Goodreads asked Robert Wilson:

How do you deal with writer’s block?

Robert Wilson There's writer's block and then there's real writer's block. I've had both. The first is when you're stuck. The writing has been going fine but then for no reason at all you find you don't know where to take the story next. This is quite common.
I usually find that I can unlock this kind of temporary block by reading through the story so far and reminding myself of the potential lurking within certain characters or their storylines. Some detail or other will normally ignite a whole bushfire of ideas. Failing that I've been known to enjoy a good meal with plenty of wine and to present myself the following day to the desk and it's amazing how in that grizzly state the mind relaxes and the ideas and words start coming.
The second sort of writer's block is a very different beast. I've never found myself in the actual state of being unable to write, but I realised I'd lost my instinct for what was good. Normally the words travel from my mind through my gut and something in there tells me whether they're any good or not. In 2010 I lost it. The words came out but I had no idea whether they worked or not. I met another writer suffering the same thing at the same time. We named the affliction 'Writer's doubt'.
How did I get out of it? I just kept going, reasoning to myself that I had to do something because that was better than doing nothing. It was the most painful eight months of my writing life. In fact I was writhing rather than writing. Every day. The hope was the most dispiriting thing. The hope that I would turn up the next day and it would all be over and I would suddenly have the instinct for it again. It never came.
I 'finished' the book. Finally. And only then did something that felt a little bit like confidence come into play. I managed to congratulate myself for having stuck it out for eight long, horrible months.
I took a break while my wife read the book. She was kind to me saying that the last third of the book needed to be totally rewritten. I presented myself to the desk and knew instantly that it was back. I was like a dog that had recovered his sense of smell. I was alive again. I rewrote everything from top to bottom. And it was done with total joy.
There are all sorts of reason why something like that happens. In my case I think it was a combination of reasons: emotional trauma, nervous exhaustion and starting a new series having lived with a previous protagonist for seven years.
Someone once said that going through profound change on a personal and professional level often resulted in writer's block and that, rather than disaster, it heralded a new era with an added dimension to the work.
I hope he's right.

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