Lev Raphael on Writer’s Block

Learn from reading, even books you don’t like

Next time you want to give up reading a particular book because 1. it bores you, 2. you can’t make sense out of it, or 3. it makes you bang your head on the wall, keep reading. You can analyze it and learn from it as a writer.

Maybe. Or it still might be a huge waste of your time. But isn’t learning from it a far nobler idea than tossing it from a moving car?

To analyze a lousy book and other inspiring ideas came from keynote speaker Lev Raphael at a Rochester Writers Conference. If you’ve never heard of Lev, he’s authored over twenty-five books in nearly a dozen different genres, and his books have been translated into a dozen languages. I admit I’d never heard of him before, which is one of the best things about attending writers conferences: you discover other writers. Besides having an inspiring life story as a child of Holocaust survivors that brought him to where he is today, Lev had so much to share with us. I adore generous people.

Writer’s block is only a phrase

Lev says “Every time you put a set of words together, you change the world.” Sometimes as writers, we worry that what we’re writing has been done before. Tell yourself it’s never been done by you. It’s true that everyone knows what a hat is. Say, “Look, I made a hat where there never was a hat.”

Lev also said that “writer’s block” is an unnecessarily negative way of saying what’s very basic and ordinary: you’re stuck. It happens all the time. Why make it into something you now have to unblock? That very notion can become debilitating. In one of his HuffPost essays, Writer’s Block is Bunk, he advises Leave the writing alone and don’t obsess about it.

You’re stuck? Don’t panic. Give the problem to your subconscious to figure out. Work on something else or don’t do any writing at all. Focus outward: the gym, a movie, dinner with your spouse, drinks with some buddies, walking your dog, home repairs, a car trip, gardening, working on your tan, cooking, going out, reading a new book by your favorite author — anything that will absorb you completely and make you feel good.

What can you do?

There’s a whole industry devoted to writer’s block, so doesn’t that prove there is such an affliction? Lev says no. Fortunately for us, Lev has added his book to the writer self-help industry: Writers Block is Bunk. What’s different about his book? It can be downloaded for $1 (that’s ONE DOLLAR) from Amazon.

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Thank you for visiting.
Linda K. Sienkiewicz is a writer, poet, and artist
Books: In the Context of Love | Gordy and the Ghost Crab | Sleepwalker
New novel,  Love and Other Incurable Ailments, coming fall 2026 from Regal House Publishing
Connect with Linda on social media: LinkTree