I’ve been around the proverbial writing “block”: I’ve attended multiple writing conferences, presented at a bunch, published 4 books, paid a real editor, paid for covers. I’ve taken several targeted trainings from Dave Farland and J Scott Savage. At some point, you’d think it would get easier. For me, it has not.
Now to be fair, it’s not my current WIP’s fault. Not entirely. I’ve let my life get full of a second job, then more responsibilities with that job. I’ve found myself in a place where it isn’t convenient to pull up my manuscript and work on it when I have an hour. Hopefully, this summer, that problem gets fixed.
My two greatest obstacles are time and motivation. I used to think it was money and that somehow money would make this more possible. What I’ve learned, is that outside of a couple million dollars that would allow me write full-time, money isn’t actually my blocker. I think I used it as an excuse. Although, in an effort to combat that money thing, I took the second job which has taken more time. However, as I sat down and evaluated how I’ve been spending my evenings, far too much time has been spent doing nothing productive. Partly due to the inconvenience mentioned before, and partly because it’s just easier to play games on my phone.
This leads to the next obstacle: motivation. Here, I invite discussion, how do you motivate yourself to write? Going to conferences always makes me excited, but I generally leave with a ton of energy and no plan to convert that into productivity. So how do you do it?
EggNog: This section will be for writing updates on my current project(s) for those non-writers/fans out there. I can’t do a weekly update like Brandon Sanderson (see previous comment on not being a full-time writer), but I think I can update you as often as I update my blog. Which will hopefully be monthly now. Severed Book 1 (Official Title Pending) is 85% complete. I’m in the process of trying to smash the two separate pieces into one book. When I’m done that percentage might jump because I decide to not write as much as I’m thinking about for the end of Eeriel’s story. That is my main focus right now so I’ve shunned anthology opportunities and tried to block out other story ideas.
This is the Novel Mage saying, *POOF*
the Novel Mage 