Goodreads asked Joel Whitney:

How do you deal with writer’s block?

Joel Whitney I read, I play music, I go for a walk. Repeat. And I try to figure out what the dead spot or the blind spot was in the last section I wrote that might be hindering me. I also try to make conscious what I'm afraid of saying. In the case of Finks, I didn't want to condemn any of the Cold War, mostly dead writers whose careers I was examining through the lens of the Congress for Cultural Freedom, the battle against the Soviets, and the CIA. While I may have pointed to some flaws in the program, as it were, I tried as often as I could to follow john a. powell's rule. I think he wrote or said something to the effect of, "Be soft on the person and hard on the institution." The point is that sometimes your writer's block is telling you something and you have to listen for what it is. And sometimes you need a little space from something new or something too intense. Sometimes it's good to let it breathe for a day or two.

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