Goodreads asked Terez Mertes Rose:

How do you deal with writer’s block?

Terez Mertes Rose Oh, this is something I've dealt with quite a bit in the past few years, which I wouldn't have thought possible 8 or 10 years ago. It's sort of a sorrowful thing to observe writer's block, because it means you're outside that bubble of oblivion that makes you write and write, blissfully unaware that what you're writing might be utter crap. That's really what writer's block is, to me. It's being hyper-critical of your writing as it's coming out of you. Writer's block, for me, doesn't mean having no words at all come out. It just means it's super lousy writing. Wait. I guess I've had the former, as well. They both feel pretty lousy. But I remember the marvelously inspiring message I learned from Anne Lamott's BIRD BY BIRD. Don't be afraid to write shitty first drafts. Oh my goodness, how crucial, that message. How important to whisper it to yourself on a bad day. A bad week/month/year. In fact, I think I've forgotten to remember it, of late. Note to self: don't!

The other way I deal with "writer's reluctance," I'll call it, since writer's block is a bad frame of mind, is to set a timer. 20 minutes. Even on the worst of days, I can write for twenty minutes. Can't we all? And I remind myself that it doesn't even have to be GOOD writing. I am just there, in the process, guaranteed, for those twenty minutes. Sometimes when the timer sounds, I keep going. Sometimes I stop instantly. The best part is knowing that I did what I set out to do. I was a writer, involved in the process. And, for a writer, really, there's no better place in the world to be.

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