IT'S NOT REALLY WRITER'S BLOCK IF . . .

IT'S NOT REALLY WRITER'S BLOCK IF . . . 

A representation of writer's block by Leonid Pasternak (1862 – 1945)

1. Your butt's in the proverbial chair and you're thinking about writing. Didn't some totally legit writing pundit say  that thinking about writing is a super important part of the process? The wheels are turning, right?
2. Your butt's in the chair and somehow you manage to whittle away several hours on "writing adjacent" activities.
3. You create useful lists. Stuff you've started. Stuff you want to start. Stuff you think you probably should start, and ideally finish.
4. You then prioritize your useful lists and commit (again) to devoting the coming week to one story/essay/novel.
5. You spend an hour (or two) researching markets and resubmitting that story/essay that's just been rejected (again) to get over feeling dejected by rejection and to regain that "this could be the one!" attitude.
6. You spend an hour (or two, or three) reading and retweeting/sharing all the great stories/essays/interviews others have published - it's important to be a good literary citizen! 
7. You set aside 30 minutes to "free write" as a way to loosen things up and ease the pressure. The pen is moving! Your butt's in that chair! Is it still free-writing when it turns into more list-making, prioritizing and making promises to yourself?
8. You remember there was a typo on your author website. You must search for it and correct it, NOW! While you're at it, you should probably comb the entire site for issues, right?
9. You check your Amazon and Goodreads stats, again. There could have been a sales run on your obscure, not-to-found-in-bookstores, academic press title. And, if there has been, if those lines have gone up instead of down, down, down, that would be super motivating, right?
10. You walk around the block to clear your head and also because your butt's been in the chair so long it's flat as a pancake.

Inspired by a recent post in Brevity online. "How to Overcome Writer's Block in 5 Simple Steps" by Sweta Srivastava Vikram

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