Anyone who has ever picked up a pen could tell you all about writer's block, and deservedly - writer's block has, in the past, caused writers to miss deadlines, end careers, and have mental breakdowns. In the case of author Henry Roth, his case of writer's block lasted him for sixty, empty years. This is the condition's most serious form, which, thankfully, is rare. The more common benign form strikes very commonly, and is a part of the creative process that many authors are forced to accept.

The problem comes when attempting to deal with it. Plenty of people will give you bizarre tips, such as writing about the people sitting next to you on the bus, or attempting to role-play your character for the day, or by bribing someone else to write for you, but those remedies might not always fit your situation. The thing people forget is that writer's block happens for multiple reasons, like certain medical conditions. The trick to eradicating writer's block - or at least coping with it - is knowing what the cause of it is.

1) Know yourself.

Different kinds of writer's block feel different. The key to being able to identify how is by learning how you feel when you're writing merrily. Try to recall that. Try to recall how well you did, how much you wrote, or how good it was. Then try to recall the circumstances in your life, mood and writing approach that gave you that ability. Once you're aware of that, it should be easy for you to detect what kind of writer's block you have.

The five main kinds of writer's block are:
- Environmental, writer's block caused by life and physical circumstances.
- Uninspired, writer's block caused by lack of ideas (probably the most stereotypical kind of writer's block, although certainly not the most common).
- Diarrhoetic (if you forgive the metaphor), writer's block caused by too many bad ideas, characterised by, rather than an inability to write, a high word count of a very low standard.
- Perfectionistic, writer's block caused by the writer feeling their work is not up to standard which causes their flow to stop, which differs from diarrhoetic writer's block in that nothing gets written rather than too much.
- Avoidant, writer's block caused by procrastination, characterised by a complete inability to sit down and write at all. Can be very closely linked to one of the other four.

All of these kinds require different treatments, and those are what I will relate to you now.

2) Handling environmental writer's block

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