The cure for writer's block

My major experience of writer’s block came after I sold my first book, in 2014.

I had a second book on my contract with my publisher—this second book was completely TBD, when I signed the contract we hadn’t agreed at all on the second book’s contours. Over the next year I kept sending my editor proposals, asking for some agreement-in-principle to what the second book might be, and they’d shoot them down. I also sent a book for adults to my agent during this time, and he didn’t like it. I sent a middle-grade book to my agent, and he decided, after a short round of submissions, that it wasn’t marketable.

It’s hard to write when you’ve got the market in your head.

This is something you don’t really experience until you’ve sold a book. It’s just hard. A lot of writers get blocked after selling their first book. I really struggled for about three years to produce a second novel.

There is a misconception that writer’s block means you sit down at the computer and nothing comes out. You can’t write words at all.

But this isn’t really what it’s like.