One of the top three questions I'm asked when people find out I'm a writer is how do you deal with writer's block? (The other two are do you make any money? and No, really, but what do you DO?)
I have a simple answer: I don't.
Writer's block is a luxury, and one that I can't afford.
Of course, there's a romantic ideal of the novelist, sitting in front of his (of course he's male!) battered typewriter (because he is quirky!), slugging whiskey (writers drink!) while swearing at the blank page.
Cursed be, this writer's block that strangles my muse!
Uh, no.
If someone held a gun to your head and said start typing, bub, you'd start to type. Would it be good? Good god, no. But you'd be able to say something. Because when the options are write or death, writing isn't all that difficult a choice.
If you're being paid, you can't turn to your Executive Producer and say, gee, guys, I can't come up with anything. What you mean is I can't come up with anything good.
My guess is most writer's block is: I can't come up with anything good.
That's not writer's block.
Working in TV, you have to produce the next episode. It doesn't matter if inspiration has struck or not. And to be honest inspiration rarely strikes when you're mid-season and you've been working long days and writing and re-writing and oh, dear god are they OUT OF JUMBO RED VINES?! and you're sitting in a room or in front of an EP who's waiting for the next brilliant idea. This is where you learn how to pitch. Your idea may be crap, but you sell the hell out of it and figure out how to make it good later.
Because that's what 99% of writing is: figuring out how to make it good later.
When someone is paying you, you can't have writer's block. Because
missing deadlines means that they won't be paying you again. It's tough
enough to keep working in this business (see: me.) Don't actually give
them an excuse.
Do I always write? No. That's because some days I'm simply working on breeding ideas, and some days I'm just lazy. However, I have never missed a deadline, and in some cases, I have been sent off on script on a Tuesday and had a workable table draft by Friday. (I don't like to work this way, but the point is I can.)
That's not writer's block.
Some days I flit from project to project, not exactly sure where to spend my creative capital (my manager has been EXTREMELY helpful with this) but that's not writer's block. That's having creative ADD.
Occasionally I sit down at the computer with an idea but no clue as where to go. Which means I need to think more about my story. That's not writer's block, that's a lack of preparation.
Maybe you're working a day job, and you come home dead tired. That's okay. That's not writer's block, that's so many hours in a day.
Obviously, you always want to come up with something good. But sometimes inspiration doesn't strike. So you can sit around and wait for it to happen, or you can make it happen. (Which sometimes means spending more time rewriting than writing the damned thing.)
And that's why I don't get Writer's Block.