Goodreads asked Ailsa McFarlane:

How do you deal with writer’s block?

Ailsa McFarlane I try to keep a routine in terms of what I do in order to begin writing every day. For me that's usually coffee and finding somewhere where I can completely shut out any other distractions for a couple of hours and fully immerse myself in writing. If I'm feeling some kind of block, I make myself at least write something, even if I go back over it the next day and don't like it and delete it. Maintaining a rhythm and an expectation that something at least has to be written at the end of the day is helpful, and, for me, stops me from falling into the pit of wanting to write but having no self-discipline to sit down and begin.

Even if everything else around that rhythm is changing, like the place and the time that I do this, I try to make sure that I stick to it, that I manage to find a quiet place where I can be completely alone to write.

I try to write by daily word count, too, instead of writing within an allocated time window. For me, that stops me from staring blankly at the computer screen for three hours.

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