Goodreads asked Carl Zimmer:

How do you deal with writer’s block?

Carl Zimmer I find that deadlines and contracts are very potent cures for writer's block. So I usually don't struggle with it much when I'm working on articles. (They give me anxiety instead, which is a different risk of writing.) Writer's block is a problem, however, when I'm working on a book, especially on the beginning. How on Earth will I pick the perfect words, sentences, images to start the story? Sometimes I find that just writing something--anything-down, will do the trick. I will literally be telling myself, "This is horrible. No one would want to read this," and yet I'll keep writing. Eventually, I realize why I hate it, and what it should be, and then I start working on the beginning that really will work. And sometimes that horrible beginning turns out to have been what I should have started with after all, and I keep it.

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