New and old writers alike are often stopped in their tracks at the mention of The Demon Writer’s Block™. Every time they have a hard time writing, they fear it’s the beginning of The Demon Writer’s Block™ and that their writing career is effectively over.

I once claimed that I had The Demon Writer’s Block™ for six years. SIX YEARS! And it’s true that for roughly six years I didn’t really write anything. But that wasn’t The Demon Writer’s Block™. It was due to other factors, including that I just wasn’t putting in the effort. It’s that whole BIC (Butt In Chair) strategy that I just didn’t get at that time.

Now, just because there’s no such thing as The Demon Writer’s Block™ doesn’t mean that there aren’t reasons why you’re having a hard time writing (or why you can’t write at all). But we’ve built The Demon Writer’s Block™ up into this mythical being, a metaphorical demon binding our hands, preventing us from getting anything done at all. And that’s not the case. In fact, there are two relatively mundane things that contribute to so-called “writer’s block”. Both are, more or less, manageable once you’re aware that they exist.

So, what are these two all-powerful things that can control our writing productivity (if we let them)? Read the rest of this entry »

I’m working on a new novel (not one of The Steam and Steel Chronicles novellas—don’t worry, I’m still working on the series and still plan on keeping with the original publishing schedule), and am trying some slightly different writing methods. In the past, I’ve always been a very linear writer: I start at the beginning and I end up at the end. Only once have I written out of order, but even then I just wrote the last two scenes, and then started at the beginning and wrote straight through.

This time I’m trying something different. I’ve got the first three chapters done, but beyond that I’ve just been writing scenes as I think of them. I have a rough outline for what should be the first half of the book (which may or may not be a two- or three-book series, I haven’t gotten that far yet), and I’m just kind of writing scenes as I feel like writing them. The plan is to get all the scenes in the first 1/2 to 2/3 of the book written, and then revise them into the correct order and write straight through to the end of the book from there. Read the rest of this entry »

I started on a new novel last week. I had said I wouldn’t start working on this one until after I’d finished editing my nonfiction book (which is coming along nicely), but the story crystallized for me on Wednesday morning and by Friday I just couldn’t help myself. Read the rest of this entry »

To date, I’ve completed at least one draft on five different novels. Two were fantasy, one was science fiction, one was slipstream fiction (though on rewriting it may just become a mainstream novel), and one was women’s fiction. The first novel I ever wrote was a high fantasy epic. It was terrible. The writing itself wasn’t too horrible and the characters were decent, but the storyline was so cliched that I will never let it see the light of day in its current form. Instead, I’ll take part of the basic concept and two of the main characters and start over from scratch. It will bear little resemblance to the first draft when it’s finished. Read the rest of this entry »