Quotes & Sayings About Writers Block

Don't be afraid to be the new kid on the block. Pay attention and respect the more seasoned writers around you, but when you are ready to jump into the fire just remember to wear fire- retardant pajamas. — L.A. Lewandowski

If you've got writer's block, you aren't empty - maybe it's just like Twitter - overwhelmed, and loading seems to be taking a while ... — John Geddes

Writers block: when I get it, it's because my subconscious spotted that I'd make a huge structural mistake in constructing a novel before my conscious mind became aware of it, and threw on the brakes. So I've learned not to sweat it: take two days off, then back up a chapter, read through, and try to work out why I'm suddenly uneasy about continuing. — Charles Stross

Writer's block is just another name for fear. — Jacob Nordby

I only get writer's block about once a day. — Sue Grafton

Don't waste time waiting for inspiration. Begin, and inspiration will find you. — H. Jackson Brown Jr.

There is no writers' block, it is just a gitch, a gtch, a tch, shhh. Glitch. — Jordano Quaglia

To be motivated to write a novel, I need to be unable not to write. — Johnny Rich

That famous writer's block is a myth as far as I'm concerned. I think bad writers must have a great difficulty writing. They don't want to do it. They have become writers out of reasons of ambition. It must be a great strain to them to make marks on a page when they really have nothing much to say, and don't enjoy doing it. I'm not so sure what I have to say but I certainly enjoy making sentences. — Gore Vidal

Stop waiting for creative inspiration. Start creating and inspire yourself along the way. — Ryan Lilly

Writing is like riding a bike. Once you gain momentum, the hills are easier. Editing, however, requires a motor and some horsepower. — Gina McKnight

If only my sunscreen was as good as my writers block! — Martin Link

Why do I keep evading my work? Is it because I'm afraid of being confronted by my lack of abilities? — Candace Bushnell

The muse is fickle; ergo, when she knocks, ANSWER! It may take a while, but trust me, she WILL knock. In the meantime, keep your ear pressed firmly to the door. — Quentin R. Bufogle

All writing problems are psychological problems. Blocks usually stem from the fear of being judged. If you imagine the world listening, you'll never write a line. That's why privacy is so important. You should write first drafts as if they will never be shown to anyone. — Erica Jong

Failing to writer everyday doesn't mean that you've given up, though a chapter a day - keeps writers block away! — David Batterson

Replace your old books with the books you've always wanted to write. — Rob Bignell, Editor

I never really feel that I'm stuck. I actually think that people are never stuck, there's no such thing as writers block, I think that theres terror that can silence you. But if you can think of it as a dynamic thing I mean a writers block, it's a paralysis an immobility and the thing that has immobilized you is a very powerful force. Immobility is itself an act, it's a choice. It can sometimes take as much energy to remain immobile as it does to be mobile. And if you think of it in a dynamic way then it'd freeze you from the sense that at some point your talent will simply abandon you and you're just a vacant shell with nothing to say, I don't think that ever really happens. But I think that terror, bad experience, trauma and so on can absolutely silence you. — Tony Kushner

I had to educate him that there was no such thing as writer's block, that writers write when they write, and when they don't, they don't. — Anthony Kiedis

Every word I write is a seed that I may nurture into a small, beautiful poem or a tall, soaring tree. — Rob Bignell, Editor

Over analysis leads to paralysis — Rebecca Jane

When words don't come easy, I make do with silence and find something in nothing." ~ Strider Marcus Jones, Poet — Strider Marcus Jones

I might have missed my calling as an editor. In the spring, the sight of my empty garden beds gives me the horticultural equivalent of writers' block: So much space! So many plants to choose among, and yet none of them seem quite right! — Susan Orlean

A writer is always writing for someone. — L.L. Barkat

Especially when writers are just starting out, the emphasis should be not only upon what they write, but equally upon the process of writing. A successful class is a class where no one feels that 'writer's block' is a high-priority subject. — Mary Oliver

For short term relaxation, I take a hot tub. It's my best way to unblock writers' block, too. For a bit longer relaxation, I enjoy camping. Just being in the wilderness, with no phones or computers or anything I have to do really refreshes my spirit. — Ellen Hopkins

I've lived inside every ward of Freedom Incorporated and found I don't like being lied to. Put me in prison; do not put me on the street then call that freedom. Do not force me to into believing block-cut neon red, white, and blue letters super-glued to the tall, outside company wall blinking Freedom Incorporated," chapter seven 'The Problem' from writer Cosmo Starlight's sixth edition novel "Freedom Incorporated. — Cosmo Starlight

