M. K. Theodoratus, Fantasy Writer, blogs about the books she reads--mostly fantasy and mystery authors whose books catch her eye and keep her interest. Nothing so formal as a book review, just chats about what she liked. Theodoratus also mutters about her own writing progress or ... lack of it.

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Monday, April 30, 2012

Writer's Block: When Does It Plague You?


Had a blog mostly written on Word, with some really nice, informative links. But ... it didn't transfer here. So, I'm starting from scratch since I did find a place where I can post a new blog instead of work with my blog drafts. Yeah, I can't find find such simple things as my Blogger dashboard. Mine went AWOL, and I can't find it. Yeah, I'm still fighting with Google+ ... which isn't kind to people with dyslexia. The change totally confuses me.

What have I been doing? I was editing Dark Solstice, sort of Book six in the Half-Elven saga/ An agent wanted to look at sample chapters, but I got a "wasn't right for me" response ... so I'm going back to seeking a small publisher. Now, I'm letting my brain simmer and will see what pops out. Think that means I'm courting writer's block.

Sandra Novak did a nice blog on just that at Girlfriends Book Club. Writer's Block.
I'm linking it here so I can go back to this ... provided I can ever find the blog again at Google+. [Do you get the idea I don't like the forced merger between Blogger and Google+?] 

In the past, I haven't had much problem with writer's block, but then, I came to writing from a newspaper where there were deadlines. You wrote your 1000 words and the editor took out the garbage. [More or less, like a super-charged critique group.] Now, I think I'm going to be dithering on what to do next. Got a lot of manuscripts in the computer -- or play with a partial or  -- go for something totally new? 

I'm going to take a vacation as my first step in facing my writer's block. I've got marketing stuff to do. Hopefully, I'll fixate on what new thing I should work on. -- I won't talk about the new thing I'll be revising since I've got to make a decision there too. Yeah, I'm going to try to break my day into three segments: social networking, revising, and creating. 

Maybe I should have titled this piece: Decisions, Decisions? Whatever, I'm going to try to get back into the blogging groove ... even if the results are different than they were.

4 comments:

Maria Zannini said...

There is something about a deadline that always lights a fire under my butt. LOL.

I hate it when Google, Facebook, Twitter, etc., change stuff around. For the life of me I don't understand why they think these changes make things better.

Unknown said...

Maria, I'm thinking I'm losing the ambition to write ... in the sense that why should I waste my time marketing to agents and publishers, when I prefer writing, ie: playing in my worlds?

As for the Blogger changes I just think Google is trying to compete with Facebook and Twitter without realizing they just throwing up another time waster. Great for teens, but busy adults?

Patricia Stoltey said...

I have a running battle with priorities, Kay. Every time I think I have a plan, something messes it up.

Oh, well, no one ever told me this writing life would be easy. Unfinished projects? I have a few of those too. It's not writer's block exactly, more like brain freeze.

Unknown said...

I blame my manuscript backlog needing revision as a result of my playing on the computer. Now, that I'm trying to be somewhat serious about writing, I've gotta do the marketing bit, which includes revision. Ugh.

Say Pat, can you let me know if this comment shows up somewhere else besides my blog. I'm experimenting with what the buttons say.

Kay