How do I overcome writer's block when writing a book? originally appeared on Quora, the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world. You can follow Quora on Twitter, Facebook, and Google Plus.

My two favorite books on writing are Anne Lamott’s “Bird By Bird” and Stephen King’s “On Writing.” In the former, Lamott talks about the necessity of writing really “shitty first drafts” and also “ass in chair”--just sitting there, day in and day out, doing the work, and if the writing isn’t coming easily, being kind to yourself and believing in “future you” — the reviser and self-editor who is going to make it sing, later. In King’s book, he tells us: “It starts with this: Put your desk in the corner, and every time you sit down there to write, remind yourself why it isn’t in the middle of the room. Life isn’t a support-system for art. It’s the other way around.” When you’re writing to pay your bills, you don’t have the luxury of writer’s block.

A few other tips I’ve picked up along the way:

• I measure my word counts at the end of each working day and note them on my paper calendar (old school), just to give me a sense of accomplishment.

• I map my narrative structure out in an old-school outline, which I have pasted all along the perimeter of my office walls, via a portable white board I’m addicted to called Wizard Wall. I use a separate whiteboard on the wall next to me just for the chapter at hand, which I try to focus singularly on, via this advice on structure from the great John McPhee.

• Coming from a newspaper background, I abide by this rule: The story is due when the deadline hits. I never, ever miss a deadline. So, if I have a year to finish a book, I do the math and figure out approximately how much time I have for each chapter, and then I leave a month at the end for revising. (Thank you, author/journalist Annie Jacobsen, who gave me that advice just as I was starting to write my first book, “Factory Man.”) I break it down into manageable parts, in other words, and I give myself mini-deadlines along the way, and they are sacrosanct. Stephen King on revising: “When you write a story, you’re telling yourself the story. When you rewrite, your main job is taking out all the things that are NOT the story.” Or as Elmore Leonard put it so succinctly: “Leave out the parts readers skip.”

• In nonfiction, you’re only as good as the reported facts you’ve assembled. When I approach anything resembling a block, it’s usually because I haven’t made enough phone calls, haven’t talked to enough people, or haven’t talked to the right people enough times, haven’t dug deeply enough in the archives. Reporting is the soul of all nonfiction. When I get stuck, I simply pick up the phone, make another call, peel another layer from the onion. When I come back to the page, ideally the infusion of new facts will allow me to see the material in a better, more nuanced way. If it doesn’t, I read another article or book, or make another visit or phone call. Just basic curiosity-propelled shoe-leather reporting; that’s the ticket. Keep digging.

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