Whenever you feel depressed, ask yourself whether you still enjoy writing. Sometimes answer will be a loud "no". Perhaps your writing isn’t going as well as you hoped it would, or you've had some drama in your life, or you've been rejected. At these times, remind yourself that you love what you do, and ask yourself what you would enjoy writing today. Then do that. Work on rebuilding your love for your writing first, before you concern yourself about anything else.

If success comes slowly (or hasn't arrived yet), don’t become desperate. Be patient. Selling your creativity takes time. If you can sense desperation taking hold, remind yourself that you're writing because you love to write.

Writers (and other creatives) may become desperate because of others' expectations. "Have you sold that book you were working on?" "Have you sold a painting?" This pressure is why you play your cards close to your chest. (See "downplay your creativity", above.)

=> 3. Market your work

When should you start to market your work? Immediately. As soon as you've written something that you feel is publishable, send it out.

This is where you tuck your creative self away, and haul your inner marketer out of closet. Divorce yourself from your work as much as you can. Grit your teeth, and flail yourself with a whip if necessary, but send your work out. Then forget it. Your first marketing efforts may be torture. That's OK. You don’t have to enjoy marketing, you just have to do it.

Starting small is important for writers, because you can send out a short story or a filler article without writing a query letter. For a new writer, query letters can be dangerous. Here's why: some writers never get beyond a query letter. Ask any editor. These writers write lots of query letters, get good at it, and then one day an editor calls their bluff and sends them a contract. At this, query writer panics. Not only doesn’t she write article, she gives up writing for several years. Then she starts again. Writing query letters…

The good news is that once you've got into habit of writing and sending your work out, you can stop worrying. Sooner or later you'll get a check. (Sooner, we hope.)

The big benefit of marketing is that after a while it stops being a trauma. It starts to become fun. Your inner marketer is all grown up. Then only problem you have is getting organized so that you keep track of what you sent where.

If you follow three strategies above, you will make your creativity pay, and sooner than you think is possible.

***Resource box: if using, please include***

Digital-e: For writers and creatives. Ebooks, free ezines, Creatives Club. Love to write? Turn your talent into a business! http://www.digital-e.biz/

Try to write anyway, even if you feel your writing is trash. If you can't, take a break from writing without feeling guilty. Relax, exercise, eat well, and indulge in a few movies, or a favourite hobby.

If this block lasts for more than a month or two, visit a therapist. There's no shame in this, and seeing someone can save you endless months of frustration.

=> Eliminating "no info" block

You can also get blocked because you don’t have enough information. You're trying to write final draft, instead of tackling writing process draft by draft.

Here's a handy way to prevent "no info" block by taking your writing through clearly defined stages:

A. First draft: your thinking draft. In this draft, you write whatever you like. You're aiming for quantity here, rather than quality.

B. Your second draft. Your first draft has shown you what you want to say. In this draft, you have a crack at saying it.

C. Your clean-up draft. Your final draft. You've said what you want to say, now you get a chance to say it better. You clean up redundancies and spice it up.

In practice, stage B may have several additional drafts, as many as you need: B1, B2, and more.

The easiest way to kill no-info block for good is to allow yourself to write badly. Every day. This is because writing is hard when you try to think and write at same time. Allow yourself to think on paper for as many drafts as you need. Then write final draft with confidence.

=> Writing cycles

This isn't a block, it's a process. Everything happens in cycles, even your writing. Sometimes your writing catches fire. You're inspired. At other times, writing is like wading through quicksand, and it takes you forever to write 200 words.

Accept this. When you're in low part of cycle, aim lower. If your target was 1,000 words a day, make it 200. Or even 50.

Blocks are a part of writer's life. Use above tools to write your way out of them. As incredible as it may seem when you're in middle of a block, day will dawn when your block is not even a memory, and you can confidently say: "There's no such thing as writer's block!"

***Resource box: if using, please include***

Digital-e: For writers and creatives. Ebooks, free ezines, Creatives Club. Love to write? Turn your talent into a business! http://www.digital-e.biz/