Goodreads asked Jared Reck:

How do you deal with writer’s block?

Jared Reck I have two methods that work well for me:

The first is a writing activity I do regularly with my students, called a QuickWrite (shout out to Writing Workshop guru, Linda Rief). It's a quick, five-minute burst of writing where you try to keep your pen moving the entire time. Sometimes I give a sentence-starter, sometimes we use lines from awesome YA novels, sometimes I pick out a painting I love. Then we go. When I force myself to sit down and write these with my students, I almost always love the results. (I don't know why I don't just make myself do this every day on my own.)

The second method is to use a character questionnaire. Usually I'm stuck because I just don't know enough about my character. So I'll stop, make up a random interview question (What's on your camera roll right now? What would we find taped to the inside of your locker?), and see what my character says. Once I get the character talking, I end up using most of it in my story.

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