Goodreads asked Kristi Cramer:

How do you deal with writer’s block?

Kristi Cramer My best method of attack on writer's block is to just sit down and pound something, anything out. Sometimes it is only a paragraph at a time, but I must write!. I can always go back and delete it if it is true crap, but often the scenes I write this way do work, with some (or a lot of) tweaking.

For me, writer's block doesn't stem from a lack of ideas. I have at least half a dozen books clamoring in my head waiting for their turn to get out.

I think my writer's block comes from this belief that I can't write if I don't have this huge block of time set aside for writing, and currently, that huge block is not available. But if I just sit down and write something, it carries over and I find I can build upon that paragraph, and the next time I sit down I'll write two, and the time after that, four, until suddenly I'm writing whole scenes in one sitting.

Truthfully, my writing time is limited because I don't put my writing first. I let too many other things get in my way. Social media being chief among the distractions. But if I can resist checking my facebook feed, my twitter feed, my goodreads feed, my instagram feed--all truly valid things for a writer who wants to engage her readers--if I can resist making that my first activity then I end up getting a lot of writing done.

And after all, if I don't write anything new, there won't be new stories to talk to my readers about. So, I had better go. Got some writing to do....

flag