When the Words Won't Come...

I am writing this sitting at my desk in my house-shaped shed, complete with roof tiles made from recycled plastic bottles. 

Blossom is sparking in the tangle of gardens which spills down the hill.  I can hear birdsong (and builders, shouting).  It should be perfect, and in a way it is, but because it's my first day properly back at work it feels freighted with expectation.

In every sense it's like sitting in front of a blank page -- my little shed a literal Writer's Block: I'm already conscious of the pressure to deserve it.

So, how to cope with writer's block of the literary kind?

• Give yourself permission not to write anything at all -- go for a walk, hoover the house, have a cup of coffee.
• Do some kind of desk work that is not writing, to break yourself in gently -- pay bills, respond to e-mails, that sort of thing.
• Gaze out of the window, and gaze, and gaze, until something comes to you.
• Write down the first thought that enters your head and then pursue it, writing and writing  - it doesn't matter what -- until the flow comes.
• Write about how it feels not to be able to write.  Write about why you can't write, and see what it reveals to you.
• Outstare the blank page; sit in front of it, obstinately; face it down.  Make yourself write, even if it is rubbish, even if it feels like punishment; persist.
• Blog...

PS Books arranged - it took me hours