Goodreads asked Jane Ward:

How do you deal with writer’s block?

Jane Ward We can feel a great deal of internal pressure when struggling with a piece of writing or a deficit of ideas, and it's very easy to become frustrated when the work isn't flowing. I try to remember a college writing instructor's advice in those moments. He said, "If you're thinking about characters, even ones you know you will set aside, you're writing. If you're taking notes about what you observe around you, you're writing. If you're sharpening pencils for those notes, you're writing." He meant, of course, that a lot of writing is preparing to write, by thinking and observing and noting. When he said that, I felt a lot of the burden to prove productivity through a growing page count lift off my shoulders. It was a liberating message.

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