Writers Block (possible the reason for blogging in the first place)

Writers block – to a writer, its comparable to Armageddon, mostly because writers are generally people with a flair for over dramatization (get mad if you want fellow writers, you know it’s true. You look at a piece of work you’ve poured hours, , days, weeks, maybe even years into and tell me that you haven’t though “dear God, my world had just ended,” when you can’t figure out what happens next).

We have to be dramatic (okay, creative if it makes you feel better) to come up with half of the things that keep a plot well oiled and moving forward instead of stalling out entirely. And when we can’t come up with what to do with a nasty villain or an annoying heroine, that’s when we get creative trying to figure out methods in which to inspire our obstinate muses.

The land of the dreaded Writers Block is where I find myself now. And not with just one piece of fiction…with all pieces of fiction. It is, to put it bluntly, The Suck. Yes, capital T, capital S. It’s that bad. Ten pieces of something, a general idea of where each of them are going and I hit a block where I can’t figure out what to do with a single plotline…blech.

The last time this happened, I bought a beta (the fish, not the fanfiction equivalent of an editor). I called him Gil and appointed him with the task of keeping me inspired to move forward in my writing. His tank sat on the top shelf of my computer desk. He would float lazily in his distilled water habitat, complete with blue and opaque glass stones and he would stare at me as I tapped contemplatively at the keyboard and willed something amazing to happen. At times, it seemed to work – though when I think of it now, it was probably just a mental thing, kind of like giving a person an ineffective pill and telling them it would cure all muscle aches. They think it will, therefore it does, even though there is nothing in this pill that will do anything aside from leave an undesirable aftertaste.

Now, I have become convinced that it will be the purchase of a new chair that will provide me with the setting I need to “make the magic happen”, so to speak. So I have started my search for the perfect, overstuffed, sink-into-it-and-never-want-to-get-out chair that will cure this dreaded curse. I’ll let you know how that pans out. I’ve found a candidate, though I’m still keeping my eyes open for a chair that will scream “write in me!! I was made to inspire you!!” I have high expectations of furniture.

When I have it…I’m looking forward to finishing a piece of work that was started the week prior to my marriage, nearly six years ago. In the realm of fanfiction writing, people would refer to this piece as gift-fic. Simply put, a gift-fic is a piece of fiction written as a present to an individual or several individuals. In my case, this piece was created for three women who have been a significant part of my life.  To be stalled out on it now…when I’m so close to being done with it, all near 450 pages of it (so far) is, again, The Suck.

I keep thinking that part of me is just afraid to finish it, that when it is finished, I’ll have to start taking my writing seriously and dive head-long into the few pieces of possibly publishable fiction that I have already started. And that…is a terrifying though. Another part of me knows it’s just the curse of the Writers Block and the only thing I can do is sit back and wait it out while praying that my muse will return with a vengeance.