So, I’m more than half way through writing the novel I’m currently working on, and I’ve hit a snag.
My characters have all gotten lazy.
They’re doing nothing. They’re talking about what’s happened so far, and they’re going through the motions of their day to day lives, but they’re not moving my plot ahead in any visible way.
And I’ve gotten bored with them.
Can I tell you a secret?
What? I’m always telling secrets?
Well, maybe I am, but that’s never stopped me before.
I am both a professional writer and a novel writer.
You think that I should just say I’m a professional novel writer, right?
Well, I can’t. I’m not. Well, I could say it, but it would be fiction. And I am a fiction writer.
I’ve not said it, but I’ve thought it more than a few times recently. I have no time to write.
You know, I’ve been busy. I sold my house, packed up my belongings, moved.
And I’ve taken on some new responsibilities. I’ve started doing a few new things that I’ve always wanted to try. And I’ve not stopped doing the other things I was able to do before I had freed myself of my mortgage.
And now, I catch myself thinking that I’m too busy to write.
If writer’s block truly exists, then, in my humble opinion, it is nothing more than missing inspiration. If I’m inspired, nothing can stop me from writing.
Inspiration is the “Right mood” for the intercourse between the writer and the page.
It’s the thing that sends you scurrying for the candles and wine glasses, makes you light the fireplace and get that comforter out of the chest in the front hall, open the chocolates and put on the stereo … so to speak.
I’ve heard it a few times, but mostly from people repeating what they’ve heard other people say. And for the longest while, I thought it to be true.
It’s one of those things that people just hear and accept. Usually those things either seems logical, or they’re so far fetched that someone would have to be crazy to repeat them if they weren’t true, therefore, they must be true.
But sometimes the truth is obscured by the repetition of falsehoods to the point of those falsehoods becoming pseudo-facts.
The one I’m talking about is that oft repeated rule of writing, “write what you know.” Read more
It may seem obvious to say this, but the basic building blocks of writing … are words.
It may also seem obvious to say that among the differences between a good writer and a great one, is the choice of words they employ.
And yet, many writers don’t pay as much attention to their word choice as they might.
That statement is perfectly Read more
If you write, you edit.
There is no way around it.
Oh, you may think you don’t, many people write it down and leave it just the way it is. But they edited it as they were writing.
And if they didn’t go over it again, they made at least one mistake. Because even if you change nothing, going over your work provides you with the opportunity to assure yourself that the words you wrote said the thing you were trying to say.
But let’s say you did that. Let’s say you wrote something and you went over it and you think you’ve got it the way you want it. Let’s just say you’re all done. Bam! That’s all she wrote. Read more