Goodreads asked David Joy:

How do you deal with writer’s block?

David Joy A lot of writers I've known very closely write everyday. I don't. And so for a long time there was a part of me that felt like I was doing something wrong. Then one day I stumbled onto an interview with Raymond Carver in the Paris Review where Carver is explaining his process and it was identical to how I work.

Carver said, "When I'm writing, I write every day. It's lovely when that's happening. One day dovetailing into the next. Sometimes I don't even know what day of the week it is. The 'paddle-wheel of days,' John Ashbery has called it. When I'm not writing, like now, when I'm tied up with teaching duties as I have been the last while, it's as if I've never written a word or had any desire to write. I fall into bad habits. I stay up too late and sleep in too long. But it's okay. I've learned to be patient and to bide my time. I had to learn that a long time ago. Patience."

When I read that I suddenly felt justified in my process. I don't write everyday, and on days when I'm not writing I indeed feel as if I've never written a word. But what I've learned is to trust in my process, to have patience that when I have something worth writing, I will write. Time and time again, it happens.

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