As a professional writer I never get writer's block when writing my clients' stuff. I can't afford it! It has been said many times before, but you don't hear about people getting builder's block or doctor's block, do you?
But I do suffer from it sometimes when writing my own stories. My block takes the form of a kind of quiet but inexorably rising flood of panic at the thought of too many ideas and not knowing which to choose to work on. This can get so bad that I sometimes end up not writing anything, and that makes me feel worse than ever.
Well, I think I've just found a cure and every time I'm blocked I swear I will read this for inspiration. The following is not only a breathtakingly good piece of writing from Doris Lessing's Nobel Prize Lecture speech, but the content itself makes me realise how lucky I am to have the luxury of even contemplating writer's block when some people have so little at all.
You'll see what I mean when you read this and I defy you not to have tears in your eyes by the end. And to be reaching for your pen or pencil or keyboard …