CHAPTER ONE - Diagnosing Writer's Block:

Writer's Block is a simple term that covers a lot of different situations. I wrote this guide because the #1 question I get when I talk about writing is, how do you cure writer's block? When I ask people to describe what they're trying to fix, the symptoms break down into three different kinds of writer's block. I define them as follows:

Writer's Blank: When you want to write something and be creative, but don't know what story to tell. You're literally looking at a blank page with no idea how to begin.

Writer's Lock: When the ideas are there, but you don't know how to make them coalesce. You're unsure of where to begin and how to tell the story.

Writer's Knot: The story, the conflict and the characters are all there, but you're stuck in the middle. This is when you're trying to navigate your way through the fog and keep running into things.

My goal with this guide is to explain the strategies that have worked well for me in dealing with these situations. Hopefully, if you're in the middle of writing something right now, you won't even have to finish this book. You'll find some inspiration and be able to quickly jump right into your story.

On the subject of inspiration, let's start with Writer's Blank, and where ideas come from...