Goodreads asked Josh Hillis:

How do you deal with writer’s block?

Josh Hillis Writing professionally is about writing when you don't want to. It's about sitting down and just cranking out work.

Writer's block is about trying to get it right. So don't bother trying to get it right. Just write. Write total crap. Every first draft is terrible, that's part of the process. You start with garbage, and just do more and more drafts until it's something really useful for people.

Lean and Strong, I wrote 2000 words per day until I was done with the first draft (about 80,000 words). Then I threw that draft away completely, and started over.

I did the same thing writing the second draft, just 2000 words per day. And it was better, more focused, solved more real problems, and was more useful for people.

After the second draft, I figured out how to organize the material in a way that it could be taught well. The third draft, really, was about that organization, and creating a useable system of the material. I took a bunch of good information, and made it read like a coaching system. That's when I figured out the five levels, 1) Don't Diet, 2) Eating Skills, 3) Meta-skills, 4) Mindset turning points, 5) Psychology.

The fourth draft filled out that framework. The fifth draft was putting in the 387 references, and explaining how they relate. The sixth and seventh drafts were from notes from my editor.

So, writer's block is about not being willing to do those crappy first drafts. The trick is to start, knowing it will suck, and continuing to write anyway. Knowing that writing is an iterative process, and that it's made better through repeated revisions.

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