Unstuck: A Supportive and Practical Guide to Working Through Writer's Block

None of us is immune to writer's block. From well-known novelists to students, associates in business and law firms, and even those who struggle to sit down to write personal correspondence or journal entries -- everyone who writes has experienced either brief moments or longer periods when the words simply won't come.

In Unstuck, poet, author and writing coach Jane Anne Staw uncovers the reasons we get blocked - from practical to emotional, and many in between - and offers powerful ways to get writing again. Based on her experiences working with writers as well as her own struggle with writer's block, Staw provides comfort and encouragement, along with effective strategies for working through this common yet vexing problem.

Topics include: understanding what's behind the block * handling anxiety and fear * carving out time and space to write * clearing out old beliefs and doubts * techniques to relax and begin * managing your expectations as well as those of family and friends * experimenting with genre, voice, and subject matter * defusing the emotional traps that sabotage progress and success * ending the struggle and regaining confidence and freedom by finding your true voice - and using it.

Writers of all levels will find solace, support, and help in this book, leading them to an even deeper connection with their work and more productivity on the page.

Jane Anne Staw, Ph.D., has taught writing at Stanford University and the University of Iowa, and currently teaches at the UC Berkeley Extension School and the University of San Francisco M.F.A. Program in Writing. She also works with writers individually, helping them to overcome writer's block. A published poet with an M.F.A. in poetry from the University of Iowa, she is the author, with Mary Swander, of Parsnips in the Snow. She lives in Berkeley, California.