I’d be lying if I said you would never have writer’s block. Not being able to continue is a reality everyone who writes faces. My advice on conquering writer’s block is knowing the difference between actual writer’s block and burnout. Writer’s block is a temporary block of ideas that prevents one from writing. Burnout, on the other hand, is when you’re too exhausted to continue.

If you’ve been writing for a long time, or for many consecutive days, take a break. Eat a good meal, have a good night’s sleep and set a schedule for yourself, such as fifteen minutes of writing a day, no more or less. During those fifteen minutes, don’t think or analyze, and write as quickly as you can. Put your writing away until the next day.

If it’s merely writer’s block, you can try a number of strategies or techniques to overcome it. Pick the ones that work best.

• Brainstorm, free write, web etc.
• Ask yourself why you are writing (to entertain, to prove a point, etc.)
• Don’t set limits (words, pages, etc.) on the first draft; save that for editing and later drafts
• Write the easiest part first
• Do something else for a while
• Try transcribing using a different method (example: switch to longhand from typing)
• Draw a diagram to explain yourself
• Use a different point of view
• Visualize yourself writing
• Write the story as a letter or diary entry
• Picture a scene and describe it using sensory detail
• Never end at an end (an end of a sentence, paragraph, chapter, etc)
• Reread what you’ve already written