Writer's Block

So, apparently there is some debate as to whether "writer's block" is a real thing or not. There are some who insist it is just an excuse for lazy writers. Those individuals argue that you should be able to write every day, even if it is just a sentence.

I would argue, however, that even if I did write a sentence each day, it is still possible to suffer from writer's block. 

Having spent the better part of my (paying) career learning to write to a deadline, I discovered that the best way for me to meet a deadline was to just start writing, even if I wasn't sure what I wanted to write yet. There were times I had to scrap much of what I wrote, but most of the time I was able to salvage a good bit of it. HOWEVER, I was writing marketing materials and technical reports...things that did not have a plot. Trying to write a novel is a completely different beast.

I sailed through writing my first novel (The Rise of Fallon). I woke up one day with an idea and just ran with it. But it wasn't as though I had the entire concept plotted out in my head ... the novel soon took on a life of its own, relegating me to the role of a puppet scribe. I had no idea when I began that Gentry would turn into a major character. I had no idea that Lady Dinah would go on a quest in search of her mother's journals. But that was the story that wanted to be written, and so it was.

I had assumed I would sail through writing my second novel (The Dungeons of Cetahl) as well.  I sat down at my computer, expecting my fingers to begin typing at the command of the same unseen forces that dictated my first novel.  Much to my frustration, my fingers remained still more often than not. The words would not come. I tried to force myself to write, giving myself a goal of writing a scene a day, but it was a waste of time. Those forced scenes were not where the story wanted to go -- they were dead ends -- and they always ended up in the digital trash bin.

It took some time to admit it to myself, but I had writer's block.  The creative juices weren't flowing, and there was nothing I could do to force the situation. I could only wait, and hope, that the story would finally come. It finally did -- in fits and bursts with long periods of silence in between. I must confess, it was a painful story to write.

It is the fear that my third novel (The Order of the Ancients) will be just as painful to write that has kept me from working on it in earnest. I am reluctant to go down that road again, so soon, with the wounds of the second novel so fresh. I have sketched out a few scenes, but I haven't really tried to sit down and write the story.

Instead, I have started working on a collection of poems and short stories -- some of which were written long ago, some of which were ideas that I never fully fleshed out. But this is not necessarily meant to be a distraction. It is my hope that the act of creative writing will be the inspiration/motivation I need to get over my fear and finally begin working on The Order of the Ancients.  And it WILL get written.  I am one of those unfortunate souls who feels compelled to finish what she starts...