"I don't believe in writer's block."
Grady Tripp, 'Wonder Boys'

I don't believe in it either. The biggest problem is getting to your desk and typing those first few words each day. Once you get past that, it's just hunting and pecking and playing around. There are so many quotes about writing, and so many books on writing, many if not all of them written by writers far better than me, that it's best if I just point you in the direction of the three I believe work.

The first, more than anything, is meant to inspire. If you've ever thought you might like to make it as a writer, you've more than likely looked to Stephen King as proof that there is hope. In 2000, King published "On Writing," half biography, half-no-bullshit advice on sitting down and getting to work. And if you think it's easier for King to say than do, he goes into brutal detail about the physical pain it took for him to sit down and start writing after nearly being being killed in a pedestrian vs. car accident in 1999. Hearing how he sweated through the pain of sitting in a chair with a shattered leg (like a sock full marbles) and a mangled hip as he struggled to make it through just forty minutes in front of his computer, makes any and all excuses for not writing seem trivial.

The second book is sort of silly, but it works. "No Plot? No Problem!" by Christ Baty, is the companion volume to the National Novel Writing Month contest in which writers around the world work to pump out a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. I didn't use this for the 30 day program, but I did use it to help me get through my first novel three years ago. All I can say is that this book knows all the excuses, and it guilts you out of using them. The one that still comes to mind is the discussion of the second week urge to scrap what you're written and start something new (I find this hits around page 80). DON'T. This is what keeps folks from moving from, "I have an idea for a book." to "I just finished my first novel."

Finally, there's the classic "Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life" by Anna Lamott. To boil her more eloquent words down to a few lines of writerly insight: Don't be jealous of the other creative folks out there, just sit down, start working, and bit by bit you'll get something down. Perfectionism is the highest form of procrastination. Good or bad, you have to get something on paper if you ever hope to get something published. Only one way to start.

These are the ones that worked for me. You might find your own touchstones.

The books:

"On Writing" by Stephen King
buy the paperback
or spring for the hardcover

"No Plot? No Problem!" by Chris Baty
buy the paperback

"Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life" by Anne Lamott
buy the paperback