Do You Believe In Writers Block?


I keep asking myself this because the phrase, on a completely personal level, is an excuse. Just an excuse not to get the work done, plain and simple.

I recently read Nail Your Novel by Roz Morris and one of the things she says sticks with me. Writer’s block isn’t necessarily an inability to write, or locate the muse, but the product of other problems that hinder writing; poor planning. Losing the plot (*snerk*). Doubt about characters or story arc. This way of thinking implies that writer’s block is something that can be managed and avoided by taking pre-emptive measures.

I’m not sure I believe exactly that – novel writing is a creative activity, after all, and creativity can’t be forced – but I do feel that there is more to the problem, for me, which goes beyond an absence of the muse.

Lazy sleeping barnstarIn my case, my head is so filled with a running total of nappies, sleeping patterns, the location of various bits of clothing, toys and important documents, that there is very little space left for creative writing. When I do get space, there are a dozen other things that I could be doing instead; washing up, vacuuming, sleeping (!!!), playing games, reading comics, reading other fiction…. Wshen I get passed all those things (by deciding to ignore them) and actually sit at the desk top, I’m hit by the final problem; I’m just too bloody tired!

So where does that leave me? Blocked?

In a manner.

In my case, writer’s block comes as a result of having too much to do, too little time and not enough sleep. Its not that my muse isn’t with me; I keep her chained to my side with adamantium locks and feed her well with scraps of chocolate. She isn’t going anywhere! In fact, twice in the past three weeks, I’ve woken up with an idea in the middle of the night and had to whisper it into my phone so I didn’t lose it (or wake the babies). No, my writer’s block is simply life.

Makes me wonder how I’m going to deal with that and avoid having life giving me a mega bitch-slap for trying to best it.lion with black eye from OpenClipArt

What about you guys? How do you define writer’s block? What are your tricks for dealing with it? Do you believe it exists at all?!

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Bonus Blog: STOP PRESS!


I know I should be working and I know that TweetDeck is a terrible distraction to that (this post is case in point), but I have to share what I have just discovered with as many people as possible. Its too incredible an opportunity to pass up.

Harper Voyager, an arm of HarperCollins, will be accepting unsolicited manuscripts for a period of two weeks in October this year. Not only that but this is a co-ordinated effort across the UK, the USA and Australia in epic fantasy, science fiction, urban fantasy, horror, dystopia and supernatural.
gasping/shocked/surprised face OpenClipArt
Well. I guess I have my deadline for completing the edits on SORB now. o.O

Go, go, go!

Oh and the blog I picked this up from is here. Full details on the Harper Voyager site, here.

Spread the word, people. This is an incredible opportunity for anybody so inclined. Please, please don’t miss out! I sure don’t intend to!

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80 Post Challenge – Post 80


If you could tell the world just one thing, what would it be?


Okay, first of all, can I just say:

woman jumping on trampoline

Photo credit: Lynn Kelly Author, WANA Commons

I DID IT!
I FREAKING DID IT!

I made it to the end of the challenge! I never thought I’d keep up with the blog this long, let alone manage something as structured as a real challenge. ^_^
From the first post back in May last year, all the way through to now, I have been posting a response to the writing prompts provided by Tom Slatin at least once a week. Sometimes twice.

I’d like to thank Tom again for letting me use his prompts and providing them in the first place. At a time when I had no idea how to populate this blog, his list proved totally invaluable. Next I’d like to thank all of you guys for sticking with me while I worked my way through these questions. If you joined me half way through or have been around from the start, thank you for joining me on the ride (heh, starting to sound like an Oscar acceptance speech, isn’t it?). I hope its been as much fun for you as it has been for me.

I do have ideas for where to head next, though I plan to allow myself a small break first before diving into another challenge. What I have in mind involves a rigorous and strict editing schedule and while I’m still stuck on SORB, I need to give that my full attention. Distractions are bad… even fun, creative ones.

So… I guess I’d better answer the question, huh?
 
 


 
 
cute penguin with one finger up, from OpenClipArtOne thing? Well, instead of cheating – like I usually do – I will actually pick just one thing.

It was a tricky decision, truth be told, but in the end, I think I’d give the world one sage piece of advice;’Be nice.’

Simple as that.

There are lots of religions in the world with big ideas, and fancy texts and rules that people should follow but its all pretty simple. Great deities and their various preferred methods of worship hold little to no interest to me. In fact, I took a giant step away from organised religion a long time ago (something else I’ve talked about in this challenge in a couple of places here, here and here), but I firmly believe that if you take each and every religion, any one of them, and strip them down to their most basic elements… the message is the same in every single one. And it is this: be nice, dude.

Think about it? All ten of those commandments? The path to enlightenment? All of it is about being nice to others and to yourself.

So if I could tell the world one thing (and expect them to listen), I’d say, just be nice.
That’s it!
Yellow happy smile from wikimedia commonsThink about it; how much nicer would the world be as a whole if everybody followed that advice?

My 80 Post Challenge is brought to you with help from Tom Slatin’s 80 Journal Writing Prompts.
Also… note… that some of the questions in the original list are duplicated, so these later entries include questions from Tom’s second list.

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Six Sentence Sunday 09/09 #31


Sup y’all! Another Sunday, another six sentences from my selection. Nearing the end of the A-Z of Flash Fiction today we’re looking at the letter ‘V,’ the trigger word for this being ‘vent.’

This is a bit of a sad one actually, I’m not sure what headspace I was in when I wrote it. I only know that at that point (a few weeks back now), all I could think of was death. My death, or the death of my babies. Depressing as hell, yes, I know, but my worry that something might happen is now almost a constant. It doesn’t stop me doing things, but it does keep me awake for a few mins every night while I try to calm myself down and not think of new scenarios in which I might lose my children.

Who knew having kids was so difficult! :p

Anyway… here is the six for this week.
~Johnny talks to his mother about his younger brother…

“Johnny frowned. “No, he was just here; we were playing in the sand pit and then decided to play hide and seek. He must have come inside.”

Pity flooded Margaret’s heart. “No, darling. We talked about this, remember?”

What did they talk about? And why?! All these questions will be answered when I finally post my A-Z Flash Fiction Challenge in full. Not long to go now!

Meanwhile, there are plenty of other authors taking part in this initiative who would love a visit from you. Use the banner link below to check out what others have to say. 🙂
Six Sentence Sunday

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Bonus Blog: Celebrating Milestones Take 2!


Yep, its that time again! ^_^

Because you’re all so lovely and spend the time popping over here to read my words, WordPress has seen fit to give me two ‘awards.’
They aren’t really awards, not in the strictest sense, but they are milestones, that I can’t help but flag up here, because its all down to you guys!
500 likes award from wordpress.com100 follows award from wordpress.com
Woohoo! That’s all things you guys have done, following, liking and interacting with me three times a week! And I know for a fact that that can be really hard for you; we’re all busy people. So once more, thank you all very much for sticking with me.

It means more than you’ll ever know.

Posted in Ileandra's Posts, News, Procrastination, Real Life Chatter | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments