When I look at my list of titles in the series I’ve started or have planned, it gets a bit overwhelming. I can easily “see” myself working on each project. The characters, setting, and plot events appear in flashes. For me, stories develop as I write them. I’ve been writing and publishing for 15 years, so I know my process. I’ve also accepted the obstacles that pop up as I make my way through a project.
This particular hurdle isn’t something to learn or a new technology to try. This issue is all in my head. Even with the wonky way I interact with tech, is preferable to dealing with this unusual block. Though it’s been at the center of my writing for a couple of years, I keep thinking I’ve dealt with it. As soon as I pick up my pen, I realize I haven’t.
I’ve written a few thousand words in the holiday novella. I’ve done research into setting and long-range radios. The gist of the plot is revealed, characters are named, the title chosen. But I find my aversion to using the chunks of time that have finally opened up for fiction writing staring me in the face. Then I realized what I’m trying to change, my mindset, goes against one of my Clifton strengths.
I have meetings with writing groups coming up. Several Saturdays, in fact, that I’ll be chatting with other writers. Perhaps the company or the conversation or an answer to my question will relieve me of this mindset issue. Though I’ve worked a little on a nonfiction project, which itself can be overwhelming, I’m trying not to add suffering to my avoidance of what I keep saying I want to do (insert eye roll here). No reason for life to throw me curve balls. I seem to do just fine on my own. What is a strategy you use when you’re stuck in an old perspective?
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