I'm not a fan of the term "writer's block." Sure, we've all experienced it, and I've used that excuse many times myself, but deep down I think that nine times out of ten, "writer's block" is just an excuse for laziness.
| I'm not avoiding the work of writing because I'm too lazy to do it, I just have writer's block, so I have no choice but to binge watch the latest season of Grey's Anatomy instead. |
That said, whether or not writer's block is a thing, I've been suffering from that or something like it for the better part of the year. I wanted to have my sequel to my fantasy novel The Talented done by winter of 2017. Now, I feel that I'd be lucky to have a rough draft of it done by winter 2018. A lot of this is due to laziness, because I haven't so much as turned my computer on in months, but a not-insignificant reason for this is that I can't figure out what to do with the sequel.
I've started it many times. I've gotten close to finishing it twice. And each time, regardless of whether I was five or fifty pages in, I realized that it was crap. Not the insecure "I'm a horrible writer and don't deserve to live" crap that we all think we write, when really we're quite good at what we do. No, the actual crap that even a mother couldn't pretend to love. At first, I thought I was just being insecure and needed to follow through. Then, when I realized attempt #1 really was bad, I moved on to attempt #2 where I tweaked the plot. Still bad. Attempt #3 and #4 I backed the story up so that it started only a week after the first book ended. Still crap with no real action. Attempt #5 had too much action, full of those horrible author crutches equivalent to your FMC accidentally getting pregnant because she's too stupid to make a doctor's appointment for weeks, despite constant reminders, and then she is surprised by the fallout. It was horrible, and left me once again wondering what I'm doing with my life.
So I'm taking a step back, sipping on some home brew (kombucha, not beer), and reevaluating my life. It's pretty good. I'm engaged and wedding prep is going well. I'm employed and healthy and happy on a personal level. But I have to accept the fact that my usual pantsing isn't getting the job done for The Talented: Part Two. I even attempted some half-assed plotsing for Attempt #5, and that was worse than #4. So I've returned to basics, and went looking for the help of some more experienced writers.
I've started it many times. I've gotten close to finishing it twice. And each time, regardless of whether I was five or fifty pages in, I realized that it was crap. Not the insecure "I'm a horrible writer and don't deserve to live" crap that we all think we write, when really we're quite good at what we do. No, the actual crap that even a mother couldn't pretend to love. At first, I thought I was just being insecure and needed to follow through. Then, when I realized attempt #1 really was bad, I moved on to attempt #2 where I tweaked the plot. Still bad. Attempt #3 and #4 I backed the story up so that it started only a week after the first book ended. Still crap with no real action. Attempt #5 had too much action, full of those horrible author crutches equivalent to your FMC accidentally getting pregnant because she's too stupid to make a doctor's appointment for weeks, despite constant reminders, and then she is surprised by the fallout. It was horrible, and left me once again wondering what I'm doing with my life.
So I'm taking a step back, sipping on some home brew (kombucha, not beer), and reevaluating my life. It's pretty good. I'm engaged and wedding prep is going well. I'm employed and healthy and happy on a personal level. But I have to accept the fact that my usual pantsing isn't getting the job done for The Talented: Part Two. I even attempted some half-assed plotsing for Attempt #5, and that was worse than #4. So I've returned to basics, and went looking for the help of some more experienced writers.
| I have a lot of books on craft, but I've decided that for this total gridlock of ideas, Writing for Dummies by Randy Ingermanson and Peter Economy was what I needed. Firstly, because I feel like a dummy for having this much trouble coming up with even a mediocre first draft for this book, but also because Randy Ingermanson has a really innovative method called the "Snowflake Method" that I think might actually help me get out of this horrible rut. As a rule, I'm not big on the level of planning that the Snowflake Method entails, but after all of the trouble I've had with this story so far, I'm hoping that following this structure, which has helped Randy write numerous successful books, will help me as well. |  |
But the title of this blog isn't about writer's block or craft books, this title is about giving something the old college try. And I don't mean that in the usual sense, I mean that in the sense of listening to what your professors tell you to do the first day of classes, which is to actually open and read your textbook for more than just homework, and to spend time consistently on that class, not just cramming before tests. I'm actually going through the steps of the Snowflake Method outlined in Writing Fiction for Dummies, even the steps that involve scene-by-scene details, and writing a 5-10 page synopsis of my story covering those scenes even though none of those pages will make it into the final draft, because I've realized that, for whatever reason, I'm not able to do this on my own, and I need help. So going to this book and going through all those steps is me giving it the college try. If I need to, I'll go to "office hours" by consuming more books on craft, or maybe even get some "tutoring" by other author blogs.
It might be Attempt #6, but I'm giving this the old college try, and failure is not an option.
It might be Attempt #6, but I'm giving this the old college try, and failure is not an option.
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