Goodreads asked Chris Pavone:

How do you deal with writer’s block?

Chris Pavone If I can’t figure out what should happen next, I set aside the manuscript, and return to writing the ancillary documents that I maintain for a book: outline, character sketches, plot notes, random bits of dialogue, scenes whose time has not yet come in the narrative. I create a tremendous amount of this material that will never be read by anyone, which allows me a different type of freedom: the freedom to write poorly, to pursue incoherent plot twists, to invent unnecessary characters—that is, the freedom to be wrong. I feel like writer’s block comes from the paralyzing fear of being wrong, of making the wrong decisions. For me this is a problem that can be solved by removing that fear.

flag