Writer’s Block: 23 Years
Since High School, I have enjoyed writing and received encouragement from lovers, family, friends, teachers and co-workers. Write up, they said. We enjoy it. You enjoy writing. You should be a writer.
This encouragement was not without drawbacks. My brain doesn’t work like other kids, I can remember day after day of speech therapy where my therapist worked with me for what seemed like forever to come out with just saying a ‘t’ in a word properly.
This translated to difficulties in writing, such as spelling, sentence formation and grammar usage. I took several advanced reading courses that taught me how to speed-read and increase my vocabulary. This mostly fixed lingering issues. As an adult, I am only occasionally prone to problems. As long as I am not typing in real-time, I can wordsmith my way into the writing I desire.
Constructing my ideas to the written word is not exactly easy for me, but it sure is fun and enjoyable–now that I do not have writer’s block–which I had for twenty-three years.
Twenty. Three. Years.
I told another writer one time I had about twenty books rolling around my poor head, but when I sat down to write I could only kick out an outline and about a thousand words, and then die the big creative death.
Then one day I started writing. Then the next day, I continued on the story. This went on for several months and 150,000 words later, I had a rather large novel completed. There was one day I wrote 13,000 words and enjoyed every single minute of it.
Uh, how did that happen, Mr. Anthony?
I went digging on the internets. I am a professional researcher after all. Turns out some people enjoy writing, have the talent and ability to write, but cannot create a story because they do not have the life-experiences to translate their creative ideas into characters, plot, dialog and setting.
Oh. Was that it?
Yes it was.
Well shit. I wish I had learned that one earlier.
This blog is mainly for my third book. I’m 3/4ths through the first draft. It is a month, maybe two, from tossing it to my friends and saying ‘how’s that?’ Then they can shut up about me writing.
Will I sell this book?
Yes, I will: assuming the majority of the friends I wrote it for give it the thumbs up.
