#WritersCoffeeClub May 18
What do you do to actively avoid writer's block?
When I’m feeling stuck I’ll go back and read the previous couple of chapters I’ve written. Inevitably I’ll find places where I’ll want to add content. This helps me figure out how to tackle the new chapters
#WritersCoffeeClub May 18
What do you do to actively avoid writer's block?
I try to plot out an idea in my head of what the next day's work is going to be and make a note of it int document. I may not do exactly what I write down, but it's a starting point.
#WritersCoffeeClub Day 18: What do you do to actively avoid writer’s block?
If I'm stuck on one project, I work on another.
#WritersCoffeeClub May 18: What do you do to actively avoid writer’s block?
I always have several projects on the go these days, so if I'm blocked on one, I can work on the other.
#WritersCoffeeClub May 18: What do you do to actively avoid writer’s block?
I don't believe in writer's "block," like it's a thing in my way. I do have writer's inertia sometimes, but the way to overcome inertia is to get moving.
It's all part of creating this world and story. So if I just can't manage to bang out some words in the narrative today, I can always pick up one or another of the various background things that need doing. 2/2
#WritersCoffeeClub Day 18: What do you do to actively avoid writer’s block?
I keep in mind that word count is not the only thing that counts as writing. Fleshing out character backgrounds, figuring out how a particular spell works, or how I'm going to resolve a particular problem, or how two characters met, or whatever... it all counts. 1/2
#WritersCoffeeClub May 18: What do you do to actively avoid writer's block?
Mostly I run simultaneous projects. If I get stuck on one, I switch to another. Also, sometimes a single scene is the issue. Then, I'll put a place holder in and write what comes after.
I don't recommend my processes to others but, if anything about this gives you greater freedom, knock yourself out.
#WritersCoffeeClub May 18 What do you do to actively avoid writer's block?
Write something. Anything. Even if it's crap.
1. Seeing why it doesn't work can help point you to what will work.
2. You can't edit and revise what doesn't exist. Get it out of your head where you can look it over.
#WritersCoffeeClub May 18
What do you do to actively avoid writer's block?
I don't suffer from this. However, my process has changed. I used to write a lot of scenes out of order, then string them together later. Nowadays, I find it's easier not to think too far ahead, as, though I usually know broad strokes, the details often don't come until they're needed. One idea leads to the next. I go chapter to chapter, keeping the focus on what's pertinent to the present scene.
#writersCoffeeClub 5/18: What do you do to actively avoid writer's block?
I encourage writer's block. I'm not getting paid for it, and I try to write as little as possible. I let my ideas percolate as long as they have to until they are pounding at the door of my consciousness, demanding to be expressed.
I lose a lot of extraneous thinking that way. I write like Sun Tzu, stripping each idea down to its core meaning and expressing it in as few words as possible.
#WritersCoffeeClub May 18 - What do you do to actively avoid writer's block?
Sometime I'll wrestle with the best way for a plot to make progress, but I don't really view that as writer's block. It's just thinking things out.
At the start of the day, the first few words can take time to settle, but once I'm underway, everything's normally fine.
If I do get stuck for a moment, I either do something mundane (wash dishes, tidy) for 20 minutes or I'll take a brief power nap.
But generally speaking, I can write long into the night, in amongst a pile of dishes. 
Note: Above line corrected from "...a pie of dishes." ...even though it was funnier. 
#WritersCoffeeClub 18 May: What do you do to actively avoid writer's block?
I've known writers who went through periods of depression & couldn't write, but I'd identify the problem there as the depression. Same w/people going thru big traumas--the problem's the trauma!
Writing's not something where you can have a set level of productivity--you have fallow periods. Do other things then. Or, if you want to keep your hand in, maybe try writing inconsequential things. I recommend microfiction ;-)
#WritersCoffeeClub 5/18 What do you do to actively avoid writer's block?
A few things to try.
-Take a walk. This implies I have the time to both write and walk at my leisure. This rarely happens.
-Work on something else. I have a few projects going at once for a reason.
-Go to sleep! I've given up late-night writing. It's not worth it. Inspiration rises with the sun.
-Give yourself permission to write something bad. You can always dump it later and you might just strike gold in the meantime.
#WritersCoffeeClub 18
writers block
Apparently, everything I do avoids writer’s block. I’ve never suffered from it. That isn’t to say that I don’t have pauses where I have to work-out something in a story.
Self-honesty helps when it's a story problem, or the story IS the problem. My narrative planning helps with that.
Worry or depression are serious signs of something else & shouldn’t be ignored. I largely blocked the news for a reason & daydream of emigrating.
#WritersCoffeeClub May18. What do you do to actively avoid writer’s block?
I don't do anything. I don't really have writer's block, at least as it's traditionally portrayed. I certainly lag motivation sometimes but I never sit around not knowing what to write. I guess having stretches where I can't write because of other responsibilities maybe helps.
#WritersCoffeeClub 18/5: What do you do to actively avoid writer’s block?
Personally, I don't have trouble with writer's block so much as being blocked from having time/energy to write, but I do have these suggestions from a previous blog post:
1. Take a break from the project, or slow up the pacing
2. Try something different, either in the project or in your environment or schedule
3. Bring someone else in to be a second pair of eyes, rubber duck, or ideas springboard
(Link to post for posterity, though the ideas themselves are behind the paywall: https://red-pens-and-playwriting.ghost.io/rediscovering-the-joy-in-writing/)
Burnout happens when I'm emotionally overwhelmed by something I can't fix: it disrupts the source of my creativity. Examples: serious illness or death in the family (or close friends), the Wrong Kind Of Historic Events. Eventually I get used to the new normal and recover, but the worst cases to date—my parents deaths, then COVID19—each effectively cost me a year's output.
You can't force recovery from a moral injury, so the solution starts with not beating yourself up.
#WritersCoffeeClub May 18: What do you do to actively avoid writer’s block?
Over the years I've learned that I ONLY get writer's block when I've written my way into a dead end. (I'm a pantser, not a plotter, so this happens.) So when I realize it's happening again I switch to doing something else for a few days while my subconscious chews on the plot problem, then I go back to work, back up to before it went wrong, and re-start.
(This is distinct from burnout, which is something else.)
