I really particularly enjoyed Steven Dunn’s attitude on writer’s block. I think the mindset he presents can really help to open writer’s up to breaks and not feeling restricted with the many labels that can come within writing. I think that it is honestly a good self care exercise to practice breaks generally speaking, and to be open them as well, while not necessarily seeing them as a set back or a challenge. I want to always have that mindset with myself and I think even outside of writing it can be practiced too. Constantly restricting yourself can take away from the joy of writing and/or any forced activity for that matter. Taking breaks and validating what is best for you are good measures to be mindful of, so you’re not not overworking yourself.
I really respect Steven Dunn and I appreciate his insight on not forcing labels on things. His unconventional writing even proves this openness. I plan on reading more of his work in the future.
Post-Modern American Fiction 
I agree and I was a little shocked to hear Steven Dunn’s response to my question in class yesterday. I often felt ashamed for having writer’s block as so many famous writers have said time and time again that you must read and write everyday. I understand the commitment it takes to become a good writer and writing itself, like any other hobby, requires lots of practice. After all, if anyone could write a book then everyone would and the challenge to write one would not mean anything. However, if you let writing dictate your life, then you are sacrificing other great hobbies or possibilities in your life. Sometimes it is important to take a break and to focus on other aspects in our lives. Nowadays, we are brainwashed by industrialism and calvinism that we must always be working in order to be considered good people or to find fulfillment in our lives. However, we should not pigeonhole ourselves into one singular hobby or career. We should also explore different modes of creativity and challenge ourselves to start new passion projects.
Last year, I watched a Ted Talk on “The Art of Creativity,” lectured by Taika Waititi, and he talked about how he explored poetry, painting, inventing, animation, dancing, and filmmaking through out his childhood and adulthood. He said that even though people might say that his job being a director, but his real job is in creativity. That video really inspired me to interview people about their quarantine experiences last summer, even though I had no prior experience. I realized that we shouldn’t force ourselves to do one thing everyday, but that we should explore other opportunities because life is full of opportunities and so there’s no point in limiting our own potential.
I feel the same way that Steven´s idea of stepping back and taking breaks would be helpful for all activities. I feel like a lot of times as a society we feel pressured to fill up all our free time and constantly being doing something especially be doing something productive with our time. I personally feel that this mindset is very exhausting and taking a break even for just a day benefits all the activities that we took a break from because if we are doing an activity all the time we are going to get tired of it and begin to dread it and therefore no longer want to do it or put our best effort into that activity.
I was also really inspired by a lot of what Steven said/had to offer us during his reading and Q&A session with us the next day. Throughout this year I’d been working on two different, larger creative writing projects for my two capstones, and writer’s block was starting to be a problem for me towards the end, but I also really liked what he had to say about making time within one’s writing schedule for taking breaks. It makes sense, and I feel like it’s something that I subconsciously do while I’m writing, but it was nice just hearing about how other people deal with their own writer’s block.