Have you ever had writer’s block, and how do you deal with it?

Writer’s block comes in many forms for me.There’s mid-book writer’s block, there’s the “everything I write is (insert appropriate expletive)” writer’s block, there’s the “huh?” writer’s block.

The trick is to figure out which one I’m suffering from.

I have found myself blocked for weeks at a time only to discover that I hadn’t made a particular connection so what I was about to write would be *wrong*. A case in point, Dragonsblood deals both with the First Pass and the Third Pass on Pern. I couldn’t get something written in the First Pass part of the book and I couldn’t figure out why — until I re-read Dragonseye and discovered that in the First Pass the Harper Hall was always College and there were no Harpers, only teachers and students. So, I’d blocked for a good reason.

Mid-book writer’s block is usually a case of either get lost along the way or of allowing your own internal “editor” to start criticizing the book. This is a variant of the “everything I write is (insert appropriate expletive” writer’s block. I find that the best way to get through it is to remind myself that I either write or find a new job. Usually I end up spending a certain amount time looking for a new job and then I realize that I really like the job I have, so I force myself back to work — end of block.

The “huh?” writer’s block may be a combination of the other two or simply a masked version of a “mid-book” or “expletive” block. I usually get around it by trying the other two solutions until something works.

In almost all cases, a writer’s block for me is a good thing. It gives my subconscious time to deal with problems that have been raised by my conscious. It is always frustrating but that’s part of the price we pay to be writers.