If you're a writer, the insight of other writers - if there's some kind of Holy Grail message on how to deal with writer's block or how to deal with any problem that can come up - whether you're writing about yourself or a group of people, I find that very interesting. — Jim Rash

To get over artist's block, make shitty art. — Dave Horowitz

I don't believe in "writers block." Lower your standards and keep writing. You can always go back later and make it better. Unless your name is Harlan Ellison, in which case your sentences come out perfectly parsed each time. — Marvin J. Wolf

The trouble with a baby, for writists, is that they take away your useful melancholy, even the energy to invent some. — D.A. Botta

In the end, I am quite normal. I don't have odd habits. I don't dramatize. Above all, I do not romanticize the act of writing. I don't talk about the anguish I suffer in creating. I do not have a fear of the blank page, writer's block, all those things that we hear about writers. — Jose Saramago

To unlock the writer's block is to keep writing until you can unknot the "not". If you cannot, then put a can in the plot and unwrap it a lot! — Ana Claudia Antunes

Considering I'm a writer, you leave me strangely bereft of words. — Kelly Moran

My ideas are a shapeless mass that my writing molds into beauty. — Rob Bignell, Editor

Time heals all wounds; some broken hearts
and most cases of writer's block. — Quentin R. Bufogle

I write whenever it suits me. During a creative period I write every day; a novel should not be interrupted. — Francois Mauriac

There is always, always, always something to write about. — Rob Bignell, Editor

Real life and fantasy intertwines themselves breathing life into the very characters I create. As I write you could hear the~~click tap of the keys on the keyboard resound off the walls. At times writers block hinder my way until by way of sound, light, or even look gives me a new insight to push forward... — Jacqueline Silva

I'm a little harsh. When people say, 'I have writers block. What do you suggest?' I say, 'If you can't write, don't write. No one needs your writing. Don't torture yourself.' — Lorrie Moore

Every word I write is another stroke that takes me to the shore of a completed book. — Rob Bignell, Editor

When she got back from taking Cassie to school Fancy knew that she ought to be working on her wilderness romance. She had promised thirty thousand words to her editor by tomorrow, and she had only written eleven. Specifically:
His rhinoceros smelled like a poppadom: sweaty, salty, strange and strong.
Her editor would cut that line. — Jaclyn Moriarty

The music lets me see the story but the story doesn't let me write the words. — Elizabeth J. Kolodziej

I wrote my first book when I was 22 years old. I have a way with words and I love to write. I can write without getting writers block so I knew, it was a gift. — Tony Gaskins

I don't get writers block. I get writer has too many ideas and doesn't know which one to start next, block. — Tyler Hojberg

Very often we write down a sentence too early, then another too late; what we have to do is write it down at the proper time, otherwise it's lost. — Thomas Bernhard

I'm not the new kid on the block anymore. Writers always use the phrase "aging rocker," and I'm like, "What other option do I have?" You're either aging or you're dead. — Bret Michaels

I haven't written in a week. It's like holding your breath under water. You feel an awful constriction and then the instinct to propel yourself. — D.A. Botta

Writer's block is caused by forcing your will on the Divine. — Chriscinthia Blount

Writers have two main problems. One is writer's block, when words won't come at all, and the other is Logorrhoea, when the words come so fast that they can hardly get to the wastebasket in time. — Cecilia Bartholomew

You know, the whole thing about perfectionism. The perfectionism is very dangerous. Because of course if your fidelity to perfectionism is too high, you never do anything. Because doing anything results in ... it's actually kind of tragic because you sacrifice how gorgeous and perfect it is in your head for what it really is. And there were a couple of years where I really struggled with that. — David Foster Wallace

Don't let writers block push you around. Figure out what the problem is,whether it's with the ms or it's in your personal life, and face it head on. Don't stop writing. Just try really hard to work through it. — Darynda Jones

The very qualities that make one a writer in the first place contribute to the block: hypersensitivity, stubbornness, insatiability, and so on. Given the general oddity of writers, no wonder there are no sure cures. — John Gardner

No one stopped me from playing when I was alone, but there were times when I wasn't able to, though I wanted to ... There were times when nothing played back. Writers call it 'writer's block.' For kids there are other names for that feeling, though kids don't usually know them. — Lynda Barry

You don't have to take it out on my typewrite ya' know. It's not the machine's fault that you can't write. It's a sin to do that to a good machine. — Sam Shepard

