Writers Block Quotes

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

There is always a man eager to explain my mental illness to me. They all do it so confidently, motioning to their Hemingway and Bukowski bookshelf as they compare my depression to their late-night loneliness. There is always someone that rejected them that they equate their sadness to and a bottle of gin (or a song playing, or a movie) close by that they refer to as their cure. Somehow, every soft confession of my Crazy that I hand to them turns into them pulling out pieces of themselves to prove how it really is in my head.

So many dudes I've dated have faces like doctors ready to institutionalize
and love my crazy (but only on Friday nights.)

They tell their friends about my impulsive decision making and how I "get them" more than anyone they've ever met but leave out my staring off in silence for hours and the self-inflicted bruises on my cheeks.

None of them want to acknowledge a crazy they can't cure.

They want a crazy that fits well into a trope and gives them a chance to play Hero. And they always love a Crazy that provides them material to write about.

Truth is they love me best as a cigarette cloud of impossibility, with my lipstick applied perfectly and my Crazy only being pulled out when their life needs a little spice.

They don't want me dirty, having not left my bed for days. Not diseased. Not real.

So they invite me over when they're going through writer's block but don't answer m ~ Lora Mathis

that feeling you might call "writer's block" is actually fear. The ~ Robert Maurer

I haven't had writer's block. I think it's because my process involves writing very badly. ~ Jennifer Egan

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

(On her son) I've met writer's block. He is short, diapered and keeps unplugging my laptop. Good news: he can be conquered with a bottle and a nap. ~ Cyrese Covelli

If you do enough planning before you start to write, there's no way you can have writer's block. I do a complete chapter by chapter outline. ~ R.L. Stine

The secret to good writing is to use small words for big ideas, not to use big words for small ideas. ~ Oliver Markus Malloy

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

Don't be discouraged by writer's block. Writer's block just means you need to listen to other music. ~ Ben Harper

Creative exhaustion is first cousin to writer's block. First off, I try to accept that when it hits, I am not wasting time, but preparing myself to return to work. I blog more. I do something different, like answering this question. If I can't force myself to finish a story, then perhaps it was not worth finishing. If I have to push rather than let it flow, it won't be as good as if I take more time, mess around in the garden and try to shove the guilt deep into the compost pile. I am still a writer so long as I am thinking! ~ Sue Isle

Writer's block is a fancy term made up by whiners so they can have an excuse to drink alcohol. ~ Steve Martin

Allowing yourself to make mistakes can ultimately go beyond a writer's block. ~ Neeraj Agnihotri

There are few experiences as depressing as that anxious barren state known as writer's block, where you sit staring at your blank page like a cadaver, feeling your mind congeal, feeling you talent run down your leg and into your sock. ~ Anne Lamott

Cure for writer's block: blow something up(in the story) ~ Scott Westerfeld

ARGH! There's no such thing [as writer's block]. Seriously: THERE. IS. NO. SUCH. THING. You know what there is? There's a bunch of problems, creative and otherwise, that can stop you writing. They are not block. They are important skills. ~ Nick Harkaway

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 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 pretty much drink a cup of coffee, write in my journal for a while, and then sit at a computer in my office and torture the keys. My one saving grace as a writer is that, if I'm having trouble with the novel I'm writing, I write something else, a poem or a short story. I try to avoid writer's block by always writing something. ~ Jess Walter

Before Jesse could say another word, the bedroom door jerked open and Lucie's father stood on the threshold, looking alarmed.
"Lucie?" he said. "Did you call out? I thought I heard you."
Lucie tensed, but the expression in her father's blue eyes didn't change - mild worry mixed with curious puzzlement. He really couldn't see Jesse.
Jesse looked at her and, very irritatingly, shrugged as if to say, I told you so.
"No, Papa," she said. "Everything is all right."
He looked at the manuscript pages scattered all over the rug. "Spot of writer's block, Lulu?"
Jesse raised an eyebrow. Lulu? he mouthed.
Lucie considered whether it was possible to die of humiliation. She did not dare look at Jesse. ~ Cassandra Clare

