Writer’s Block is something that will touch each of us at some point in our lives. Whether it rears its ugly head while trying to write a book report in fourth grade or an English paper your senior year of high school, it will find you. As an author it has found me a few times, but since July, when a major amount of stress in my personal life slammed into me, Writer’s Block has become the norm.
There are ways to deal with Writer’s Block…ways to get around it. For me some of them include taking a break, reading the books on my Kindle that have compiled over time, and starting on a new project to shift my focus for a bit until I can figure out a new way to look at the place I’ve left my characters in the other novel. Sometimes those things work. Sometimes they don’t. Especially when my stress levels in my personal life are increased overnight drastically. This is when things get scary.
In July something happened to my family in the form of a financial blow that held more of an emotional impact than anything. In August that same stressor seemed to follow us. In September July’s problems seemed to shadow us even more so still until everything changed when there was a health scare. This month that financial/emotional mess has been dispersed to the back burner while the health scare became resolved. Thank goodness! There have been a few more bumps and bruises along the way, some we are still dealing with at the moment and some we aren’t.
One thing I have learned over the last few months is that my writing really is my form of therapy When taking a break, reading, and working on something new didn’t work out, I decided to tap into the emotions I was feeling regarding everything that was going on in my life and create something new. I’m currently working on another YA Contemporary titled EXHALE. I’m not giving any release date yet, but I am saying that I’m hopeful it will be out before the end of the year. For those of you waiting on Hereafter, please know that I am trying to get that book out as well. My goal for Hereafter is to have it out early 2013.
For those of you struggling with Writer’s Block right now…I feel for you!