The easiest solution for writer's block is to open a good dictionary to any page and read slowly just the words, not the definitions, one at a time. Many writers I have taught find that this method works, a word kindles an idea that enables the writer to continue his or her work.

I go to a shelf in my library and pick out about ten paperbacks of novels whose beginnings are quite marvelous. One or more of these beginnings will light a fuse in my mind relating to the new story.

I took a course in college with a teacher who gave his students a private audience once a semester. He said to me, "Stein, your jacket is blue, your shirt is blue, your tie is blue, that's what wrong with your stories!" From that point on my stories and eventually my novels became "colorful" in every meaning of that word.