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

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

I always thought writer's block was something that prats used as an easy excuse for not doing any work. ~ Geraldine McCaughrean

I'm constantly battling writer's block; it usually takes me two hours to write anything. ~ Martha Grimes

I don't think that writer's block exists really. I think that when you're trying to do something prematurely, it just won't come. Certain subjects just need time, as I've learned over and over again. You've got to wait before you write about them. ~ Joyce Carol Oates

Writing is 90 percent procrastination: reading magazines, eating cereal out of the box, watching infomercials. It's a matter of doing everything you can to avoid writing, until it is about four in the morning and you reach the point where you have to write. ~ Paul Rudnick

Writer's block? A myth. It's your job, show up and do your job. ~ Caroline James

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

I will quote one sentence from this text, namely, the one with which it ended. It was also the sentence which finally dissolved the writer's block that had inhibited the author from starting work. I have since used it whenever I myself have been gripped by fear of the blank sheet in front of me. It is infallible, and its effect is always the same: the knot unravels and a stream of words gushes out on to the virgin paper. It acts like a magic spell and I sometimes fancy it really is one. But, even if it isn't the work of a sorcerer, it is certainly the most brilliant sentence any writer has ever devised. It runs: 'This is where my story begins.' ~ Walter Moers

Unlike some of my peers, I haven't really hit a writer's block. When I hit a block I just paint, which is an old crop rotation trick. ~ Joni Mitchell

If you know how to freestyle, you will never have writer's block. ~ Will.i.am

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

I don't even subscribe to writer's block being a truthful thing. I've had writer's laziness quite often. But I think it's all about sitting down and facing down the blank page and doing it, and I've always been ok at that. ~ Martin McDonagh

I never get writer's block. My secret ... I have purring cats in surround sound while I write ... best white noise on the planet. R.Rose when asked how she deals with writer's block. ~ R. Rose

Nonetheless, writing regularly, inspiration or no, is not a bad way to eventually get into an inspired mood; the plane has to bump along the runway for a while before it finally takes off. ~ Alice W. Flaherty

The best way in the world for breaking up a writer's block is to write a lot. ~ John Gardner

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

Writer's block comes from one's wanting only to write good stuff. Well, the good stuff and the bad stuff are all part of the stuff. No good stuff without bad stuff. ~ Eric Olsen

I think living in Israel and wanting to change reality is the best prescription for never-ending writer's block. ~ Etgar Keret

Inspiration is the timid beast that comes to your open hand once you've fallen asleep having given up trying to coax it from its hiding place. ~ Shaun Hick

Writer's block results from too much head. Cut off your head. Pegasus, poetry, was born of Medusa when her head was cut off. You have to be reckless when writing. Be as crazy as your conscience allows. ~ Joseph Campbell

Writer's block isn't always a problem. It can be a process of writing that helps us write better. ~ Jennifer Hudson Taylor

The cure for writer's block is writer's cramp. ~ Inigo DeLeon

I've never really suffered complete and utter writer's block, really. I equate it with sex: in the beginning of my career, I was writing five songs a week; now, I occasionally write a song. But it's an exciting moment when it happens! ~ Loudon Wainwright III

Writer's block is only a failure of the ego. ~ Norman Mailer

I don't generally listen to music while working, but sometimes music can help me get past minor writer's block. ~ David Liss

I have made no attempt at chronology. My writing hasn't changed much over the years. That's because I haven't changed. I am still the impractical dreamer that I was sixty years ago, when I decided that writing would be my vocation and my profession. I do not suffer from writer's block. I have only to sit down at my desk for the words to come tumbling on to my writing pad. And if an ant moves across my desk, I shall record its transit. ~ Ruskin Bond

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

When I'm really entrenched in my writing, I seem to go through mini-writer's block cycles that usually last a week or so. They make me moody. My husband has a routine to help me get through the blocks. He forces me to take a day off, and he insists on my relaxing and taking in other forms of art to recharge my creativity. It actually works really well, but whenever I'm that into my work, I won't take a day off willingly.

