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Goodreads asked E.B. Barrett:

How do you deal with writer’s block?

E.B. Barrett I rarely suffer from writer's block. When it occurs, I often find that something else is blocked: I'm stressed or my self-censoring internal critic is active or I have been too sedentary. Dance and yoga help.

For periods of time, particular characters I'm working on will go quiet, and I find it important to turn to other stories or the art of others, often music or visual art, to help restore the flow. I return periodically to the "stuck" piece until it isn't stuck any longer. Sometimes, I realize that I haven't been letting a character go where he or she wants to because I'm imposing my superego, and I have to get out of the way. I can always decide not to publish something later.

I never consistently followed The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron, but I did find two tools from her course that help immensely: the artist date (taking yourself on an artist date) and the morning pages (writing a set number of pages of stream of consciousness without censorship or rereading first thing in the morning) that clear the decks for the creative mind.

Often times, rather than being blocked, I find that characters and stories show up when I'm not prepared to process them: in the middle of a conversation, riding on the train standing up, driving, or sleeping. If I can't jot some notes, I try to mentally gather the thread and save it for when I can deal with the information.

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