Goodreads asked Jason Kapcala:

How do you deal with writer’s block?

Jason Kapcala I'm not sure I believe in "writer's block," per se. I think productivity is going to ebb and flow sometimes, based on how many other commitments a person has in their life--family, work, etc.--and you have to be kind to yourself in those moments. I've heard people say, "You have to write every day to be a writer" and things like that, and I don't buy it. That's a privilege that most of us don't reasonably enjoy, given that most writers aren't paid to sit and practice their craft.

That said, you also can't be too comfortable not writing. I know when I am not writing, not on a schedule, that the problem is me: I am not being disciplined enough, not committing to the work.

I suppose that doesn't really answer the question of writer's block though. That's more of a creative dry spell than a scheduling issue. In those cases where I feel creatively depleted, I just sit down and write anyway. No one said it has to be easy to be valuable. That's how work goes sometimes. Write anything. A hundred words in or so, and I find that it starts to take shape for the day. When I go back to look at it later, it usually isn't as bad as it felt when I was grinding it out.

There's also a self-doubt with larger projects that creeps in and can freeze you if you let it. In my experience, a hundred pages into a manuscript, everything seems like bad writing, a poor decision, but I've come to expect that, and I find that if I ignore that doubting voice, the feeling goes away after about 20 more pages.

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