I can’t remember who the author was, someone I respected immensely at the time (Kurt Vonnegut Jr. perhaps?), but I read his opinions long long ago and to this day, I have found them mostly accurate. I say mostly because physical and psychological factors can also play a part in one’s writing, so if you’re exhausted, overly stressed, or in some other way not prepared to write, it may be frustrating if you’re trying to push yourself through. Excluding such instances and focusing directly on writing (when you’re in the proper state of self, when you should be writing), there is no such thing as writer’s block.
I’ll say it again, there’s no such thing as writer’s block. If you find yourself stuck, unable to move the story forward or unsure of where to go from where you are, you’re not “blocked.” You’ve made a mistake. Go back and review what you’ve written. Somewhere in there is a mistake. When you’ve corrected the mistake, the story will continue to progress normally. Thus, writing without mistakes will yield a fluid process from beginning to end. Granted, by fluid process, I don’t mean that you’ll write a publishable book on your first try. There’s still revision and corrections to be made. But it’s a serious mistake that stops a writer cold.
I have yet to discover this claim to be untrue.
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