I do have a system for when I have a novel idea. I like to research a whole lot first and take notes by hand, and then I outline and figure out the plot based on the history and research. Next, I write everything I can as quickly as I can without worrying about grammar or even writing well. Then, I go back and read through and start fixing things. It's kind of like a process to create the framework then I can go back in and make other layers shine.

Making the rest of the layers, really known as the editing process, is where things get crazy. I don't have a system for it because it's kind of a journey of discovery. I'll know things are wrong, but I won't always know how to fix them. When I discover the solution, it might take the story to a place I never would have guessed.

That happened a lot for A White Room. In the beginning I only had the idea for the first half of the story and just the story of Emeline – none of the subplots or stories of the other characters were there yet. Not even John's story. It was just Emeline u ~ Stephanie Carroll

I had never given much credence to the phenomenon of "writer's block". I was more inclined to think of it as "writer's impatience", and to follow Arthur Koestler's dictum: "Soak; and wait. ~ Alan Garner

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

The Four Stages of Writer's Block
W.B. Stage I: I want to write but I can't.
W.B. Stage II: I have to write but I can't.
W.B. Stage I: I don't want to write but I have to.
W.B. Stage I: I don't have time for writing ... and, honestly, I don't feel like writing. ~ Katerina Stoykova Klemer

I did that for 40 years or more. I never had any writer's block. I got up in the morning, sat down at the typewriter - now, computer - lit up a cigarette. ~ Frederik Pohl

The downs are the times when you lose sight of who you are and that happens along the way sometimes ... Writer's block when you doubt yourself and you get insecure. ~ Lights

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

Through the act of writing, a writer learns more about himself than he could ever imagine. ~ Rob Bignell, Editor

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

. . .In a heartbeat, you will fall right into that novel, that poem, the story that you are most in love with right now. When you learn to be able to decide in the moment to take breaks from your internal voices - even though it's only for a split second - you will be taking your first baby steps toward the full-out exhilaration of living in the midst of the wholly realized writer's life.

Then all the negatives - yes, even your cherished writer's block ego trip - will fade into background noise, then you will find silence, and your story will take over. Before you know it, you will be working calmly and clearly for hours, rather than for a couple minutes.

1 hour, not 1 second, 2 hours, not 2 seconds, 3 hours, 4 hours, 5 hours of allowing your mind to come to rest from the horrid, every day, mental chatter we lock ourselves up with - a time to anchor within the natural spaciousness that you already know instinctively, know from deep within will make you feel full inside. . . . ~ Terry Kennedy

Writer's block is as a depression in the earth. Like a river that flows into this depression for a time of rest and tranquility, eventually filling to continue its journey from the lower end of its shore line, so too shall your creative juices flow again. ~ Everett R. Lake

I try to think of it not as writer's block, but a time where you just need to live life and experience things so you have something to write about. ~ Kaui Hart Hemmings

I don't believe in writer's block. There are good days when you're writing and less good days. I've learned that if it's not happening to walk away and return later. I doodle a lot and often get my best ideas with a pencil in my hand while I'm doodling. The problem is, sometimes I lose my doodles and that's bad! ~ Judy Blume

With two books a year, I don't have time for writer's block. ~ James Rollins

I don't remember ever having writer's block. If I sit in there for four hours, I'll usually have something. ~ Randy Newman

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

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

Writer's block? Don't worry about it. Either it goes away or you die. ~ Joe Haldeman

Writer's block is a myth. I never see the gardeners suffering from gardening block. ~ Emo Philips

Writers block occurs when a writer has nothing to say. Unfortunately not all writers experience it. ~ Ron Brackin

I don't believe in writer's block. If I can't write, I go out and live. Then, if I'm a writer, I'll find something to write. ~ Peter Arpesella

Writer's block is like a full moon behind the rain clouds. ~ Archana Kapoor Nagpal

I don't really believe in writer's block or anything like that. If I'm not feeling words, I may pick up an instrument and play with sounds or delve into different types of creativity and expression. ~ Saul Williams

