Yes, I do get writer’s block. Whenever I find myself unable to write, I immediately stop trying to. I actually think that’s a good first step; you can’t force yourself to do something otherwise it might get worse.
Then I take a break by reading for a few days or even a week, and I read a lot. A lot. I find that reading poetry and short stories helps immensely, and the short stories have actually helped me more than the poetry. I try to identify techniques or word choices or things I admire in the poetry/short stories that I read, so that I can come back to them later to use in my own writing.
I also spend a lot of time browsing through commovente’s and fleurishes’ poetry sections on their blogs, which have their original writing as well as poems and quotes from other authors. That always helps spark some ideas. thedictionaryofobscuresorrows also has so many beautiful words with wonderful descriptions that can help inspire as well.
You could also create a journal to fill with a few little quotes or images that give you ideas, a kind of inspiration diary to look through from time to time.
I think it’s very important to not panic when you have writer’s block. It can be extremely frustrating, like you said, but what you have to remember is that it will end, and oftentimes the work you create after having had writer’s block for awhile can be some of the best writing you’ve ever done. Sometimes writer’s block is actually worth it and can be a sort of creative stimulant or catalyst for further writing, once you’ve figured out how to overcome it.
Anyway, after a few days or a week without writing have passed, I sit down and try to write something using the techniques that I admired during my reading, and this immediately allows me to come up with something to write about. I find that more often than not, my words flow more easily after I’ve taken a break from writing than they do when I try to force them to come out.
P.S. I suggest you take a look at Natalie Golberg’s Writing Down the Bones, if you have not already done so. She has some great writing advice in there; it’s a wonderful resource for writers. Here are a few of my favorite quotes from her that may help you as you try to overcome writer’s block:
1. “Write what disturbs you, what you fear, what you have not been willing to speak about. Be willing to be split open.”
2.“Play around. Dive into absurdity and write. Take chances. You will succeed if you are fearless of failure.”
3. “If you’re having difficulty coming up with new ideas, then slow down. For me, slowing down has been a tremendous source of creativity. It has allowed me to open up — to know that there’s life under the earth and that I have to let it come through me in a new way. Creativity exists in the present moment. You can’t find it anywhere else.”
4. “The aim is to burn through to first thoughts, to the place where energy is unobstructed by social politeness or the internal censor, to the place where you are writing what you mind actually sees and feels, not what it thinks it should see or feel.”
5. “In the center of chaos, make one definitive act. Just write. Say yes, stay alive, be awake. Just write. Just write. Just write.”
Good luck. xx