Writer/performer Abby Sher is also a mediabistro.com instructor—next Monday, she starts a four-week course on getting those "works-in-progress" completed. Among the principles Sher will be discussing for pushing your way through a creative block is the realization that your favorite lines are the ones you have to cut. "I hated the teacher who told me this," she emails. "Mostly because she was right. Once I let go of what I thought was the-greatest-opening-line-in-the-history-of-words, my novel had room to breathe and grow."

She'll also reveal how you may already have the keys to great work and not even realize it. "Dust off those hard drives. Pull out the journals," she exhorts. "It's time to spring clean your ideas and find those stories that need to be heard."