Manuscript Wars – The Writer’s Block Strikes Back

Or, “...come into the light, Carol Anne”

• Words, mix-mastered into a jumble of nothing.
• Ideas that fail to ignite.
• Commitment is a bad word.
• An engine that stutters and dies.

So many euphemisms for the miasma of writer’s block, that loud screech of tires on pavement coming to a full and

complete stop. It’s not a matter of if it happens, but when. And what to do when it does.

I’ve given and received much advice. When I hit the fog of manuscript blues this time, the tried and true solutions failed me. Walking, driving, writing it out in long-hand: Nothing worked. And I stopped creating. 

The words of JRR Tolkien come to mind, in speaking about the long process of writing:

“...and I plodded on, till I stood by Balin’s tomb in Moria. There I halted for a long while...”

Mine is not such a journey as his and I do not in any way pretend it is. The mental picture he paints is rather cool though.

At any rate, the third book in The Magic Withheld series is roaring along now. Fresh ideas are stirring and boiling. Book two, Mage Revealed, is in the oven while Spirit Mage is coming on with grit teeth and fire in its words.

Thank the Lord for those half-asleep moments when strange ideas pop into a writer’s head. It's the only thing that broke me from the dungeon of Writer's Block.