Writing Excuses

In my last blog post, I mentioned I’d had surgery. I’m now in the midst of recovering. The doctor had warned me the recovery would take six weeks. I nodded my head. After the surgery, I discovered he was really serious. (Yeah, go figure. Maybe some hubris in my thinking beforehand.)

Writing Excuses logo

I spend a lot of my day, laying on the couch. Doing nothing. Or rather, healing. And for the first two weeks, the hours drifted by. Ah, it’s three o’clock. I thought it was just one.

But now, though the flesh is weak, my spirit wants to do something. I decided to work on my new novel. And discovered exhaustion sucks creativity completely dry.

Thankfully, a few months ago, a friend (thank you, Joanne Wasdin) had recommended a podcast. And I’d listened to several episodes even before the surgery—I’d stream them from my phone while I worked in the yard.

The podcast is called Writing Excuses. Their “logline” is “fifteen minutes long, because you’re in a hurry, and we’re not that smart.” J (Brandon Sanderson of Mistborn fame is one of the contributors.) Even though I don’t write fantasy/sci fi (I’ve been writing Southern noir), their discussions have been profoundly inspiring. Because fiction writing is fiction writing whether you’re describing an alien world or the buzz of cicadas in late summer.

After listening to the podcasts, I found some of my mojo. Granted, writing is still hard—but when has it ever been easy? And I’m 12,000 words into a new novel, which is much better than watching reruns of Downton Abbey or watching the clock tick the seconds.

So if you’re facing writer’s block or post-surgery-creativity-empty-tank syndrome, give Writing Excuses a shot. Because they've been doing this for ten seasons, there's something for everyone. And if you’re struggling with rejection, listen to "Perseverence"—hearing Sherrilyn Kenyon’s story choked me up.

Friday Five: Writer's Block

As I've mentioned before, I'm writing a new novel. (Yes, I'm editing one too.) And everything's been going perfectly--I'm about a third of the way through the first draft. Then, yesterday, I hit a snag. You would think that I'd be "in touch" enough with myself and my work that I'd know I hit a snag. But it doesn't work like that. First drafts are odd creatures and often have warts and birth defects--but that's okay because they get fixed later. So when I first hit a problem--I couldn't finish a scene, I assumed it was a wart. By day two of the scene, I knew there was a problem because...

1. I still couldn't finish writing the scene. This ought to have been a neon, blinking sign of a problem. It wasn't.

2. Then, I wandered the house looking for random things to clean. I didn't polish the silver, but the rugs got vacuumed more than once.

3. I got this unsettled feeling--as if the zombie apocalypse was coming and I didn't know.

4. I became grouchy, wondering why my children weren't eager to clean the house. Just because yesterday was a holiday and not even our normal clean-the-house day doesn't mean we can't embrace it as a middle-of-the-week clean-the-house day.

5.  Finally, after the tenth time of working on the scene, I realized it wasn't going anywhere.

Now I know why I've been wandering the house and irritating myself and my kids. I've got a minor (hopefully) case of writer's block. To beat it, my plan of attack is pretty simple. I sit down with a ream of notebook paper and start writing. I'll start with trying to identify the issue. What the heck is wrong with the scene? Is it plot or character? Did the wrong character take over the scene? What was/is the purpose of the scene--did I get off track? What scene will follow this scene? Am I missing a segue? Is this scene misplaced in the novel--should it come later? Once I identify the problem, I'll brainstorm fixes.

Hopefully, I can figure it out quickly. On the other hand, if it takes a couple of days, the upside is that I'll have a really clean house.