Writer's block to me is where you stop because you're afraid to go forward because you're not sure of what really should be happening next and you think, my gosh, if I choose this ... you've got a hundred millions of avenues you could possibly go down but it's all an assess of characters. ~ Homer Hickam

I don't sit around waiting for passion to strike me. I keep working steadily, because I believe it is our privilege as humans to keep making things. Most of all, I keep working because I trust that creativity is always trying to find me, even when I have lost sight of it. ~ Elizabeth Gilbert

I work on multiple projects at a time because it keeps me from getting writer's block. ~ Diana Gabaldon

Unfortunately, many people suffer from BPS - Blank Page Syndrome. Let's face it: starting to write is scary. Seeing the cursor blinking at you on that bright white screen, realizing that you now have to come up with three or ten or twenty pages of text all on your own - it's enough to give anyone a major case of writer's block! ~ Stefanie Weisman

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

Writer's block, I just drove around it four times. All my favorite writers live there. ~ Jarod Kintz

I don't like the expression "writer's block" because I think it presupposes that you have a problem with your plumbing. I really think it's the other way around. ~ Etgar Keret

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

This was something that was obsessing me and creating a writer's block. To get involved and get stuck in, get the proper information about what's going on has really helped. ~ Thom Yorke

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

I never have [suffered writer's block], although I've had books that didn't work out. I had to stop writing them. I just abandoned them. It was depressing, but it wasn't the end of the world. When it really isn't working, and you've been bashing yourself against the wall, it's kind of a relief. I mean, sometimes you bash yourself against the wall and you get through it. But sometimes the wall is just a wall. There's nothing to be done but go somewhere else. ~ Margaret Atwood

No sense in a man with writer's block going to New York. ~ Kurt Vonnegut

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

There's no such thing as writer's block," she proclaimed. "If you can't write it's because you don't have anything to say. Or you're avoiding something. ~ Candace Bushnell

Ran out of things to say, metaphors for you. Why the ocean's clear instead of blue, why mountains in the distance had reminded me of you. ~ Dominic Riccitello

Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales was expected to clock in at anywhere between 100 and 120 chapters. Unfortunately, the dude only managed to finish 24 tales before he suffered an insurmountable and permanent state of writer's block commonly known as death. ~ Jacopo Della Quercia

I'm not the most talented writer in the world. I know that. But I also know that I'm disciplined, that I work my butt off, and that I make myself write as much as I can. Writer's block is a luxury I can't afford. I'm a professional writer, which means that I put my butt in the chair each day, and I write. Simple as that. ~ David B. Coe

Sometimes writer's block is no more than a signal that you have not done enough research. ~ Sophy Burnham

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

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

Oh, how I've envied the lives of those who could spend life sitting down. A place to sit, a place to sit! I'd lament, circling my empty chair. ~ Wolfgang Hilbig

The truth is that I need the stimulus of other people. Alone, over my dead fire, I tend to see the thin places in my own stories. The real novelist, the perfectly simple human being, could go on, indefinitely, imagining. He would not integrate, as I do. He would not have this devastating sense of grey ashes in a burnt-out grate. ~ Virginia Woolf

Why? What's your problem?" he asked, like this would be a surprise to him.
"What's my problem? You're acting like a bitch, and if I wanted a bitch, I would have adopted a dog." I walked away from him as he mumbled something about writer's block and stupid green eyes. ~ Christine Zolendz

The idea of writer's block or not having inspiration is totally terrifying to me. ~ Paul Dano

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

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

When the bad stuff was really intense in my life, it was really what you would call writer's block. Your facility is just not as good because you feel so bad. I've heard of people right on the verge of suicide coming up with some of their best work. I wish I could think of an example, other than Van Gogh, perhaps! ~ John Fogerty

Writer's block doesn't really come from lack of ideas, I believe; it comes more from fear. Fear of the blank document, fear of failure...fear that what you write will be awful!
So the only way past it is to make myself get on with it. Sit in front of my computer and type, something, anything, even if it is simply writing down my feelings at that moment, or describing the weather. I start with something simple, and before I know it the words will flow again. ~ Barbara Copperthwaite

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