Goodreads asked Helen Barrell:

How do you deal with writer’s block?

Helen Barrell Go and do something else. Anything else. I sometimes find that if I'm sat at my desk working and suddenly all my words stop, then getting up to make a cup of tea gets them flowing again, or even going out for a walk. That may lead to me walking around the supermarket talking to myself, but that may lead to a eureka moment in the tinned goods aisle.

If the block lasts longer... sometimes you need to change your focus entirely. Forget about writing, forget about the block, read other things, explore hobbies that interest you. You never know where inspiration will strike. My interest in 19th century forensics has come from genealogy - after I found a note in the margin of a burial register about someone's death by arsenic poisoning, and the fate of the person found guilty of their murder.

It's actually a known neurological fact that going to do something else gets the brain working. It's why that chap had his eureka moment in the bath. I get quite a lot of ideas in the shower, or when I'm brushing my teeth, or putting out the bins, or sweeping the stairs, or exercising. Let your brain off its lead and allow it to sniff about in the undergrowth, that's what I say.

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