Writer's block is a natural affliction. Writers who have never experienced it have something wrong with them. It means there isn't enough friction-that they aren't making enough of an effort to reconcile the contradictions of life. All you get is sweet monotonous flow. Writer's block is nothing to commit suicide over. It simply indicates some imbalance between your experience and your art, and I think that's constructive. — Stanley Kunitz

I have found repeatedly hitting my head with a mallet doesn't help at all, so i am open to suggestions. — Steve Merrick

88. People wonder why so many writers come to live in Paris. I've been living ten years in Paris and the answer seems simple to me: because it's the best place to pick ideas. Just like Italy, Spain.. or Iran are the best places to pick saffron. If you want to pick opium poppies you go to Burma or South-East Asia. And if you want to pick novel ideas, you go to Paris. — Roman Payne

For most digital-age writers, writing is rewriting. We grope, cut, block, paste, and twitch, panning for gold onscreen by deleting bucketloads of crap. Our analog ancestors had to polish every line mentally before hammering it out mechanically. Rewrites cost them months, meters of ink ribbon, and pints of Tippex. Poor sods. — David Mitchell

Writing is a sickness only cured by writing. — Niall Williams

There are, occasionally, writers who are able to combine both story and style. They are, of course, the best. You get a spectacular view and you also get to look at it from the backseat of a chauffeur-driven Cadillac. In the field of fantasy, those writers able to combine story-as-narration with story-as-style are even rarer. But there are a few ... the late Theodore Sturgeon, the early Ray Bradbury ... and Richard Christian Matheson. A brilliant chip off the old block. — Stephen King

I think every writer struggles in some way with writers block. The trick is to plan out what you are going to say beforehand. I found out that if you make an outline you're much less likely to get blocked when you get into the middle of the story. — Rick Riordan

She looked at the empty page, which remained blank, apart from the small wet dots from her tears, for hours. Her mind was a turmoil of sadness, rage, fear and all those emotions that gave her inspiration. However her heart lacked the will as the empty words enclosed her soul pulling it down towards the frenzied ravenous imps that stalked hells pantry.... — Virginia Alison

Ugh, writer's block. The best thing to do is to forget about everything you're trying to do. Get away from your writing station, kick your feet up and relax. Then allow your mind to just wander. Don't stop it. Just let yourself think of anything, no mater how silly the thoughts seem. Remember, not to judge these thoughts. This will open up your creative receptors. You'll begin to think outside the box. Then the good stuff will start racing through you. That's when you start writing! — La Tisha Honor

I deal with writer's block by lowering my expectations. I think the trouble starts when you sit down to write and imagine that you will achieve something magical and magnificent - and when you don't, panic sets in. The solution is never to sit down and imagine that you will achieve something magical and magnificent. I write a little bit, almost every day, and if it results in two or three or (on a good day) four good paragraphs, I consider myself a lucky man. Never try to be the hare. All hail the tortoise. — Malcolm Gladwell

The best cure for cranial constipation is emotional fiber. Feel 'something', anything.
Pain, anger, joy; if your heart goes eerily cold or leaps erratically from your chest, your synaptic bowels will soon find release. — Muse

It's often said that writers sometimes need to go around the block a few times to get where they're going. — Christopher Bram

Writers are troubled about finding time to write and writer's block and publicizing books that aren't books yet. They agonize over how to write and what to write and what not to write. — Deb Caletti

Confront the page that taunts you with its whiteness. Face your enemy and fill it with words. You are bigger and stronger than a piece of paper. — Fennel Hudson

My pen glides effortlessly; while my imaginary character speaks.

Each taking turn to tell their story.

Inspiration took me on a journey; along a path i knew nothing about, then i experienced writers block.

Stock in my thought, unable to fuel the burning desire of my pen i stare at the wall in search of inspiration. — Tim Templer

The last thing we discover in composing a work is what to put down first. — Blaise Pascal

They told me I've got writer's cramp. So is that better than the block? — Joyce Rachelle

The thing I want to write most is the next thing I write. — Carroll Bryant

Writer's block: when your imaginary friends stop talking to you. — Anonymous

Discipline allows magic. To be a writer is to be the very best of assassins. You do not sit down and write every day to force the Muse to show up. You get into the habit of writing every day so that when she shows up, you have the maximum chance of catching her, bashing her on the head, and squeezing every last drop out of that bitch. — Lili St. Crow

A tweet a day keeps writer's block away. — Buffy Andrews

A hammer made of deadlines is the surest tool for crushing writer's block. — Ryan Lilly

