Since this is the end of the year, I want to tie my
year-in-review to some actual writing advice. I titled this blog "How to
break out of a writing slump" and I have a clear answer. Before you get
too excited, I will warn you that it is the same advice you've heard again and
again from other authors in the past and it is hard work, but I think it needs
repeated. I'll get to that advice in a moment, but first you have to read
through the rest of my drivel. (Or skip to the end, I suppose.)
This year has been a great year for me in my writing
career while a tough year for my actual writing production. I saw 2012 bring me
not one but two book releases from my publisher, Rhemalda Publishing.
In January, Rhemalda released my werewolf tale with
a twist, Tamed. I celebrated the
release of Tamed with a television
interview on NBC4 in Columbus, Ohio. You can watch the interview on the left
side of this blog. That was by far my most visual exposure yet.
Next, I had a successful book launch at Barnes and
Noble in Pickerington, Ohio, with Tamed.
Its release also led to a request from a California production company to shop Tamed around for movie rights interest,
and I granted that request, of course. That process is still active, though I
am not sure how it will pan out.
In May, Rhemalda and I decided to offer Tamed as a free giveaway as part of
Amazon's KDP program and proceeded to give away 22,000 copies of the eBook in only
five days. Coming off that giveaway, Tamed
continued to sell fairly well for the next couple of months. My biggest
surprise with Tamed was that I
initially thought the book was a good
fit for young adults and older, but I have been pleased to learn that Tamed has gained a pretty steady
following from the youngest teens who are looking for something a little different
from the Twilight saga.
In August, Rhemalda released the second installment
of my Epertase trilogy, which I feel is my best writing yet.
With three published
books under my wing, I attended the Mid Ohio Comic Con. The president and vice
president of Rhemalda traveled to Ohio to support me at the show. With their
help and the help of the fantastic artist of my Epertase covers, Steve Murphy, we sold and signed over 100 books. Unfortunately,
I sold out of Tamed at the show and
had to turn potential readers away. Here's my booth.
Despite all of my successes this year, I have struggled
with the actual art of writing. I don't know if you could call it writer's
block, but it definitely resulted in a lack of production. I've heard of
writer's block before and have even experienced it briefly on occasion, but
usually I have been able to push through it without too much pain.
However, this year has been a different story.
My first major slump came during my initial draft of
Epertase 3; I struck a wall at the halfway point. I spent several months (yes,
I said months) struggling with how to make a crucial transition that was imperative
to the story. Every idea I came up with didn't seem to work. If this wasn't the
last book in my trilogy, with everything in the first two stories tied to this
finale, I could have scratched the idea altogether and changed how the story
went, but I was in a bit of a box. It was killing me and putting me way behind
schedule. I have deadlines, after all.
BTW, I am in love with how Epertase 3 finally turns
out and I think fans of the series will be as well, but I think the fight with
Epertase 3 took something out of me.
My second slump is in full gear now. Over the last
two years I have been working sporadically on a new dystopian fantasy that I am
really excited about finishing. But even with my breakthrough and subsequent
finishing of Epertase 3, I realized I still wasn't writing with as much
inspiration as usual. Heck, just look at the number of blogs I've churned out
lately (none)-- my lack of production should be evident.
Here's the problem: I know what I need to do in
order to break this slump, just like I had to do to break the Epertase 3 slump,
but I'm having trouble doing it with any consistency.
How do you break your writing slump? It sounds easy.
You have to write.
You have to write today. You have to write tomorrow.
Don't feel like writing on Friday? Too bad, you have to write on Friday, too.
It's just like going to the gym. If you miss a few days, it becomes easier to
simply miss a few more. But, when writing becomes habit, it's harder not to do.
Just like working out. I am by far not the first author to say this. In fact, I
have read this very advice several times by major authors. It's easier said
than done.
"Wait a minute," you might say. "That
doesn't help me through my block." Well, yeah, it actually does. By making
yourself sit down and write, you will write through that block. It might not
turn out just how you want that section to be, but that's what revisions are
for. After you plow through that part of the story, you will fall into the flow
again.
When you force yourself to write every day, even if
it is only for a couple hours, you are lifting the weights . . . I mean, you
are writing . . . and that's the important part. Does that make sense? Every
slump I have ever gotten into (big or small) has been broken by simply sitting
down and writing. And as I look back, I see that the slumps that lasted the
longest were because they frustrated me to the point of not writing at all.
Now, I know sometimes it seems impossible to push
through that block (like it was for me in Epertase 3), so here's another way to
get through it. My initial advice still stands that you have to write, but you
can cheat a little. Skip that part and work
on another section of your story. It will trigger your creativity again and get
you moving. You will be surprised at how well this will help you to actually
fix the section you were stuck on without even working on it. Yeah, it's like
magic.
These two suggestions are my best advice on breaking
your slump. Sure, many other more famous authors than me have recommended the
same actions, but I believe the advice is worth repeating. Now, why are you
sitting here reading my blog? Go write!
Happy Holidays,
everyone.
