Goodreads asked Rich Leder:

How do you deal with writer’s block?

Rich Leder At its core, writer's block is a function of not knowing what to write. And not knowing what to write is a function of not preparing a detailed outline first. I call it a beat sheet. You can call it anything you want--but do it before you write the book and you'll know what to write at every given moment.

I started doing beat sheets in Hollywood, when I was a screenwriter. I did 56 of them. And now I've done one for each of my four novels.

A road map, is all it is, so I know where I'm going and why. Like all journeys, the map can and does change once I'm underway. But having a detailed beat sheet gives me the confidence that I will finish what I started, that, if I do nothing but following my outline beat by beat, I can start at the beginning, aware of what to write next and why, and keep going until I reach the end.

Doing it this allows me to focus on how I'm going to write that scene, that chapter, that moment without worrying about what it is I'm supposed to write. I know what I'm supposed to write, now what's the coolest-funniest-most romantic-scariest-whatever way for me to write it.

In my decades as a professional writer, this had been my cure for writer's block. Yes, cure.

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