Is It Real? 25 Famous Writers on Writer’s Block / Emily Temple In: Lit Hub Daily September 26, 2018

You know the feeling: you’re staring at the black computer screen, blinking occasionally—staring and blinking, staring and blinking, until the cursor starts to blink back and you have to go to bed for a while. Maybe you’re staring and blinking at an actual, physical blank page, in which case you should definitely go to bed for a while if it starts to blink back. Yes, it’s the dreaded, insidious, much-mythologized affliction known as writer’s block.
Everyone, it seems, has an opinion on writer’s block—how to fight it, how to submit to it, how to think about it, how to ignore it. While some writers resort to writing about not writing, and others give up altogether until the muse returns, many—more than I was expecting, at least—don’t believe in writer’s block at all. To get a wide sense of the range of opinions, I scanned assorted interviews and essays from a variety of writers. Below, you’ll find a totally non-comprehensive but still fascinating run-down, which should be very useful in what I can only imagine is your own current state of writer’s block-fueled procrastination.
Jhumpa Lahiri, answering reader questions for The Times:

I think “writer’s block” is a natural part of the creative process for almost all writers. There are times when one is bursting with ideas and inspiration and all the necessary components—time, focus, etc.—are in place. But there are other times when one or more of those elements is missing and writing is more difficult as a result. I have written for long enough to accept these patterns, and to understand that the blocks are temporary, that eventually, if one sticks to a schedule and tries to write on a regular basis, something will eventually come. I think a lot of what people refer to as “writer’s block” is the period during which ideas gestate in the mind, when a story grows but isn’t necessarily being written in sentences on the page. But it’s all necessary, in the end. If I am feeling stuck or uninspired, I usually take a break and read. That always gets me going again.

Rumaan Alam, in an interview with Literary Hub:

Writer’s block is a fiction. That’s not to say I always feel like writing, or that I have some big idea percolating. I don’t know if you can force out good sentences or great ideas, but that doesn’t mean you cannot write. You can always write garbage; goodness knows, I write plenty of that. Sure, there are days I don’t feel like looking at my computer or picking up a pencil. Such days, I read; reading is inextricably linked with writing, so you can grade yourself on a curve and say that counts. And there are days I can’t even read—I have a day job, I have a family, I have a life, like anyone. But you never stop thinking, and thinking is a part of writing too. I’ll probably develop a case now that I’m saying this on the record but writer’s block is a delicious myth and nothing more. .... [mehr] https://lithub.com/is-it-real-25-famous-writers-on-writers-block/