Goodreads asked Aruna Nambiar:

How do you deal with writer’s block?

Aruna Nambiar If I’m between writing projects and stuck for an idea, I don’t sweat it too much. Time away from writing can refresh your mind. I usually use this time to catch up on my reading, or take up editing projects, or do some other kind of writing like a non-fiction article – or I might just write out a character or a setting which I may or may not use in a future story or novel. The ideas do come eventually.

It’s more frustrating when writer’s block hits when you are a few thousand words into writing your novel. This usually indicates that there is something wrong with your manuscript – maybe the plot or characters are not developed enough, or there are some issues with structure. At this time, it’s best to toil through it – perhaps rewrite a few chapters from a different point of view or with a different tense and see if it works better, or spend a few days in research. Free writing helps too – you could write a page about a particular setting, say, or a character, or a particular episode in the novel – you might not actually use this piece of writing in your novel, but the process of free writing seems to jog the brain into solving problems and coming up with creative solutions for your novel.

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