Vanessa Van EdwardsScience of People, Science Of People · Behavioral Researcher, Founder, Author, Harvard Instructor

It’s Not Writer’s Block It’s Writer’s Doubt I @HowToWriteBetter

28 Apr 2026 · 0 min

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In this brief interview, Vanessa Van Edwards explains that what many call "writer's block" is actually a moment of self‑doubt that surfaces after she has written a few paragraphs. She describes an internal voice that labels her work as "stupid" and urges her to delete and start over, creating a loop that can trap her. Vanessa emphasizes that overcoming this requires courage to keep writing past the initial three paragraphs, otherwise she never progresses beyond that point.

What part of writing do you still struggle with even after all the success you've had?
The specific kind of writer's block that I get when I've started writing, I'm about 2 paragraphs in, maybe 3, part of my brain goes, "This is stupid," and wanting to delete and start again. I can get trapped in that kind of writer's block loop, and it takes almost like courage to just keep writing. Otherwise, I never get past the first 3 paragraphs. That is a real struggle still.
Tell me about writer's block.
It's really not block. It's really more writer's doubt. It's the meta of you are writing and not doing it well, and that's going to cause so much doubt that it paralyzes you or traps you. The other kind of writer's doubt, which is kind of like a block, is when you want to say it all but you're not sure how. That doubt can be very sticky and very difficult to escape from.