Goodreads asked Caitlin O'Connell:

How do you deal with writer’s block?

Caitlin O'Connell Writer's block can be triggered by a lot of things. I am learning to recognize the triggers and try to either avoid them or anticipate them with additional tools to work through it. Arranging the desk just so, or avoiding the noise pollution in your head of opening the newspaper, for example. Whatever it is that ruins that meditative process of connecting your mind to the page.

When preventative measures have failed, I find physical exercise is an excellent tool to stave off a bout of writer's block that might be percolating or fully ensconced. Jogging in particular, swimming also good. Another thing that has helped a lot is to switch gears and do another piece of work or write an exercise in a different genre. Free writing can unstick the fingers and the mind.

I find having several different writing projects to work on in several different genres can help me keep writing by switching gears when I get stuck...kind of like the gears on a bicycle. Switch to a really low gear and keep spinning until you are confident enough to switch to a higher gear with a little more of a challenging writing task.

Recognize the triggers and work on developing the tools to break free! And the sooner the better because it can be a very dark and damaging place!

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