I'm often asked if I get writers' block. Never, has been my
rather smug answer to date. Somehow the sentences, some good, some
needing work, just kept pouring out. I wasn't sure I even believed
in writers' block. Wasn't it just another way of saying, "can't
actually be bothered"?
Well, it's payback time, because I find myself suffering a
serious case of bloggers' block. I knew it would end in tears, back
in January, when I allowed myself to be talked into this blog. I'm
a writer, I complained to anyone who would listen. My life is
exceptionally dull. I write, I wander aimlessly around the house,
then I write some more. The highlight of my day is school pickup
when I get to interact with real people* for about ten minutes.
Plus this is that very difficult time of year when I'm "between"
books. Number four has been sent, in second-draft form, to She Who
Must Be Obeyed and I have a few weeks respite to plan number five.
Sheer torture. Staring at a blank screen and knowing that before
the end of next February it has to contain 130,000 words.
You see, as well as bloggers' block, I've had a critical attack
of planners' block. I have a basic idea for a story that I know
could be brilliant. I just can't for the life of me see how to turn
that idea into a fully formed plot. The planning is hard. Even
harder than the editing and that usually sends me running for the
gin bottle by three o'clock every afternoon. During planning
season, a whole day can go by and I've produced a paragraph of text
and had one idea that might comprise half a scene. It feels
very unproductive and, compared to the writing process when I might
have 3000 words to show for a day's work, extremely frustrating.
And there's always that nagging fear at the back of my head: what
if I can't do it again?
I was talking about this on Wednesday night to the very clever
and articulate Tom Cain, author of The Accident Man series, in
front of an audience of several dozen people at Feltham Library.
Tom doesn't plan, he says. He likes to be surprised by his stories
and his characters. Good for you, buddy. If I didn't plan, the only
surprise I'd get is if words actually got written.
So apologies to all the regular visitors (I know you exist, even
if you never talk back to me) if I maintain radio silence for a
while. I haven't gone anywhere. I'm not doing anything exciting.
I'm just staring at my screen, waiting to be inspired.
Oh, and Tom made me laugh. He says all books are masquerading as
something else. Mine, he thinks, are ghost stories masquerading as
forensic thrillers. His, on the other hand, are romances,
pretending to be action thrillers. You have to read a Tom
Cain book to appreciate just how funny that is.
* I use that term quite loosely, but after several hours with
just my own company, I'm easily satisfied.