Malcolm Gladwell on Writers’ Block

In Tim Ferriss’ interview with 6x New York Times best selling author, Malcolm Gladwell, he asks a question about writers’ block. Does he get it? And what does he do when it happens? Here’s Gladwell’s answer:

Well, I worked for 10 years at a newspaper. And if that experience teaches you anything, it’s that you can’t have writers’ block. I mean, you quite literally can’t. You’ll start the story at 10:30, and it’s due at 4:00 or 4:30 or whatever. Back in those days, there were hard deadlines.

So you can’t have it. It’s unthinkable.

These past few days, I started to write my daily blog often minutes before midnight, frantically trying to publish something before the day ends. Like Gladwell, I don’t get writer’s block in the evening, much because I can’t afford to.

Though it’s a useful forcing function that keeps my daily writing habit in check, I should get back to writing in the mornings as this has started to affect my sleep schedule.