Geraldine Brooks

Geraldine BrooksGeraldine Brooks is the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel March.

What is your method for overcoming writer’s block?

Do bricklayers have bricklaying block? Do chefs have cooking block? Just get to work. Write every day.  If a bricklayer's wall doesn't go up straight and true, she pushes it over and starts again. If a chef's souffle flops, she feeds it to the dog and starts again. Don't be afraid of writing something that fails. Be very afraid of being afraid to write anything.

What are your favorite or most helpful writing prompts?

Norton Anthology of Poetry or Palgrave's Golden Treasury. I pull one of these volumes off the shelf every day before I start writing, open it at random and read a poem. It primes the pump.

What is the most valuable advice you received as a young writer?

"When there's no wind, row." Judith Viorst.