Hi Irina, thanks for swinging by and commenting, I really appreciate it! To your point, I started writing every day at this blog to sustain motivation for when I was editing a book—a relatively long-term project for me.

That’s a really great point on “playing” through a block, and everything you mention sounds very fruitful. This method involves working “around” the block, rather than “through” it (which is very disciplined). I can’t tell you how many happy accidents emerge from keeping an open mind, occasionally letting go of control and discipline, and allowing an illuminating idea to unfold.

But what I really wanted to write was that your post made me think of a distinction I think may be important. Let’s take long-term writing projects for example. Sometimes they just drag, or they’re not the most exciting thing, or it’s hard to see the end point. In those moments, putting one’s butt in the chair is just what’s necessary.

But sometimes there’s a block. And unlike some people, I do think there is such a thing as writer’s block. I’ve tried to apply discipline to a writer’s block — it doesn’t work. Yes, it’s possibly to produce a lot of terrible prose, but it can be so bad that it’s not even worth having written it.

Right now I think blocks are due to not knowing something about the project. Maybe there’s a question to be thought through. Maybe there’s something still too difficult or too personal to articulate. And in those situations, the right thing to do — IMO — is to move *away* from the desk and to try just about anything else that will maintain contact with the project but relax the demand to produce. So: long walks, showers, brainstorming, meditation, creative writing prompts, writing in another genre altogether, talking to people, doing easier related projects, handiwork, morning pages, you name it. These might not all seem like “play,” but I do think an exaggerated focus on discipline can obscure these.

Of course the experienced writer knows they, too, are the work.