Jule Styne, a famous songwriter said, ‘Inspiration is for amateurs’. Words that word probably cause uproar in a creative writing class. What he meant was that inspiration alone is useless if you do not know your craft.
I believe that knowing your craft prevents writers block. I strongly believe that the major cause of writers block is due to lack of planning, not a lack of creativity.
Why not write "crap" (apart from the emotional block)?
Some days my writing whizzes along with more than a touch of genius - and when I look at it the next day - this excellent material is "crap". Then again some days each word wants to hide in its shelter like a hermit crab and never come out. After a days slog i feel like I have achieved nothing - not even "crap" - but next day? sometimes the day's slog is excellent.
David
Lack of confidence. When you believe you can't put on the page what's in your head.
Just writing don't work. If you think what you mean to write is crap, so you don't write it, why would you bother to write more crap?
I don't know what the answer is apart from write something else. Article, blog, new chapter, new story; anything. Eventually something'll click your brain back into gear. Eventually.
And yes, I am feeling crusty. Mainly because I've not finished off a chapter I should have completed last week and forum/blog postings ain't helping.
Bother.
Looking again at the original question... "What do you think is the main cause of Writers block?"
Would it be caused by trying to do too many things at once? Like researching, planning, plotting where landmarks should be, checking word-counts for chapters - any endless list of "must do" things?
The thing that I find sometimes stops me is when I have an accumualtion of ideas that I should include - sometimes together and sometimes seperately. This can cause something like a block for a few days. I usually find that the answer is to write something else and then just sneak up on one of the items in the pile while it isn't looking and start writing it.
Another "unblocker" is to just write - it doesn't matter of the piece is rubbish (it might not be) the thing is to just write. The piece can be used later or disgarded as appropriate - if it has removed the block it has done its job :-)
David