Defeating Writer's Block: Part 2

I've met many obstacles since I started writing daily over two years ago. Writer's block isn't a single affliction. It's a group of mental obstructions that can delay or derail the creative process.

Writer's block has as many cures as forms. Charlie Jane Anders gives some practical advice for dealing with each head of this hydra. I'll synthesize these suggestions with advice from other writers and my own experience.

1. Lack/Glut of Ideas: I'm distilling Anders' first two types of writer's block into one point since they both deal with ideas. Whether you have no ideas (a rare problem, as discussed previously) or can't decide between myriad ideas, coming up with the right story premise is best handled by writing.

Sound backwards? Priming your creative juices with a little freestyle, stream of consciousness, or observational composition can unearth buried gems.

2. Narrative Flow Problems: once again I find it's useful to combine issues dealing with a story's narrative thread. If you get stuck at any point after starting a project, first make sure you're not being hypercritical. Get someone else to read the story thus far. If your alpha reader can't make sense of things, proceed to phase two: rewrite from the departure point.

3. Character Issues: if you find your characters difficult to write, chances are you haven't motivated them properly. "Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water." The soul of a story is the interplay between what the characters want, the obstacles in their way, and how they overcome those obstacles.

Know your characters' motives. Then make sure their actions are consistent with those motives.

4. Stage Fright: if fretting over what people will think is stopping you from telling your story, I have bad news for you. No matter what you write, someone is going to hate it. Writing professionally isn't about pleasing everyone. It's about producing to a certain standard.

To paraphrase Neil Gaiman, if you aren't afraid that you've shared too much of yourself, you're doing it wrong.

The author is the person least qualified to judge what others will think. Get a few alpha readers to peruse the first draft. Listen to their feedback. Then draft a second version and give it to your beta readers. Repeat.

5. Editing Hang-ups: some writers love free composition and hate editing. Others agonize over their first drafts but take to revisions like sharks to chum. The reason for this dichotomy is that writing and editing are two separate processes.

Revising a manuscript can be like pulling teeth to more right-brained types. That's how I felt until I realized the intoxicating power of deleting superfluous text. Liberate yourself from useless lines, paragraphs, and pages.

The editing dilemma that most afflicts me these days is verbal perfectionism. Nothing interrupts my writing flow like grasping for exactly the right word to describe the scene in my head. The most useful advice I've gotten on this front came from Nick Enlowe. Use a placeholder word, move on, and fix it in the next draft.

I hope you've found this series on writer's block enriching and entertaining. What are some of your own creative obstacles, and how have you handled them?

First Novel Submission

After 18 months and three full revisions, I decided that it was finally time to market Nethereal. Following careful research, I chose to send my first submission to Pyr. They're a subsidiary of Prometheus Books who've got a pretty robust presence in the industry. Most importantly, many of the titles in their catalog come close to the tone and genre of my book. Even better, they accept unagented electronic submissions of the whole manuscript--not just a query or a sample.

We'll see what happens in the coming months. I can tell you that my search for an agent will continue in earnest.

Having submitted my manuscript is no excuse to slack off, which is why I'm glad that Nick Enlowe has agreed to work with me on polishing the narrative structure and general presentation of the book. As stated above, the text has been through several revisions; but the results have been clearer, tighter, and just plain better every time.

I keep putting myself through the wringer because I believe in this story. It took some convincing, especially after the somewhat ambiguous initial feedback. But the test readers (to whom I am deeply grateful) all report that basic plot and theme is solid. I can work with that, if nothing else, and I've got a feeling that my esteemed colleague's help will draw out a great deal more.

Weirder Tale

After sending in a postal submission of my first short story to Weird Tales back in April, I finally heard back from them today--sort of.

My returned SASE and manuscript were accompanied by a form letter explaining that the magazine has changed hands again, and submissions are closed pending the installation of a new editor-in-chief.

They didn't read my story, but this isn't quite a non-response. I'll figure out how to categorize this business over at Duotrope.

The best part is that I'm finally free to resubmit my first story (the second one has already been out three times). It's gonna need a lot of work, so I plan to wait until Nick's novel push initiative is over before diving into short story revisions.

As always, I'll keep you posted.

Next Stop: Three-Lobed Burning Eye

After meticulous research--okay, I searched Duotrope, I've decided to resubmit my short story to Three-Lobed Burning Eye. To be honest, the Lovecraft reference put them over the top.

In keeping with Nick's experiment, I have stepped down from publications offering pro pay scales to semi-pro. Since my primary goal is to build a portfolio of published short stories, a few cents less per word is no problem.

According to Duotrope, their acceptance rate is about 2 and a half percent (pretty good odds while still having standards). They publish online irregularly over the year and print a trade anthology every other year.

I've got a little editing to do in order to meet their submission guidelines. After that, we wait 90 days and see...