someone dying of thirst at the bottom of a well. You can't think of how they will get out of the well, so you write, "{{{Get protagonist out of well.}}}" Then your next sentence is, "Once the protagonist got out of the well, his spree of violence was able to continue."

4. Continue writing until you come to the end of the story or until the solution pops into your brain. If nothing else, you are writing the first draft. It is allowed to suck. It can have more holes than an afghan. It can have more terrible cliches than the previous sentence. The important thing is finishing.

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