Well it hit me. The dreaded “writers block”. I’ve tried to avoid it by forcing myself to write, but I can no longer run from it. I’m not too worried because the block is on my second manuscript. My crit partner is reviewing my first. Once her review is complete I’m sending it to a professional editor and then…who knows. Self publish, agent, query. It’s all still up in the air. Therefore, I’m not freaking out over not progressing quickly on my second novel. I know what I want to happen, but here’s the thing, I’m at a pivotal moment in the story. It changes the entire course of the relationship for my hero and heroine…not in a good way. My mind is working around all the ways that I can approach this situation, but nothing is working.
This happens to me often. When I get to a turning point in my story I’m always struck with writers block. I think my subconscious mind is afraid to move forward or something. You know I got to try to rationalize why this happens to me. What I hate is that I feel awful when I freeze right before an important part in a story. I feel like I’m wasting time and energy doing other things when I should be writing, even though I don’t know what to write next. One of two things will happen: I’ll either be hit with inspiration and write like crazy or I’ll force myself to work on the scene and my characters will take over. I don’t like forcing it, but if inspiration continues to allude me, Jared and Tasha will feel my not so gentle nudge. (BTW, Jared and Tasha are the main characters in 2nd novel).
I had a conversation recently with my son who’s a music producer about this. He was hit with a creative block recently and it was the first time it happened to him (he’s only 17) and he was flustered by it. I’m of the mindset that anyone that does something creative whether its art, music, or writing will experience a creative block at some point.
As far as writing, sometimes the buildup of a pivotal point in your manuscript will throw you into a block, and thats what it sounds like is happening to you. I’ve had it happen as well and I did one of two things. Write nothing. And sometimes I would just write something and then go back later and do edits until I was happy with the chapter.
Thanks Stephanie. Luckily creative genius has struck. Unfortunately it struck during meetings today. I plan to write it down during breaks and add to draft tonight.