I don't use the term "writer's block."

I’m trying more of these video post ideas! You can also find them on my YouTube, and perhaps, for the time being, while it lasts, my TikTok.

This mini discussion, by the way, applies primarily to fiction writing, and of the type where you are not being assigned something to write by someone else, but rather get to choose. That said, you might sometimes find it helps for other kinds of writing too.

Transcript if you want to opt out of watching/listening:

I don’t use the term “writer’s block,” because people seem to usually mean it as some unknowable force keeping them from working on this particular project. And I think we can actually identify and know what the problem is.

If we eliminate the issue of mental health—which should always be considered, but if we eliminate that huge category—then the writer’s block usually falls into one of two categories, I find.

It’s either “I don’t actually want to be working on this project,” in which case, if you’re free to, then please switch to a different project that you do want to work on.

Or the other category is: “I do want to be working on this, but there’s some aspect of it I haven’t figured out sufficiently to continue.” So, figure out what that aspect is, and figure that one out.

And that’s the one I’m on today. I’m looking out the window and just staring and trying to figure out a character’s motivations and reactions and assumptions at this point in her story, so that I will know what she would actually say in this conversation. Because otherwise I can’t proceed.

But I’m not going to call it writer’s block. Because I can figure it out.