Re-Noted: 4 Cures for Writer's Block that Actually Work

"I find myself dawdling about going to work."

Jun 30, 2025

Of all the curses that attend a creative life, feeling blocked is among the worst.

I should admit here that I don’t actually believe in writer’s block. Instead, I think it’s a useful shorthand for a variety of issues that impede our creative life.

(Also this: I’m a bit superstitious and decided long ago that if I don’t believe in writer’s block it will cease to exist—much like the fairies in Peter Pan.)

This is not to say I’ve never felt “blocked.” Writing has been among the greatest joys of my life, but sometimes it feels especially difficult. Over time, I’ve learned that this is a symptom of exhaustion. It’s my mind telling me to rest.

If you feel blocked, there is probably a deeper reason. Perhaps it is fear; perhaps it is exhaustion; perhaps you aren’t ready to tackle a particular subject; perhaps something else is occupying your mind.

Whatever the reason, know that you are in good company. Most brilliant writers have felt blocked from time to time. I know because I’ve seen it in their notebooks.

In what follows, I explore four cures for writer’s block that worked for some of our greatest authors. And!! After I wrote this post, I decided to see what science had to say. Amazingly, it turned out that these writers’ practices aligned perfectly with what research studies have determined to be best practices!

Keep reading for more on this research and authors’ practices.

What Science Says about Writer’s Block

In 2019, researchers from the University of North Florida set out to crack the code on writer’s block. Sarah J. Ahmed and C. Dominik Güss recruited 146 fiction and non-fiction writers from various professions and various levels of expertise. They published their findings in the Creativity Research Journal.1

Ahmed and Güss asked these writers how they handled writer’s block. The most common solutions were

taking breaks
working on a different writing project
forcing themselves to keep writing

Even though these methods were effective, the most effective strategy by far was

talking to others

Most of the study participants did not use this last method, but of those that did, 81% found it to be helpful or extremely helpful.2

Here is a chart from their study that shows solutions writers tried and rated as “effective” or “extremely effective”:

Sarah J. Ahmed and C. Dominik Güss, “An Analysis of Writer’s Block: Causes and Solutions” (2019)

Keep reading to see how a few famous authors used each of the most effective techniques.

Take a Break

In her diary, Sylvia Plath constantly sets goals to push herself towards writing more. One of her tactics is to take a break. This aligns with Ahmed and Güss’s report that 37% of professional writers rated “taking a break” as an effective solution to writer’s block.

Plath urged herself to go to sleep and tackle the work in the morning. In her diary, she writes:

See each scene deep, love it like a complex faceted jewel. Get the light, shadow & vivid color. Set the scene the night before. Sleep on it, write it in the morning.3

Here’s the part of Plath’s plan that sets it apart: she writes out notes before going to sleep. That way, when she returns to her writing in the morning she has a place to start.

However, if you’re not on a strict deadline, you might want to try switching gears and focusing on a different task—something 13% of Ahmed and Güss’s participants found helpful.

Work on a Different Project

In a fit of frustration, Mark Twain put Huck Finn in a drawer, where the unfinished draft stayed for three years.

This was not the first time Twain had put a novel aside. He always worked on several novels at once. Experience taught him that at some point, he’d get stuck with a project, so it helped to have another to shift his attention to. As he explained it, he developed the

…habit to keep four or five books in process of erection all the time, & every summer add a few courses of bricks to two or three of them; but I cannot forecast which of the two or three it is going to be. It takes seven years to complete a book by this method.4

Upon returning to Huck Finn three years later, Twain discovered why he had put this project aside: he had written himself into a corner. Originally the steamboat crash had totally wrecked Jim and Huck’s raft. Now, Twain seems to decide that the raft was only slightly damaged— this is a way “to keep his story going.”5

Here is the draft page on which Twain finally solved his Huck Finn problem.

Back a little, change—raft only crippled by steamer.6

This is a good strategy when we aren’t quite ready to work on a project.

I’ve done this with several academic articles. I filed them away for years. It turns out, they didn’t want to be academic articles, they wanted to be Substack posts. And I was very happy for all the research I had done.7

Sometimes, though, we are better served by sticking with the project and forcing ourselves to keep writing.

Keep Writing (and Doodle)

Rather than stepping away from his work, Samuel Beckett would keep his pen on paper but he would doodle until he was ready to begin writing again. Thus, sections that were particularly challenging are surrounded by more doodles.8

A Rare Look at Samuel Beckett's Doodle-Filled Notebooks ... — Beckett’s manuscript for *Watts*, Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas, Austin

If you’re going to stay with a project (something 12% of Ahmed and Güss’s participants recommend) give yourself a bit of a break by doodling on the page.

And finally, we get to the most effective method according to Ahmed and Güss’s study.

Talk to a Friend

John Steinbeck was a seasoned writer when he set out to draft East of Eden—the novel he expected would become his crowning achievement. To stave off writer’s block, Steinbeck wrote a daily letter to his close friend and publisher, Pascal Covici. Appropriately, he used a large notebook Covici had gifted him to write his letters alongside the novel’s draft.

One of Steinbeck’s “Warm up Journals,” image from Lit Hub

In the first letter to Covici that takes up the first few pages of the notebook, Steinbeck explains:

I intend to keep a double-entry book—manuscript on the right-hand page and work diary on the left. Thus they will be together.9

The “work diary” were letters to Covici (whom he calls “Pat”). In these letters, Steinbeck talks about his struggles with writing:

This morning, I am remiss, Pat, and for no reason that I can see…I find myself dawdling about going to work.10

Steinbeck also lays out his intention for certain scenes:

Before too long I am going to have to write Chapter I. And it must have its design made in advance. What is it that I want to say in my opening? First I want to establish the boys—what they are and what they are like…11

But Steinbeck didn’t just write to Covici, the friends also visited one another. The two had long conversations that Steinbeck referenced in the letters.

On a personal note, writing Noted feels similar to me. Thank you for accompanying me as I study and write about notes! Our conversations in the comments section have helped me think through tough ideas and expand my thinking in ways I never could have done alone.

I’ll be back with a new post next week!

Noted is fueled by you. Your ❤️’s and comments inspire me. I’d love to know how you deal with writer’s block and what has worked for you!