I recently heard Jerry B. Jenkin’s say, “No one gets ‘worker’s block’ as an excuse. There’s always work to do.”
I enjoyed being one of the speakers at the Writing for the Soul conference with Jerry B. Jenkins and team this past weekend.
I was a part of a panel discussion Q&A at the end of the conference, and a participant asked how we deal with writer’s block. Since Jerry has authored more than 180 books, 16 of which have reached the New York Times bestseller list, he definitely had an opinion. I quickly wrote down Jerry’s response, which is both challenging and empowering.
He made it clear that writer’s block is never an excuse, in the same way an employee can’t show up for work one day and say, “I can’t work today. I have worker’s block.”
There’s always work to do, even if things aren’t flowing the way you want. Jerry said that he always starts his day by rereading and editing his work the day before, which launches him into his work for the day. Great advice for every writer!
I’ve found two other ways to avoid writer’s block:
- Write what you know and out of the overflow of your heart. Eric Smith addresses this issue in my How I Write interview with him here.
- Have a plan and stick to it. If you have a written-out plan for your book (an outline) before you start writing the core content, you can follow your heart (whatever it may be that day) and choose to write any portion of the book you want. Find additional tips in my post Increase Your Writing Speed.
If you’ve used writer’s block as an excuse, don’t let it be an excuse any more. There’s always work that can be done.
Question: How do you deal with writer’s block?