This syndrome can be very irksome to authors and often leads to a long span of time where they cannot come up with anything new. Coping strategies include: distracting oneself from the piece for a while, reading a book, and forcing oneself to write something even if it makes no sense. To avoid blank page syndrome, it is best to have an idea when one sits down to write, and to keep from procrastinating because stress only worsens the blank page syndrome.[17]