10 Books to Help With Writer's Block
Note I didn’t say “cure”
It feels like another person now, the writer I was a year ago. I was finishing my memoir Open, and I did not experience writer’s block. I woke up most mornings at 5 a.m. just because I was that excited to write. Once I was under contract and deadline, I was lucky that I didn’t struggle to keep things flowing. The journalist in me had a job to do, and she was excited to do it.
But now that Open has been out for eight months? Well, that’s another (very much unwritten) story. Having the creative impulse to produce feels pretty far away. Sure, I’m writing this article now, but I’m talking about something else—writing a book, creating in an extremely in-depth and committed way. That kind of writing requires a concentration and rapture that doesn’t grow on trees. In fact, like trees, there must be fallow periods — as well as sun, rain, and the like. It’s unnatural to think that anything, including creativity, should bloom constantly without rest and outside input.
That said, I miss writing. One of the ways I comfort myself and feel like I’m moving forward even when I’m (arguably necessarily) stuck is to turn to writing guides. They say those who can’t do teach. Well, those who miss the muse read about how to woo her back. There are so many writing guides out there; these are just a few I’ve recently found useful. I hope they help you too.
And for more recommendations of useful reframes that might help you relax, check out this list of books to help you exist right now.
Finding Water: The Art of Perseverance
Julia Cameron is famous for her Artists Way series, which is comprised of dozens of different guides. I found this 12-week program useful since it is specifically aimed at creatives like me who feel wrung out. The weekly exercises are practical and doable in the time allotted. I also appreciate finally making a practice of Morning Pages, her famous method of morning meditative writing. I find I often have resistance to doing them, which is exactly why I need to be doing them. It helps keep things flowing, even if only mental health-wise.
Keep Going
I was irrationally annoyed at this short book at first, based mostly on envy. How many people bought this little book?! Why did I excavate every inch of myself to write a “full-length” one again? Does no one have an attention span anymore?! But then I found myself quoting back advice to friends from Austin Kleon’s bestselling series of short inspirational creativity guides. This little book stuck in my head, and also inspired me to think about writing a mini-book myself. Perhaps I’ve been making everything too complex all along? Kleon won me over with his encouragement and humility.
Quote: “Do what you love” + low overhead = a good life. “Do what you love” + “I deserve nice things” = a time bomb.
Save The Cat! Writes a Novel
This is the kind of writing guide that feels really exciting. Finally! A Plan! We’ve cracked the code! I underlined so many sentences and even outlined a novel idea after reading this. Granted, when I sat down to write, I quickly got discouraged as usual — but hey, at least now I have a sort-of outline when I want to try again. This is a good book for people who want a formula and plan, aka “plotters.” It’s also good for people like me who are not really plotters but find it productive and comforting to imagine being one.
Quote: “Because in the end, the want is only half the story. Heroes aren’t complete until they also have a need. Heroes are often wrong about what will inevitably lead to their own happiness.”
No Plot? No Problem!
This guide is on the other end of the spectrum — a book not for plotters, but what’s known as “pantsers” (people who like to write by the seat of their pants). Written by Chris Baty, founder of NaNoWriMo, this is an encouraging little book hoping to get you started — and fast! It’s so easy! Just write a book! Don’t overthink it! For those of us who have never written fiction before, it makes a seductive argument for your ability to “pants” your first draft and simply see where your imagination takes you. The second half of the book also contains a week-by-week guide if you ever attempt to try NaNoWriMo.
Quote: “It may seem a little scary to leave your story’s backbone to chance, but fusing character and setting into an engaging, readable narrative is what our imaginations are best at. Just focus on creating vivid, enjoyable characters, and a plot will unfold naturally from their actions.”
Sister Outsider
This collection of essays and speeches is not a writing guide per se, but it is a call to write. Audre Lorde addresses the intersections of making art with gender, race, queerness, and more. This is a helpful examination of the fears and systems at play that seek to keep us from telling our stories. If you often feel it’s not just you working against your own expression, but capitalism/patriarchy/white supremacy culture writ large, this book will help you think that truth through.
Quote: “In the transformation of silence into language and action, it is vitally necessary for each one of us to establish or examine her function in that transformation and to recognize her role as vital within that transformation. For those of us who write, it is necessary to scrutinize not only the truth of what we speak, but the truth of that language by which we speak it.”
Refuse To Be Done
This new guide, which focuses on the art of revision, had so many practical tricks and tips. Any committed writer knows that revision is where most of the magic/actual readable writing happens, and this guide by writer and teacher Matt Bell digs into that process. It also gives many tips for how to get started — and as the title suggests, not quit once you do. He draws on lots of other writers’ wisdom and is humble and extremely practical in his advice. Once I do write a book again, I’m definitely checking that I’ve gone over all of this book’s tips for different types of read-throughs.
Quote: “The writers I know who seem to be the most ‘original’ or ‘innovative’ often turn out to be the most diverse readers.”
Craft in The Real World
This book by author and teacher Matthew Salesses is less a writing guide than a workshopping guide and critique of the way we teach fiction itself. That said, I picked up a lot of useful tips for examining internalized white supremacy culture in my writing from this book. This is a good read for when you know that part of what has you blocked is society’s idea of what is allowed to constitute a story in the first place.
Quote: “Much of what we learn about craft (about the expectations we are supposed to consider) implies a straight, white, cis, able (etc.) audience. It is easy to forget who we are writing for if we do not keep it a conscious consideration, and the default is not universal, but privileged.”
Story Genius
Like Save The Cat!, this is a super practical and inspiring guide for people who like to have a plan. Even if you don’t outline according to her principles of what makes a compelling story, the information presented is useful for any writer to know. I like the emphasis on character over plot and found I underlined much of this book by Lisa Cron. This is another one that inspired me enough to try to sit down at my desk, at least.
Quote: “Outlining the plot before you develop your protagonist traps you on the surface of your novel — that is, in the external events that happen.”
Exposure
This book helped prepare me for the rude awakening that is publishing a memoir as a woman. Well, prepared me in the sense of I knew what might be coming, at least. It is a meditation on the nature of publishing, anxiety, and feeling blocked. I found it comforting to read both before and after publishing my book. It has helped me feel more compassion towards my instinct to burrow into a hole and never come out post-publication. You can also check out my interview with Olivia Sudjic on my podcast Help Existing, embedded below.
Quote: “The Internet has irrevocably changed how a person can be. It makes us all strays, and yet its users seem increasingly territorial. Entrenched in the emotional security of what we already believe, thanks to smartphones we can discover anything instantly and simultaneously draw a veil.”
Meander Spiral Explode
Like Craft in the Real World, this book by writer and teacher Jane Alison is good for when you’re rebelling against conventional ideas of plot and narrative structure. I learned a lot as I was reading it, without exerting too much effort — like sitting in on a compelling college seminar without homework. If you’d like to think about writing something that doesn’t fit into a traditional plot or story structure, this book is very affirming and thought-provoking.
Quote: “There’s power in a wave, its sense of beginning, midpoint, and end; no wonder we fall into it in stories. But something that swells and tautens until climax, then collapses? Bit masculo-sexual, no? So many other patterns run through nature, tracing other deep motions in life. Why not draw on them, too?”
I hope these recommendations help! And for more on cultivating creativity and imagination as a writer, check out this recent interview I did on Help Existing with author Bianca Marais, embedded below.
