• this one may not work for you, but sometimes I can overcome my reluctance to write by forbidding myself to do it. the minute I’m really not allowed to do any writing, I think of lots of things to say.
• when I was writing my book, I found my mind frequently procrastinated the writing I had planned, by producing work for a different part of the book. I would ostensibly be working on Chapter 2 and my mind would effortlessly generate flowing text that belonged in Chapter 4. I learned to leverage this by always having a text file open for every chapter. when my mind attempted to sabotage me, I’d just flip over to the proper chapter file and capture the writing I *was* producing.

• This is one of those things that can either cure you or kill you: often when I’ve got writers block, I’ll pick up a couple of my favorite books, find a quiet spot, and read (and re-read, and read again, and again read, as much as necessary) my favorite passages. Half of the time, I’m inspired; half of the time, I want to jump off a bridge because there’s no way I’ll ever reach those literary heights. It’s a gamble, but desperate times …
• Sometimes, the work I pick up is my own. I’ve got some things I’ve written which I think are works of incredible genius. (What everyone else thinks is probably another matter, but who cares?) Reading them for the nth time sometimes reminds me that I can indeed do this.
• Anne Lamott, in her excellent essay on writing, Bird by Bird explains that she keeps a one-inch picture frame on her desk to remind her that sometimes that’s all she has to fill. Instead of focusing on any major part of your project, write the scene, develop one character, write a few lines of choice dialogue, write the kicker at the end. Don’t give yourself any more responsibility than that for the day.

The question is, Merlin, are these hacks actually working for you? Check your in box. ;-)

Unbelievable. The one man who could make a lie of my brilliant advice stops by my web site. Just my luck.

You should be in Homeland Security, Brian. ;-)

Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, right, Merlin? Seriously, Merlin. I’m watching you.

Seriously. ;-)

Hemingway once suggested simply writing one truee sentence. I have followed that credo every since and have never suffered from writers block. Give it a try!

Nice suggestions! I’m a writer myself, and one thing that I’ve learned is that writer’s block — like lovers’ spats — are never about what they’re about.

There’s no such thing as writer’s block: it’s always about putting your focus somewhere it shouldn’t be, which is always on product — outcome, whether it’ll be liked, what might happen if you say a certain thing, etc.

I’ve learned to consistently get myself out of a block by pulling my attention back to the work I’m doing at the moment, the process rather than the product.

If you’re stuck, it’s because there’s a question you’ve forgotten to ask or answer. Start asking yourself questions, and your wheels get traction.

I hope someone out there finds these thoughts helpful. They’ve got me through three novels and a few years of work as a copywriter.

Great ideas. I agree with Hamish—the best advice I’ve read on writer’s block is that it doesn’t exist, it’s just the name we give to failing to make a decision. So if I’m really stuck, I try to figure out what decision I’m not making, and make it.

The “unplug your router” advice is good. I’ve had a lot of success with a more extreme version of that that I picked up from slashdot.

Get a used sack-of-crap laptop and a light-weight linux distro. You can find really old celeron laptops for well under CDN$300 in my city. Put nothing on this laptop but a good text editor, or a nice and simple word pro like Ted or AbiWord. You do NOTHING on this laptop but write. (or programme, or whatever it is you do. Probably doesn’t work for graphic design …) Its like that old tip about doing nothing in bedroom but sleep and make love; when you sit down at that laptop, you know you mean business. That change of machine and/or venue can be enough to jolt you out of stuckness.

You can also do this with a live linux distro. When I had a g3, and no laptop, I found a workable equivalient in designating my terminal window for work only.

Hamish and PB: I think I mostly agree.

Another way to look at writer’s block is oddly GTD-like—sometimes you’re not ready to write because you don’t really know what you want to say or what you really think. I’ve found that once I think about my topic for awhile and give it time to gestate, the words often just flow.

The hard part is when you’re under pressure or badly prepared. The physical act of writing (at least in my head) should be just the hardcopy artifact of some kind of thought and a conclusion (or, “point,” as the kids say). More often than not, when I’m banging my head against the wall, it’s because I’m trying to attach words to an incomplete thought. Of course stress just compounds this.

Great comments, all! I love this.