Goodreads asked Alec Worley:

How do you deal with writer’s block?

Alec Worley Take the emotion out of it.

It’s so much harder to deal with a creative block when you feel like your whole self-worth is riding on your ability to find a solution. Don't put yourself under that kind of pressure.

Instead, look at the block from a distance, with logic and detachment, the way an editor would. Define the problem, isolate it and look at it mechanically.

Is it a problem with a character’s motivation? Are you struggling to tie two story events together? You can’t solve a story blockage until you get at least a sense of what the blockage is!

If the issue seems to be broader, a problem with the story or the concept overall, perhaps the genre or an archetypal character doesn’t seem to be gelling the way you want, then read related critical or literary essays. Critics tend to approach stories from a more intellectual, less instinctual angle, and that can often give you the distance you need to identify and solve the problem.

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