Goodreads asked Kevin Sites:

How do you deal with writer’s block?

Kevin Sites I hate to give the term "writer's block," as much power as it implies. Everyone gets stuck at certain points during the writing process. But a block tends to signify a nearly impossible impasse. I don't want to create psychological impediments to me doing my job, so I simply choose not to accept them. Part of that mindset comes from my decades of working as a journalist. Deadlines don't acknowledge or accept writer's block. You must deliver the story or find another career.

This is enormously helpful in writing fiction as well.

But in addition to that ABA (always be advancing) mindset, you should have some ready tools to help you push past the obstacles to getting the work done. Here are mine:

1. Permission to write a really shitty first draft.
I am rarely able to summon anything close to lyrical in the first go-round. It's more about getting the concepts on screen, erecting a supporting structure to see if it works, and then having the reassurance that the page is no longer blank. You're now rewriting rather than writing. That's always less intimidating.

2. Physical Exercise.
If you're having trouble getting momentum in front of the screen, get it off the screen. Go for a run, do some situps, pushups--it doesn't matter as long as you're moving. It shakes things up and gives you a small sense of satisfaction that you're actually doing something other than hating yourself for staring at a blinking cursor.

3. Draw, Paint, Create.
I keep an idea notebook on my desk that I use to visualize concepts I'm having difficulty in writing. Sometimes sketching out images (no talent required, I'm a mediocre artist) helps to break through the brain barrier to expression through words.

No hard and fast rules though. Just experiment and find what works for you--anything but obsessing over a blinking cursor and a blank screen.

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