diff --git a/CHANGELOG b/CHANGELOG
index 605c23c..da29421 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG
+++ b/CHANGELOG
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+0.20.3
+ - enh: improve strategy for stalling for slow writer
 0.20.2
  - ref: remove __init__ from SegmentThresh
 0.20.1
diff --git a/src/dcnum/feat/event_extractor_manager_thread.py b/src/dcnum/feat/event_extractor_manager_thread.py
index 7398bf6..a0e96c6 100644
--- a/src/dcnum/feat/event_extractor_manager_thread.py
+++ b/src/dcnum/feat/event_extractor_manager_thread.py
@@ -95,12 +95,14 @@ def run(self):
         while True:
             # If the writer_dq starts filling up, then this could lead to
             # an oom-kill signal. Stall for the writer to prevent this.
-            ldq = len(self.writer_dq)
-            if ldq > 1000:
-                stallsec = ldq / 1000
+            if (ldq := len(self.writer_dq)) > 1000:
+                time.sleep(1)
+                ldq2 = len(self.writer_dq)
+                stall_time = (ldq2 - 200) / (ldq - ldq2) if ldq2 > 200 else 0
+                time.sleep(stall_time)
                 self.logger.warning(
-                    f"Stalling {stallsec:.1f}s for slow writer")
-                time.sleep(stallsec)
+                    f"Stalled {stall_time + 1:.1f}s for slow writer "
+                    f"({ldq} chunks queued)")
 
             cur_slot = 0
             unavailable_slots = 0