There’s a great quote about writer’s block I don’t know whether it’s from Joyce Carol Oates or Magaret Atwood: “Writer’s block happens when you’re writing something fraudulent.” That could mean that you’re not ready to write it, or that you aren’t writing it for artistic reasons, etc. In that case, you have to back off and try something else until the project comes around again, even if it’s years later. Another kind of writer’s block comes from exhaustion, from banging your head against the same wall for so long that you have nothing to say, and when that happens to me I read. In particular I like to read authors like William S. Burroughs, Gertrude Stein, Antonin Artaud--the kind of people who are deeply occupied with the fundamental aspect of how language works, and that’s the simple juxtaposition of one word against another. Reading writers who get down to the bedrock of literature like that--even if their narratives are difficult or don’t make sense at all--sort of brings me down to the bedrock too, and I find myself refreshed enough to write again.