Recurrent for some, rare for others, inevitable for all those whose hearts burn with that quiet passion driving them to fill pages with stories: the blank page is the dreaded enemy of writers.

Is it tied to age, culture, literary experience? Yes, to some extent. It happens to everyone, and it can happen at any time—but I believe the factors mentioned earlier affect its severity. The blank page scares me much less now than it did when I first started writing regularly, six or seven years ago. Everyone develops their own methods to ward it off (because it always comes back), so the best advice I can give you is to know yourself—not easy! And why not share a few tips that I frequently apply.

Take a Shower

Just as it's better to shower every day to maintain proper hygiene, it's also preferable to read and write every day to keep your literary brain in shape.

Nothing excessive (it doesn’t take thirty minutes to shower): read a chapter or two and write—really, force yourself to write for at least twenty or thirty minutes daily. Thomas Harris, the author of the Hannibal Lecter trilogy, once said something very relevant:

"[...] sometimes you really have to shove and grunt and sweat. Some days you go to your office and you're the only one who shows up, none of the characters show up, and you sit there by yourself, feeling like an idiot. And some days everybody shows up ready to work. You have to show up at your office every day. If an idea comes by, you want to be there to get it in."

Don't passively wait for ideas to come to you: they will come on their own once the machine is up and running, well-oiled.

And to keep this machine running smoothly, you simply need to absorb literary material (of any kind—it doesn’t matter as long as it’s of sufficient quality), and in my opinion, produce at least as much as you absorb (again, the nature of the output doesn’t matter as long as you put enough care into it: letters, novels, articles, personal reflections…). Try to consume literature of the same quality as the one you want to produce.

By the way, when I talk about the blank page, I’m referring to a block related to inspiration. You can certainly run into a stylistic problem, but that usually doesn’t last long, because what you’re often seeking in those moments is more literary perfection than a clear way to convey a message.

Change the Air If It Gets Too Stale

I know that this blunt method (forcing yourself to write) almost always works for me, and the same goes for many others. However, beyond a certain point, inspiration blockages require a bit more effort to overcome. Actually, no, it would be wrong to call it effort; in the case of a major inspiration block, I believe there are two effective solutions.

If it’s indecision: talk about it. I tend to want to fully elaborate and conceive everything myself, at least in my stories. But sometimes you find yourself at a crossroads where several major branches of your plot diverge, and you need to choose one. However, paralyzed, you struggle to decide because each path has as much to offer as the others. Every time this has happened to me, a five-minute conversation with my closest friends has clearly illuminated the right path to follow.

If, on the other hand, it’s a real dry spell of inspiration (you’re standing at the crossroads, but there's simply no road there), then it may be wise to set that project aside for a while. After all, good ideas often come spontaneously over time: the longer a work stays in gestation, the better it can become. Maybe a week, a month, or a year after setting the project aside, you’ll be on top of a mountain, at your desk, or in the bathtub, and suddenly your mind will find the golden shovel to clear away that ugly blockage and get your pen moving again. At least, you should hope for that!