I don't believe in writers' block. Do doctors have 'doctors block?' Do plumbers have 'plumbers' block?" No. We all have days when we don't feel like working, but why do writers turn that into something so damn special by giving it a faintly romantic name. — Larry Kahaner

Each time I write, I reaffirm my soul. — Rob Bignell, Editor

If she was going to write a novel, she felt defeated before she began, because someone might be coming along to pick it apart, looking for symbols like The Conch or The Whale, which seemed to have mythic proportions. — L.L. Barkat

I've always said "Writer's Block" is a myth. There is no such thing as writer's block, only writers trying to force something that isn't ready yet. Sometimes I don't write for weeks. And then all of the sudden I'll get a rush of inspiration and you can't drag me away from my notebook. But I don't stress out if I don't hit some arbitrary word count each day or if I go a few days without writing something. — Julie Ann Dawson

Writers block to me is all the voices in your head trying to tune out the one voice that has something worthy say. — Shanet Outing

Writer's block' is just a fancy way of saying 'I don't feel like doing any work today. — Meagan Spooner

Make a list of all the varieties of aliens you can come up with. (And if it's less than 3,000, then THE PEARS ARE LAUGHING AT YOU, MY FRIEND.) -Scott Westerfeld from NaNoWriMo Pep Talk. — Scott Westerfeld

Writing something new is an effective way to get rid of writer's block. Or you can observe the people around you and fantasize like I do. — B.A. Gabrielle

There is no such thing as writer's block for writers whose standards are low enough. — William Stafford

The myth stems from the belief that writing is some mystical process. That it's magical. That it abides by its own set of rules different from all other forms of work, art, or play.But that's bullshit. Plumbers don't get plumber's block. Teachers don't get teacher's block. Soccer players don't get soccer block. What makes writing different? Nothing. The only difference is that writers feel they have a free pass to give up when writing is hard. — Patrick Rothfuss

I actually prefer to work in as many different genres as possible as often as possible because I actually think the best way to be inspired and avoid any writers block or things like that is actually to be able to go from a comedy to an action to a horror to a adventure, that actually makes it easy for me to start over and get new ideas, and it keeps things interesting. — Christopher Lennertz

Yes, I felt very small. The typewriter seemed larger than a piano, I was less than a molecule. What could I do? I drank more.
-pg 237 — Albert Sanchez Pinol

She meant you have to live a story for a time.'
'And?'
'And then you can write it, in time. What have you lived?'
'Kind of a personal question for Twitterland.'
'Kind of the perfect question to answer in fiction. — L.L. Barkat

Writing isn't difficult. Writing well is difficult. What is most difficult is being with the interior experience that manifests as resistance to writing. — H. Raven Rose

Having writers block sucks more than my actual writing. And my writing would be astonishing if I could write how I feel. — Ally Spina

Professional writers don't have muses; they have mortgages. — Larry Kahaner

I had writers block for months afterwards because I was just so taken aback by all of the sounds I was hearing. It's almost like hearing the most beautiful music you've ever heard, so you're like, "What's the point of me making anything?" It was this living sonic organism so the idea of recording something just seemed like taking this living thing and mummifying it. — Taraka Larson

Writing is hard. That's why so few people stick to it and actually finish things. And why you have a right to be immensely proud when you finish something.
[There Is No Such Thing as Writers' Block: Blog post, October 7, 2001] — Andy Ihnatko

What is hell to a writer? Hell is being too busy to find the time to write or being unable to find the inspiration. Hell is suddenly finding the words but being away from your notebook or typewriter. Hell is when the verses slip away through your fingers and they never return again. — R.M. Engelhardt

Writing about a writer's block is better than not writing at all — Charles Bukowski

Putting pen to paper without first deciding the route and pace at which to scribe is like setting off on a bicycle without first checking the tyres. — Fennel Hudson

I have never experienced writers block and I've written every day since June 1972. But I have experienced the need to get up and walk around, eat ice cream, let ideas percolate, forget the story for a time, and then return to the page. Even the muse needs a vacation to rest up before she gives more of herself. — Jan Marquart

I hate tricks. At the first sign of a trick or gimmick in a piece of fiction, a cheap trick or even an elaborate trick, I tend to look for cover. Tricks are ultimately boring, and I get bored easily, which may go along with my not having much of an attention span. But extremely clever chi-chi writing, or just plain tomfoolery writing, puts me to sleep. Writers don't need tricks or gimmicks or even necessarily need to be the smartest fellows on the block. At the risk of appearing foolish, a writer sometimes needs to be able to just stand and gape at this or that thing- a sunset or an old shoe- in absolute and simple amazement. — Raymond Carver